Hello, World!
Janice Lichtenwaldt, MCC
I have been "invited to leave" a job twice. (Both times were unexpected gifts.)
Leadership coach.
Human first.
MCC. Enneagram Accredited Practitioner. LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator.
Twenty-five years in corporate leadership. Nearly a decade helping other leaders do the deeper work.
Most leadership development teaches you to do things differently.
The leverage point isn't your skills. It's your self-knowledge.
The leaders who find me have usually tried the other approaches. The frameworks, the feedback tools, the programs. Useful, all of it. And yet something is still missing.
That something is usually self-knowledge. Not the kind that comes from a weekend retreat (though I have been to a few of those). The kind that comes from honest examination of your patterns, your assumptions, and the stories you carry about who you are as a leader.
That is the work I do. It is not always comfortable. It is worth it.
The road was not a straight line.
I am better at this work because of that.
The corporate years
I spent 25 years in management at places like T-Mobile and Expedia. I co-founded the Women's Leadership groups at both companies. I navigated ambiguity, led through change, and made hard calls without a playbook. I know the terrain you are walking through. That grounding in organizational reality is not incidental to my coaching. It is central to it.
The pivot
The first time I was "invited to leave," at 39, I told my husband I was moving to Spain to learn Spanish. I spent four months there. The accent stuck. The fluency did not. The second time, at 47, I decided to take the risk — not go back, and instead pursue what had been calling to me all along. That decision changed everything.
The work since
I launched a podcast called "I Am Virago," celebrating women doing extraordinary things imperfectly. I planned 52 episodes and produced 26 in six months. (Weekly podcasting is harder than it looks.) I co-authored a chapter in "Women Who Illuminate," which became an international bestseller. I have been building a coaching practice I am proud of ever since.
Where I am now
I have been married to Kelly for 22 years and counting. I am pursuing a diploma in Silversmithing and Fine Jewelry — my creative outlet and proof that I practice what I preach about lifelong learning. I have lived on two continents and am always planning the next adventure. This year marks a decade since I began my coach training. I am still in it — still curious, still studying, still surprised by what this work teaches me about myself. My mother used to say, "If you don't toot your own horn, who will?" She was right. This is me, tooting.
What runs beneath
everything I do.
I draw from Stoic and Existential philosophy — not as an academic exercise, but as a practical framework for leadership. The Stoics were clear: we cannot control everything, but we can always own our choices. The Existentialists added: and those choices define us.
That lens shapes how I coach. I am not here to make the work comfortable. I am here to help you see what is actually true, own what is actually yours, and move forward with clarity about both. The leaders I work with tend to find that orientation — once they settle into it — quietly liberating.
Those three questions do a lot of work.
Two methodologies sit at the center of my practice.
Together, they create a depth of self-awareness and group insight that most conventional approaches do not reach.
Individual & Team
The Enneagram
This is not a personality test. It is a map of the deeper motivations, fears, and patterns that shape how you lead, how you relate, and how you make decisions. I am an Integrative Enneagram Accredited Practitioner, certified at Levels 1 and 2 for individuals and teams. The self-knowledge it unlocks tends to be lasting.
Teams & Groups
LEGO® Serious Play®
A facilitation methodology that uses building and metaphor to surface what people know but cannot always say out loud. It is especially powerful for teams. What emerges in a well-facilitated session — the clarity, the honesty, the unexpected connections — still surprises me. In a good way.
The combination of inner work and embodied practice is not accidental. It is the point.
The formal part.
"I hear scars are sexy."
The road to this work was bumpy. I have tripped, skinned my knees, and have the scars to show for it. The rewards have been beyond worth it. That is not a performance of resilience. It is just what happened.
If this sounds like what you have been looking for, I'd like to meet you.
The first step is always a conversation.
Let's talk