Are your leaders growing your culture, or just managing it?

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Organizations we’ve helped transform

People A-R-E Model

Our proprietary framework is a 9-step process to Attract, Recognize and Empower (A-R-E) your people so that they reach their own potential while driving sustainable impact that is linked to organizational purpose.

Attract - Talent Acquisition and Strategy

Recognize - Develop and Train Teams

Empower - Retain Best in Class

Ready to transform your organization?

Let’s discuss how the People A-R-E Model can drive measurable results in your organization

Talent Acquisition & Strategy

Comprehensive support for attracting, selecting, and onboarding the right talent including recruitment process design, organizational structure, competency frameworks, and employer branding. This includes initial assessments, salary benchmarking, and robust onboarding experiences.

Team Development & Performance

Build high-functioning teams with tailored workshops, 360 reviews, performance management systems, and targeted outplacement support. This service enhances team cohesion, individual growth, and organizational readiness using diagnostics and practical training interventions.

Leadership & Retention Solutions

Drive organizational excellence through executive coaching, ongoing leadership development, succession and incentive planning, and employee engagement programs. This offering ensures retention of top performers while creating a culture of empowerment and continuous improvement.

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Turn purpose-driven leadership into business results

Boost engagement and productivity

Organizations that embed coaching into their culture see a +38% rise in engagement and +21% increase in performance

Strengthen leadership effectiveness

Teams with coached managers are 48% more likely to exceed performance goals

Improve retention and morale

Purpose-driven organizations experience 50% lower voluntary turnover

Accelerate cultural transformation

Companies that align people and purpose outperform peers by 42% in profitability and 3× engagement

Shannon added value to our People & Organization Strategy with her pro-active support and fresh perspective, drawing on her significant experience across diverse organisations with a recruiting and retention focus.

Shannon brought huge value to our Corporate Affairs teams. She provided 360-degree reviews, executive coaching and a talent strategy. As our advisor she improved morale, grew competencies and retained talent.

Shannon brought immense value to both our global project and my leadership journey. Her adaptable, expert guidance helped me build credibility, trust and visibility across 25 countries within a complex, matrixed organization. The transformation in team buy-in and mindset after her workshops was truly unprecedented.

Ajay Barai
Regional Director
WWF

Khatira Morrison
Senior Communications and External Affairs Advisor
BP

Mario Elias Gonzalez
Former Responsible Business Manager
CEMEX

Shannon has been a catalysing partner over two years. The Whole Journey program has been instrumental in landing my dream job and in building my resilience and emotional intelligence as a change leader. She helped me keep my authenticity in shaping impact. With compassion, Shannon challenged me to live into my growth edge and push beyond my comfort zone of status quo.

Anne-laure Brison
Senior Manager, Chemical Industry
WBCSD

I highly recommend working with Shannon and her Walk of Life team. They have a well-developed curriculum, thoughtful resources, and a well-researched approach to recruitment, positioning, and networking.

Bryan Sheehan
Managing Director, ESG and Carbon Strategies
WAP Sustainability

After 9 years in one role, I was ready to grow as a sustainability leader but wasn’t being valued or supported. The Whole Journey gave me exactly what I needed - sector expertise, a clear structure and Shannon’s coaching that was both firm and encouraging. It shifted my entire approach from aimless applying to strategically going after dream roles. The tools I gained, like leveraging LinkedIn and mastering interviews, still guide me today. It was truly transformational.

Terry Duffina
Director, Sustainability Program Office
Stanford Health Care

Shannon Houde

Executive Leadership and Career Transition Coach

About Shannon

Your coach, mentor and career partner

Shannon Houde has spent two decades mentoring, coaching and training more than 1,500 change leaders and CSOs in the impact sector across 25+ countries and over 4,000 hours of one-to-one support.

She founded Walk of Life, the first-of-its kind international career advisory business focused solely on corporate sustainability and ESG, more than 15 years ago.

As an ICF-certified executive coach accredited in the Leadership Circle Profile™, Shannon was selected as a meta coach for the Goleman Emotional Intelligence certification program. She is a published author of the book "Good Work" and has been a GreenBiz columnist for more than 10 years.

Her coaching is underpinned by 30 years in recruitment and 10 years as a sustainability consultant and in-house practitioner within Fortune 500 companies, management consultancies and recruitment agencies including Adobe, Barclays, BlackRock, Deloitte and WWF as well as...

Shannon Houde

Executive Leadership and Career Transition Coach

See How We Can Help You Unlock Your Potential

Book a 30-minute trial session to share your challenges, get hot tips and gain a sense of our coaching style.

START A TRIAL SESSION NOW!

Events & Insights

We Walk Our Talk

Imagine holding up a mirror to see the leader within you.

Walk Of Life Coaching have decided to take Coldplay's lead and pledge to plant one tree for every hour of coaching sold, back dating to 2008 when Shannon started the business. That's an amazing 4,768 trees being planted!

In partnership with Ecologi.

How does this coaching model deliver measurable business results?

What’s the difference between this and traditional training programs?

Can this approach be tailored for different teams or global offices?

How soon can we expect to see results?

Why the Leadership Circle Profile?

Imagine holding up a mirror to see the leader within you.

The Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) is an innovative breakthrough in 360° profiling. It is the first comprehensive 360° leadership assessment tool to combine core leadership competencies with inner developmental traits, offering a holistic view of your effectiveness as a leader. It integrates:

Creative Competencies – Effective behaviors like fostering relationships, achieving results, and strategic thinking.
Reactive Tendencies – Internal barriers like control, compliance, and protective actions that may limit potential.

With intuitive visuals and a research-backed framework, LCP aligns with your goals to drive growth and performance.

Ready to transform as a leader from the inside out?

As an ICF-PCC certified executive coach, Shannon is a Leadership Circle Profile coach and was selected as a Meta Coach to teach on Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence Coach Certification course. She is also certified in Harrison Assessments, The GameChanger Index, and Korn Ferry's ESCI 360. PCC credential holders are trained, experienced coaches with a commitment to high ethical standards.

Our Pledge

We plant one tree for every hour of coaching sold, dating back to 2008 when the business was founded.

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Are your leaders growing your culture, or just managing it?

Organizations we’ve helped transform

People A-R-E Model

Our proprietary framework is a 9-step process to Attract, Recognize and Empower (A-R-E) your people so that they reach their own potential while driving sustainable impact that is linked to organizational purpose.

Attract - Talent Acquisition and Strategy

Recognize - Develop and Train Teams

Empower - Retain Best in Class

Ready to transform your organization?

Let’s discuss how the People A-R-E Model can drive measurable results in your organization

Talent Acquisition & Strategy

Team Development & Performance

Leadership & Retention Solutions

Turn purpose-driven leadership into business results

Shannon Houde

About Shannon

Shannon Houde

See How We Can Help You Unlock Your Potential

Events & Insights

More Success Stories

We Walk Our Talk

How does this coaching model deliver measurable business results?

What’s the difference between this and traditional training programs?

Can this approach be tailored for different teams or global offices?

How soon can we expect to see results?

Why the Leadership Circle Profile?

Our Pledge

Leadership Development

Career Transition

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