Julie Holunga, MBA
Founder of Chinook Executive Solutions
Julie is on a mission to rid the word of lazy leadership because the world needs leaders who:
Communicate clearly and directly without sugarcoating
See conflict as a necessity
Use strong leadership language
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About
Julie Holunga is a Leadership Trainer and Executive Coach developing professionals to amplify their influence and impact. She works with Attorneys, CPAs, and Business Leaders, with an expertise in the careers of female professionals. Julie’s clients excelled in their careers with her proven communication strategies, honed their leadership skills, built increased visibility, and heightened confidence. Julie works with highly driven teams to instill the Trusted Voice Paradigm to develop collaborative patterns that deliver value. Through these programs, leaders learn to get out of their own way, develop trusting relationships with key stakeholders, and have a positive impact on the organization's bottom line.
Prior to starting her own consulting practice, Julie served as Project Manager for Alumni Career Services at Harvard Business School, where she focused on advancing the careers of female alumni. She worked with F500 companies to retain and advance women into positions of leadership. Julie is one of thirty Global Master Trainers with Emergenetics®, teaching leaders, teams, and global organizations to align their communication for positive impact. Julie gave her first TEDx Talk in 2020: Don't Let Your Words Sabotage Your Career. She is a contributing author to the leadership book for women, On the Rise.
Julie earned her BA at Union College and her MBA at Boston College. She spent seven years living and attending school in France, India, and Hong Kong. Julie and her family moved from Boston to Calgary, Canada, and are now settled in the beautiful foothills of Denver.
Trusted Voice Paradigm
The Four Levels of the Trusted Voice Paradigm scale individuals with an uncertain future to a firm-wide culture of collaboration, trust, communication, and alignment. This powerful experience fosters a strong subculture of leadership growth, mentorship, higher retention, greater fulfillment through meaningful work, and more profitability and longevity for your business far into the future. Trust is relational.
Organizations can grapple with misalignment, uncoordinated silos, or leadership change. Quarreling, withholding information, or avoiding hard conversations can contribute to a breakdown of team values and communication. Trust is relational. Work within the four levels of the Trusted Voice Paradigm helps develop leadership, foster sustainable growth, retain top talent, and boost morale.
Partner with Julie Holunga to build healthy, happy, and high-performing teams by identifying your team’s strengths, challenges, cultural norms, and growth opportunities.
READY TO EMPOWER HAPPY AND PRODUCTIVE TEAMS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION? TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP!
Don’t Let Your Words Sabotage Your Career
Weak language can undermine a hard-won positive professional image in a matter of seconds
Weak language plants seeds of doubt in the minds of others regarding our leadership, authority, and capability. However, when we are deliberate and strategic with our words and our tone, we align our intentions with our impact, becoming professionals of influence and unquestioned authority. In this talk, you will learn 3 tactics to communicate powerfully.
“I had the pleasure of taking training with Julie Holunga through Union College. I put her recommendations in action and almost a year later I am working for an organization - National Council of La Raza (NCLR) that values my strengths and allows me to follow my passions and grow in my role and beyond. I would never have challenged myself without her advice and motivation. Thank you for being the spark that I needed!” - Eric Salazar - Nonprofit Investments Director
“Julie is such an incredible presenter. Her topics are always innovative and practical, and her delivery is focused, organized, and thoughtful. She engages with the audience in a very personal and relevant way and leaves participants with a full toolbox of resources to confidently handle and approach the problems we all face. Julie is absolutely top-tier!” - Chris Mendenhall, Executive Director and Legal Administrator at Milgrom & Daskam
“When searching for a powerhouse speaker for our Annual We Mean Business Summit in San Juan Puerto Rico 2023, Julie came highly recommended. Julie did not disappoint; her knowledge, creativity and passion for developing and preparing women in leadership roles was invaluable. Julie's grit, determination and dedication to her mission shines brightly through her work. Julie truly cares about your professional as well as personal development. Julie is candid about her approach to making you the best leader you can be!!” - Sharon Jackson, Co-Founder and President of National Women's Collaborative
Why are so many professionals lacking leadership and business development skills?
Team leaders and decision-makers are finding a deficit when it comes to rising professionals in the workplace. These dynamic individuals are smart, educated, and qualified; looking for greater leadership opportunities to grow into the future. The challenge, is many of these same rising stars also lack specific leadership, communication, and/or business development skills essential to long-term success.
Julie Holunga understands this deficiency. She experienced this gap in competency early in her career. The skillsets, practice, and confidence to master greater leadership opportunities are often not taught in secondary education or post-graduate studies.
When a new leader is placed in a greater role, they need guidance, resources, and a proven support system to generate expected results. With a leader-driven framework, they can address the common feelings of being overwhelmed, under skilled, and not set up for success.
We believe in changing this reality to help your organization and staff have the confidence to grow.
Julie Holunga advises female business leaders, attorneys, and certified professional accountants to develop key leadership skills that match functional and technical expertise.
Julie Holunga works with new, onboarding, and experienced leaders, primarily in professional services, and in mid-size, and global firms, to develop key leadership skills needed to achieve industry-leading expertise. We guide clients to advancement opportunities in their roles while increasing work performance, and positioning companies for success by developing future leaders. We work with clients throughout the United States and Canada.
Five Core Values
Our best work highlights five core values that are the drivers for our strategic partnerships, our messaging, and our solutions.
Expertise and Wisdom: Our clients trust us to be the leading voice on our solutions, namely leadership and business development for female leaders, attorneys, and CPAs. This is only possible through past experience and proven insight.
Positive Energy: We value the opportunity to feel good about what we do and who we serve. Even the most intense work is energizing when we know it’s worth the effort. We do not and will not put someone on our calendar who we hope will cancel at the last minute.
Initiative and Innovation: We actively pursue not only what’s grounded in evidence, backed with data, research, and proven ideas, but also new concepts that are fresh and cutting edge.
Partnerships: We believe our Chinook Executive Solutions approach is stronger with strategic partnerships and valued relationships with our clients. Our job is to hold our clients to their best selves and see in them what they may not yet recognize. Our partnerships complement our strengths and add combined capabilities and positive energy to our work together.
Productive Change: We lean into the guarantee that change is the only certainty in life. This expectation is what drives us to pursue the latest and greatest in technologies and development concepts. We also expect our clients to experience productive change and actively consider what may need to change for them to grow.