Mary Lee Gannon - Executive Coach

10/09/2026

Every December, someone in your organization sends around an article called “The Skills You’ll Need Next Year.”

You read it. It says you’ll need agility, a growth mindset, comfort with ambiguity, and fluency in whatever tool was announced in October. You nod. You save it. It goes in the folder.

You know the folder. It has the leadership course from two years ago, the executive presence workshop, and the certificate you were so excited about in March. Nobody has opened that folder since March.

So I’m not giving you another one of those lists today.

Every December, someone in your organization sends around an article called “The Skills You’ll Need Next Year.” You read it.

10/07/2026

When someone is mean or difficult we are quick to either externalize our discomfort in blaming them or internalize it in blaming ourselves. In this episode of The Still Space Podcast - #229 I Don’t Like You Because I Don’t Like Me - we talk about what’s behind the behavior of people who are mean and dismissive of you, how to find peace, and stop ruminating over it at 3:00 am. It is not about you.

https://www.maryleegannon.com/podcasts/the-still-space-podcast/episodes/2149246872

10/03/2026

Seventeen years ago this week I began my role as President of St. Margaret Foundation - a $37 million organization that fills in the gaps with hope for patients served at UPMC St. Margaret Hospital from which I graduated in January to make more time for the things I love - my family, coaching, painting, gardening, my church, cooking, travel, and learning.

I am grateful I had the opportunity to lead and serve alongside consummate professionals I respect and under board members who trusted me and challenged me to be the best leader I can be. I never saw the role as who I was. It was what I did for a living and I had a lot of fun doing it. I found a lot of purpose in it though it was never my identity.

Throughout my executive career and more so now than ever in my executive coaching practice I see people struggling to approach their next chapter. I don’t call it retirement because the word alone is retiring. We don’t retire from college. We don’t retire from a bad marriage to move to a healthier life. We don’t retire from one job to move to another.

When we make a conscious choice to move on from corporate values, schedules, influence on our lives, most of the waking hours of our day, the culture, the colleagues, the power, the structure of our day, the worry, it is a joyous occasion because we can make room for establishing a life on our own terms.

For some that is scary. Corporate made it easy for you by defining a lot of your identity. Now you get to remember who you are without all the confines. There is a lot there to explore.

People today often complain about their jobs. Mine surely had its challenges - no doubt. But I think when we focus on what we have to give instead of what there is to get we realize our value. When we are curious and compassionate we become servant leaders instead of command and control tyrants. And when we can look ourselves in the eye and not expect to be perfect we give ourselves room to be human and walk in the shoes of others.

The arena in which you do this is not limited to employment where your work is designed to make money for somebody else. It is infinite.

I look forward to trying on a lot of shoes over the next 17 years and dedicating my time to the openness of my personal mission, purpose, areas of growth, and connection.

I’m having a ball!

09/29/2026

We think grief is a horrible feeling we experience when someone close to us dies. I’ve learned it is far more than that and it resurfaces in the most unsuspecting places when we don’t know how to deal with it. In this episode of The Still Space Podvcast: The Grief We Don't Recognize I share some very personal stories about how that happened to me and what I did about it to move on. As well as what my clients have experienced to move on.

https://www.maryleegannon.com/podcasts/the-still-space-podcast/episodes/2149246838

07/14/2026

I spent a lot of time learning everything I could on leadership. As a stay at home mother of four children, one autistic, I unexpectedly found myself in the role of head of household after their father walked away from them financially. We were grateful for welfare, SNAP, and medical assistance at that time. We were grateful my parents took us in when we were homeless and without an automobile.

The children and I went to the bookstore every weekend after church where I sat on the floor and read every Harvard Business Review Management book on the shelves as well as all of John Maxwell’s books plus many others. I re-entered the workforce and quickly rose to the CEO level because I developed and played to my strengths. Refining my weaknesses would only make me mediocre. My strengths gave me power.

Still, I was always reading about how to be a better leader. The children developed into book lovers too. I remember the vacation we couldn’t leave for until after midnight beause that's when the last Harry Potter book would be released.

If you’d have asked me back then what my leadership was centered around, I’d have told you my faith, resilience and tenacity. I learned later that I was far more talented than just that. I realized that while financial independence became a value of mine, doing it all alone was not a strength.

I learned that I needed allies, partners, collaborators. This is not the same as mentors, sponsors, and advocates. I knew the areas where I needed help and sought that out. That guidance was crucial.

But, to actually effect the kind of change I needed to lead, the answer wasn’t in a book or a mentor. It was within myself and my ability to enthuse a movement. In order to do that I needed to instill undeniable certainty that I could get things done.

I didn’t ask for help with that. I asked people to partner with me in areas where I married their values to the outcomes we were building. They WANTED to be part of the change. I let them lead it where necessary with my support. I gave away the power for the win. And we all won.

We made big things happen. Together. And we had a lot of fun doing it along the way. I never looked for a job again. Recruiters were calling me.

I’m Mary Lee Gannon, executive coach. Most leaders are strong in one of three ways — they think clearly (critical thinking), they choose direction well (strategy), or they read a room like nobody else can (discernment). I built my career on carrying all three. But the one that gets me called on isn't the analysis or the strategy — it's the discernment. Nineteen years running organizations worth $37 million inside 100,000-employee companies taught me to see what the data and the frameworks can't: which move is technically right and which one is actually right, right now.

When you know and work in your key area of strength, you are undeniable.

07/11/2026

This is me finishing an hour of pickle ball for the first time in three years. I had previously slipped on the ice in my driveway, broken my left wrist (I’m left handed), had a hip replacement, and a lot of physical therapy and chiropractic intervention to build back my strength. I never gave up.

