Passion for people and leadership is what drives Christine. Christine has a unique ability to identify leadership opportunities that are preventing a business from reaching its full potential and can quickly develop and implement action plans to get the right results. Her ability to be a system thinker when it comes to understanding leadership, executive team and business requirements and taking advantage of opportunities sets her apart. At her best Christine is able to partner with key stakeholders within an organization and utilize her deep knowledge of leadership and people needs to create value. I would highly recommend Christine to senior leaders looking for an executive coach or organizations looking to strengthen the connection between its business and its people.

I first met Christine when she facilitated an in-person round-table discussion for HR professionals: How do we take our leadership to the next level when we move from director to executive? Christine’s authentic and informed teaching compelled us to invite her back the following year, where she introduced us to Brene Brown's Dare to Lead material. Facilitating this time over Zoom, Christine was equally present, engaging our group with the material and prompting healthy discussion and growth. Even over video conference, she challenged us to more courageous leadership. I look forward to working with Christine again!

Why? Christine is an incredible listener, being able to articulate what’s not being said and then providing thoughtful yet direct insights and guidance to help someone like me, get to where I know I want to be. She has a deep breadth of experience—having worked with many senior executives around the world in her career—that for someone like me who has become a people leader in the last 10 years, is able to benefit from. I would highly recommend building a working relationship with Christine and if I can provide any more context here, would be happy to speak with anyone considering working with her: [email protected]

Christine has a gift for holding space that allows people to open things up, dig in and explore the issue, very quickly and effectively. She has a unique way of asking questions, and challenging you to look at your beliefs and the story that you've created to assess if they're true, and if they're serving you, so you can move forward. Her years of experience in both operations and HR set her apart, because she can look at things through different lenses. She's actively lived the challenges, and her lived experience and practice is more valuable than just theory. I've worked with a coach who's read the articles but not put theory into practice. What was often missed were the nuances, the humanity and the emotions that come into play. Christine offers experience that is far beyond book-smart. The approach and background she provides is a much more human, integrated experience. I came to Christine with a very specific challenge, which was a block around hiring staff and growing a team. My narrative was flawed, one-dimensional and rooted in fear. That narrative and flaw was keeping me from growing my business and looking at future opportunities. In just a few sessions, Christine was able to help me gain a very different perspective, open up insight into opportunities, and get me unstuck.

I engaged Christine’s Executive Coaching services during a particularly challenging time in my career. As a senior HR leader, one can often be isolated in terms of who they can speak to about their own professional challenges. When I first started working with Christine, my professional confidence had taken a hit. She was a safe space for me to explore what had led to this shift, put it in perspective and to help me build back my strength. From there, we worked to uncover the personal values that would guide my professional life, leading me towards a career that is more fulfilling and impactful—a shift I knew I wanted to make but one I wasn’t sure how to on my own. Much has transpired during my work with Christine and she has pivoted to meet my needs each time. Working with Christine is fun but it’s also work that goes beyond the surface, so one can find out what truly drives them and how they can be their best in work and the world. On more than one occasion Christine has been the one to light a fire in my belly, and helped me rise up to meet challenges and be the best I can be. I am grateful to have her as a secret weapon in my pocket.

Those things that hover in your peripheral vision and stop you from doing it is you really want to do: Christine will help you overcome them. I am so grateful to her for helping me regain my sense of self and for helping me get exactly where I want to be.

I didn’t need a coach…at least that is what I thought. As a person who considers herself well adjusted, successful and overall happy, the concept of coaching really did not resonate with me.  I was not a critic, in fact, I know many people who have benefitted tremendously from personal and professional coaching, but I did not think there was value in the process for me and honestly considered myself “uncoachable”. How wrong I was! It turns out that no matter how well adjusted, successful and happy you are, working with a skilled coach like Christine Maassen can provide a deeper understanding of your motivations, decision making process and value system. I now realize that getting to the root of these areas has a huge impact on how I evaluate opportunities and has led me to make professional choices that feel more rewarding than any I have made in my 20+ year career. I absolutely loved our coaching sessions and found myself thinking about my career and life in general, in a different way. It’s so rare to have the undivided attention of a highly intelligent, insightful, kind and hilarious individual, who is impartial and focused entirely on your success. At the end of each session I felt understood and validated and pleasantly challenged. Time with Christine is invaluable and a gift I recommend all professional give themselves. Especially those who think they are “uncoachable”.

I have known and worked with Christine in various capacities since 2010. She has an extremely keen sense for organizational dynamics and, while always objective, brings a personal and empathetic approach to all of her dealings. In working with her as a colleague I have always been impressed by her ability to distill complicated business and personnel issues down to their more practical elements; in working with her as a teammate she has the ability to lead and contribute while always being inclusive; and, in working with her as a coach I have found her to be one of the most insightful and human leaders I have met. Christine excels at strategic thinking and planning, but is always in tune with tactical implementation, particularly as it has to do with the use and management of, and the impact to, the people within a business.

I have known Christine for over 10 years and have had the opportunity of collaborating with her on work focusing on two primary areas: leadership and culture. I have come to know Christine as an authentic, respected, experienced, and strong leader. I saw her lead a cultural transformation across a Canada wide organization. In the midst of challenging change initiatives, the organization’s engagement scores rose to 86%, following a positive trend over three years. This level of engagement stands out in enterprise-sized organizations and was recognized in The Achievers Top 50 Most Engaged Companies. This accomplishment has a great deal to do with Christine’s leadership. The fact that she managed to accomplish this while simultaneously renewing eleven collective agreements across seven provinces and rolling out a company-wide values program, all the while doing her “day-job,” is quite a feat. I can sum up her energy and passion for her work with a statement I made to her recently, “Very few people get the opportunity to create value at this level of HR on a national scale in their career, let alone have them happening in such a short timeframe. It’s impressive.”

Christine is truly the best executive coach I have ever worked with. If you are thinking of investing in a coach, Christine should be the first person you reach out to. Christine is empathetic and truly listens. She challenges you to think differently and makes you ask yourself the really tough questions. She also has a strong understanding of how relationships and organizational dynamics work, and helps you get the most out of them. Christine is an incredible human being and coach. I can’t thank her enough for her support and guidance over the years.