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John Poelstra

John Poelstra

Executive Life and Business Coach

"Directors in Software and Finance often struggle with prioritizing, delegating, speaking up, taking action and not living up to their full potential—I help solve that."
10+Years Coaching
2,585+Hours Delivered
Based inPortland, Oregon, United States

About John

With over 25 years of experience across multiple industries, I bring a unique blend of technical, managerial, and financial expertise. Nearly half my career was spent at leading technology companies, including Dell/EMC and Red Hat-the world’s largest open source software company-where I held diverse roles in software testing, program/project management, marketing, and team leadership. Earlier in my career, I built a strong foundation in finance as a bank auditor (First Interstate/Wells Fargo), certified public accountant (Grant Thornton LLP), and financial reporting manager for a non-profit.

Areas of Focus

LeadershipCareer ChangeTime ManagementDelegationSaying NoFiguring out what you want to be when you grow up

Coaching Approach

My approach holds each person as creative, resourceful and whole. I also believe that my clients are more powerful and capable than they imagine. I help each one evoke their own best answers and solutions to the problems facing them while trusting that they can. My style is: direct and playful; thought provoking and challenging; compassionate and humorous; spacious and grounding; peaceful and empowering. My clients have new insights about who they are “being” so that their “doing” is more effective. This comes from helping them take greater personal ownership of what they create everywhere.

Work Experience

2016 to Present: John Poelstra Coaching--My coaching business focuses on Directors in software and finance who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or misaligned—helping them move from reactive firefighting to intentional leadership. Whether they're at a career crossroads or simply need better systems for delegation and decision-making, I help them move forward with clarity and confidence.2018 to 2020: Senior Money Coach at Capital One--I provided in-person life coaching and workshops at Capital One's Pioneer Courthouse Square Cafe in downtown Portland, Oregon. They helped people stress less about their money by getting clarity, removing roadblocks and creating a plan that's theirs.2004-2017: Engineering Team Manager / Principal Program Manager / Principal Product Marketing Manager at Red Hat, Inc. My time was divided between three functions serving different product lines: Quality Engineering, Program Management, and Product Marketing. This gave me a front row seat and leadership role in the creation and launch of OpenShift, now a cornerstone of the company's product portfolio.2001-2004: Software Engineer at Dell/EMC--This quality assurance position was a fun combination of hands-on hardware lab configuration and enterprise storage software testing. My tests were performed through automated and manual test routines.1998-2000: Financial Reporting Manager at L'Abri Fellowship International--In this challenging position I re-engineered the collection, recording and creation of company financial statements for multiple consolidated international entities. This resulted in new systems, policies, and procedures to record financial transactions more efficiently and accurately.1995-1998: Senior Auditor / Senior Consultant at Grant Thornton, LLP--My roles were a combination of financial statement audits, due diligence projects and a large Lawson ERP implementation project. These projects provided valuable experience across many different industries, though my primary focus was mortgage banking and financial institutions.1992-1995: Auditor and Bank Officer at First Interstate Bank--n this first job out of college, I directed and completed internal audits and financial statement audits of First Interstate Bancorp (now Wells Fargo) and its subsidiaries. I also managed and mentored junior associates.

Credentials & Certifications

Certifications
Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC)–Co-Active Training InstituteProfessional Certified Coach (PCC)–International Coach Federation (ICF)Certified Public Accountant (CPA)–California and Oregon
Education
Biola University–B.S., Business Administration, Emphasis Accounting
Languages
English
Services
Coaching
Industries Served
SoftwareFinanceTechnologyITEntertainmentOil & GasLegalConsultingCoaching
Client Levels
Individual ContributorManagerSenior ManagerDirectorSenior DirectoryVice President
Client Domains
HRFinanceEngineeringITManufacturing

What Clients Say

""I was amazed at how well John could help me get at the real issues that were blocking me, which was typically me getting in my own way. The coaching experience with him has helped me up my game and make me more productive, assertive and confident in my role. It was a great experience and I would recommend John to anyone. Even if you don't think you need the help, he's going to surprise you by what you get out of it.""

""John is a great coach. He uses variety of methods - so that coaching with him is neither boring nor one size fits all - and despite my initial skepticism, he was quickly able to identify, how to work with me in an effective manner. He helped me a lot to gain self-confidence and better understanding of myself - which helped me at work as well as in my private life. Plus it was fun!""

""Before working with John my life was good, but I had no idea how much better it could be. I sensed that I wasn't living up to my true potential. I knew I was good at certain things and had some vague long term goals, but Id never made the time to articulate a crisp vision of the future I wanted or how I would get there. Working with John helped me discover the gap between my big dreams and executing on them. Previously Id had lots of great ideas and goals, but they never materialized. Through a variety of exercises and conversations, John helped me uncover and state my true values and priorities, and from them, create a mission statement and goals that were in alignment with them. It was awesome. I started to getting traction right away. In a matter of weeks I achieved goals I had been dancing around for years.""

Work with John

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