SHANNON JENNINGS, PSYD

EXECUTIVE COACH

South Bend, IN

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The higher you climb, the fewer people tell you the truth. Your team watches what you react to. Your board wants confidence. Your peers are often competitors. And the people who love you don’t fully understand the weight of what you’re carrying. At some point, you stop getting the honest conversation — and you start making decisions in a vacuum. That’s the gap I work in.
 
I work with founders, entrepreneurs, owner-operators, and senior leaders navigating the moments that carry real risk — rapid growth, execution wobbles, leadership transitions, family business dynamics, and succession. The pressure looks different depending on the seat, but the pattern is the same: as complexity increases, clarity gets harder to access from the inside.
 
For over 20 years, I’ve been in rooms where strategy meets reality — and where the gap between the two almost always comes down to something human.
 
My path is a little unusual. I spent years facilitating leadership retreats and peer-learning programs for business owners and entrepreneurs before I went back for my doctorate in business psychology. I didn’t study leadership in a classroom and then go find clients — I sat with leaders first, learned what actually keeps them up at night, and then went deeper into the science to make the work more useful.
 
What I do isn’t coaching in the traditional sense. It’s not consulting either. It’s a thinking partnership — direct, grounded in behavioral science, and focused on what you need to see to move forward. We cut through noise, surface blind spots, and translate insight into clear, usable action. Clients consistently say the same thing: it doesn’t feel like hard work, but they always leave with something real to do.
 
Hard problems. Real space. Actionable takeaways.

​Areas of Specialization

Certifications/Training

Entrepreneurs & Business Owners
Founder & Leadership Transitions
Succession Planning
Family Enterprise Dynamics
Executive & C-Suite Leadership
Strategic Thinking & Decision-Making
Organizational Development
Leading Change
Executive Presence & Influence
Scaling Leadership Capacity
Women in Leadership
Coaching Leaders to Think, Decide, & Execute

Licensed Mental Health Counselor
​Pixel Perspectives+ 360
Wiley Everything DiSC
Strategic Doing Facilitator

Education

PsyD Business Psychology
The Chicago School
 
MA Mental Health Counseling
Bethel University
 
BA Psychology
Indiana University South Bend