I wasn’t sure I would ever play again. I was a little afraid today when I put on my pickle ball shoes (it took me 10 minutes to find them) and picked up the racket. My husband said, “Let’s just see how it goes. I know you can do this.”

I walked onto the court and decided to approach it like I always had - no limitations. Just fun. Within 15 seconds I knew I was back. It felt so good. I even said out loud, “I’m back!”

I missed a few balls I could have gotten in the past. I’m not as quick as I was. I can live with that.

For everyone who is battling back from a setback I wish you a vision of yourself feeling what I felt when I could finally retire the doubt and know what it’s like to believe in yourself again.
You’re worth it.

06/25/2026

The quiet ache.

The longing that things aren’t quite right and you’re missing something.

The feeling that you’re on a treadmill to nowhere.

And important things are starting to unravel - the relationship, the career, the health, the peace.

If personal growth were easy, self-help books, retreats, and seminars would be enough. Chances are, you’ve already invested time, energy, and resources into these tools. And yet—you’re still searching.

Why? Because while these experiences can be inspiring and insightful, they offer broad concepts that are difficult to implement consistently in real-time.

They rarely take into account your unique story—your personal history, the beliefs you've internalized, or the emotional triggers that lead to regret, guilt, or disappointment.

What they don’t provide is a personalized sustainable process—one that helps you break through old patterns and develop a grounded, authentic presence. One that deepens your sense of agency, connection, and self-acceptance.

This is where real transformation happens. When you can observe your thoughts, regulate the ones that undermine you, and navigate difficult emotions without being ruled by them—that is freedom.

That is you at your best.

If you found yourself in any of this writing, I’ll leave information below on how to reach me for a conversation. The reason most people don’t take advantage of this is not that they don’t believe in me. It’s that they don’t believe in themselves. Let me show you how wrong you are about that.

06/20/2026

BEACH WISDOM: After a day of reading and listening to non-fiction I am now convinced more than ever that nearly all non-fiction books should be condensed to magazine articles.

06/05/2026

I don’t have everything figured out but there are a few things I’ve seen enough that I know for sure.

1. We all are a product of the our DNA and our experiences. We can’t change either one but we most definitely can change the stories we attach to them that end up becoming the lens through which we see ourselves.

2. Patterns are difficult to break even when we see them.

3. Most people are good at their core.

4. Difficult people have the darkest and most deeply rooted stories whereby they continually externalize their suffering over a poor self image onto others to try to escape it. This is not sustainable which is why they have to keep doing it.

5. Hurt people have equally dark rooted stories that they internalize and identify the root cause of their suffering as something they did wrong or is wrong with them.

6. Most stories are usually flawed assumptions - not facts. Even good people get caught in a trap of continually agreeing with these assumptions until they become beliefs.

7. Flawed core beliefs steal identities. They also steal relatability, relationships, healthy choices, confidence, and self-esteem.

8. At work this looks like - not feeling good enough to ask for a promotion, feeling victimized by a toxic culture, blaming others for how you feel at work, isolation, giving up that things will change, fear of the unknown that keeps you in place. (Ironically most of these happen in personal life too.)

9. Happy people don’t hurt one another or themselves.

10. They have proactively made a choice to see the world through a lens that does not mirror disappointment back on themselves or project it outwardly in complaint.

11. Every single person that I know that lives a life of joy didn’t just get born lucky. They have committed to daily practices that keep them in appreciation of the moment - not dwelling on past or future. This helps them retire the stories that don’t serve them and keep in an intentional perspective of joy because they know it’s human nature to scan the environment for threat. We’re really good at it. We create stories around it in preparation. It’s why we aren’t extinct as a species.

12. Bracing for the impact of threat might come naturally but it is exhausting. Establishing mindful daily practices might be tedious at first but it’s invigorating. It’s why happy people keep doing it.

13. When I regularly write in my journal, take a mindful walk where I stay in the beauty of nature not rerun conversations or worry on a loop in my head, sit on my porch with an iced tea and watch the oak tree leaves wave at me in the wind, do yoga to release my joints, pray, photograph what makes me smile, crochet, meditate, paint, or any other activity that keeps me in the moment I remember my core identity as open, and whole, and loving, and loved, and relevant. It’s why I keep doing these things.

Wishing you a mindful summer.

05/26/2026

Never once have I seen a capable professional get passed over because they didn't work hard enough.

They always work harder than everyone around them. That's exactly the problem. Management notices — and gives them more work.

The leader who advances is the one the organization is afraid to lose. Not afraid to overload. Afraid to lose.

That gap — between being taken for granted and being fought for — is what I have spent my career learning to close.

And somewhere along the way the doubt started forming for the people I coach.
Maybe I've peaked. Maybe the label they gave me is right. Maybe it's too late.
They agreed with that thought a little at a time until it felt like the truth.

It isn't.

You cannot out-strategize the core belief that has been running the show. You have to retire it — identify it, interrupt it, and replace it with your unique edge that makes you undeniable in every room that matters.

That is what The Must-Have Community is built for. A room where that work actually happens — with peers who are navigating the same terrain and a coach who has been in your room.

Two live coaching calls a month. A framework. A private community where you bring what you are actually navigating. New material every 30 days built specifically for professionals dealing with current trends in Corporate America.

Since opening in January not one member has left. That tells you something about what happens inside.

I am opening charter member enrollment at $97/month for the next two weeks. After June 12th this closes.

Comment LINK below or send me a message and I will send details to you directly.

You became the Must-Have a long time ago. You just aren't being experienced that way. Close the gap between your ability and how you are experienced here. I would love to have you in the room.