14 Jun 2025 2 min read career

What Tech Didn’t Teach Me — and Coaching Did

El Calafate, Argentina, Feb 25, 08:26pm

I’ve spent the past 15 years inside high-growth marketing and tech — from scaling startups as CMO, to leading product operations and B2B marketing in Silicon Valley.

I’ve advised over 23 venture-backed startups across industries and raised growth metrics that investors love to see.

Everywhere I look, still today I’m surrounded by visionary founders, brilliant engineers and data-driven marketers, many of them now diving deep into AI. AI-powered marketing, AI product design, AI growth loops.

But here’s what I keep coming back to:

The most important shifts I’ve seen in business (and life) haven’t just come from new tools — they’ve come from people.

And the most impactful leaders I’ve worked with — across San Francisco, Seoul, Berlin, New York — are the ones who’ve learned to listen better. To themselves, to others, and to the surroundings.

To stay grounded in ambiguity.

To choose clarity when complexity rises.

That’s why I’m investing in coaching — as a skill, as a practice, and as a future-proof craft.

What the Future of Work Actually Needs

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023, the most in-demand skills in the next five years won’t just be technical but cognitive, engagement, and self-efficacy skills.

The top-ranked core skills employers are prioritizing are:

Analytical thinking (69%)
Resilience, flexibility, and agility (67%)
Leadership and social influence (61%)
Creative thinking (57%)
Motivation and self-awareness (52%)
Empathy and active listening (50%)

In other words — human skills. Skills that AI can’t automate. Skills that make us not only effective leaders, but adaptive ones. Leaders not just in organizations, but in our own lives.

And they’re not just a passing trend.

The same report shows these skills are projected to grow even more essential by 2030 — especially those tied to self-awareness, empathy, and creative thinking.

Coaching offers a structured, real-world practice for cultivating these skills — both in ourselves and with others.

Why Coaching, Now

I didn’t “leave” tech to become a coach. I expanded my toolkit.

Because real growth doesn’t always mean switching tracks — sometimes, it means going deeper.

What I’ve learned through Co-Active Coaching training and mental fitness frameworks like Positive Intelligence (PQ) has changed how I lead, how I communicate, and how I support teams in high-stakes environments.

It’s no longer just about growth metrics.

It’s about how we grow — with intention, with empathy, and with resilience.