Member since January 2023
Jamie Martin is a tech leadership speaker and executive coach who spent 17 years in tech, including roles as Product Manager at Google / DoubleClick and VP of Product at DialogTech, delivering keynotes and workshops on the leadership challenges that keep high-performers stuck in execution mode, unable to shift into strategic influence despite their technical brilliance.
While her coaching focuses on women in tech, her speaking addresses universal leadership dynamics for diverse audiences across industries. Whether leading a technical team, navigating organizational complexity, or trying to build influence without formal authority, these challenges show up everywhere.
Jamie is a 2x Speaker of the Year nominee at WomenTech Global Conference, a Top 15 Coach in Chicago (Influence Digest Media), and has been featured in Forbes. She's also the founder of a networking community for Women in Tech and regularly hosts LinkedIn Live events on leadership visibility and authority.
I'm passionate about unlocking the strategic capacity that organizations don't even know they're losing. Right now, some of their most talented people are buried in execution mode; delivering brilliantly, keeping everything running, and remaining completely invisible to the decisions that actually shape the future.
When you shift that, something remarkable happens. People who were indispensable at one level become indispensable at a completely different level. Teams get sharper strategic thinking. Organizations stop hemorrhaging talent that couldn't see a path forward. And leaders who spent years proving themselves finally start shaping things instead.
The greatness was always there. It just needed a way out of execution mode.
One of my favorite stories from early in my management career taught me a lesson I carry with me to this day. Just a week into my new leadership role, I was thrown into the deep end when I had to put a former coworker on a Performance Improvement Plan. There was pressure to let her go, but I saw her potential and chose instead to become her biggest advocate.
With belief, support, and clear expectations, we turned things around together. Over a decade later, she's still a rockstar at that company.
That experience shaped my philosophy: when we lead with intention and invest in people, we don't just help individuals thrive—we create workplaces where everyone rises.
Picture this: I'm about to jet off for my honeymoon when my boss drops a bombshell - a massive company reorganization. That was just the beginning. Over the next three years, I navigated a relentless storm: a demanding VP role, a house hunt, a promotion, and our infertility journey.
I was drowning in the 'do-it-all' mentality that so many women in tech know too well - proving myself twice as hard while carrying invisible burdens. But in that chaos, one question changed everything: 'How do I want to live my life?'
That's when I discovered the frameworks that helped me reclaim my authority without sacrificing my values. I learned to set boundaries that stuck, advocate for what I deserved, and lead authentically. Now I teach other senior women in STEM these same strategies.
Ideal Audiences: Senior professionals in tech, leaders in leadership transitions, ERG members, DEI and talent leaders invested in retaining senior talent
Event Types: Leadership conferences, tech industry events, corporate ERG events, DEI and retention-focused programs, professional development series
Description: Somewhere right now, a leader in tech is wondering what they need to become in order to advance. Do they need to give up their warmth? Their human connection? Their life outside work? Because they're watching the leaders above them and doing the math: Is my humanity the price of admission?
The system will absolutely try to charge you that price.
Be collaborative? "Not strategic enough. No executive presence."
Be decisive? "Too aggressive. Not a team player."
There is no authentic version of you the system approves of. So leaders face an impossible choice: perform to survive or leave tech entirely. And the leaders who perform longest don't just lose themselves—the armor that protected them slowly turns them into enforcers of the very system that cost them everything.
Learn what happens when you stop paying with your humanity. When you keep it, everyone watching you keeps theirs too.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
Mid to senior-level professionals, emerging leaders, individual contributors seeking advancement
Event Types:
Women’s leadership conferences, career advancement programs, corporate women’s ERGs, professional development series
Description:
You’re exhausted. Overdelivering on every project, exceeding every metric, doing director-level work while holding a manager-level title. You’re the “go-to” person everyone relies on when things get complicated.
And you’re still not getting promoted.
You’re stuck on the credibility hamster wheel: constantly proving your worth through execution while remaining invisible to decision-makers who actually control your advancement. You believe if you just work harder, deliver more, prove yourself sufficiently, you’ll finally get noticed. But proving yourself isn’t just a trap, it’s a performance. One you learned to survive. And like all performances, it’s exhausting, invisible work that keeps you stuck at exactly the level you’re trying to leave.
But here’s the organizational reality: proving yourself and positioning yourself are fundamentally different skills. One keeps you indispensable at your current level. The other gets you promoted.
The professionals who advance aren’t necessarily more talented or harder working. They’ve figured out how to shift their energy from execution focused work to strategic influence-focused leadership. They’ve stopped trying to prove they deserve a seat at the table and started acting like they already belong there.
This talk helps you understand why “proving yourself” is actually a trap that keeps talented professionals invisible, how to recognize when you’re stuck on the credibility hamster wheel, and the specific shifts that move you from reactive execution to proactive strategic positioning.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
Senior individual contributors, cross-functional leaders, matrix organization managers, technical professionals, project leads, women in tech
Event Types:
Leadership conferences, matrix organization programs, technical leadership events, professional networks, women in tech conferences
Description:
You’re expected to drive cross-functional initiatives, influence decisions, and shape organizational strategy. All without the formal authority to actually make decisions or direct resources.
When you try to lead, you’re accused of overstepping. When you hold back, you’re criticized for lacking leadership presence.
This isn’t an individual failing. It’s a structural reality. Organizations increasingly expect senior contributors and managers to operate like executives while keeping them locked out of actual decision-making power.
This talk reveals three authority traps that keep high-performers stuck proving competence instead of building strategy. You’ll shift how you see these dynamics and why what got you here won’t get you to the executive table.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
New managers, individual contributors transitioning to leadership, technical leaders moving into people management
Event Types:
Leadership development programs, new manager training, technical leadership conferences, career transition events
Description:
You’re supposed to be leading. But when you can’t point to tangible outputs – project delivered, problems solved, fires put out – you question your value. So you get pulled back into execution mode because at least then you know you are contributing something.
Here’s the problem: leadership contribution feels intangible. Strategic questions. Pattern recognition. Creating clarity. Holding vision while others are in the weeds. None of this produces the satisfying “done” that execution work does. And when you can’t see concrete evidence of your impact, imposter syndrome starts to scream.
So, you default back to doing. Here’s what no one says: defaulting to execution isn’t just a habit. It’s a performance of safety. You tell yourself you’re “just helping out” or “filling a gap” or “staying close to the work.” It’s a way of staying likable, valuable, unthreateningly competent. But really, you’re measuring your leadership value by doer standards and that keeps you and your team stuck. And you can’t lead your way out of a performance you don’t know you are doing.
You’ll never feel like you’re doing enough. You’ll burn out trying to lead AND execute. And you’ll miss the actual contribution only you as a leader can provide.
This talk reveals why leaders get pulled back into execution even when they know better, how to recognize what actually counts as leadership contribution when it feels intangible, and how to trust your instinct about where you need to focus your energy to lead effectively.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
People managers, directors, HR and talent leaders, organizational leadership, team leads
Event Types:
Leadership conferences, management training programs, HR and talent development events, retention-focused summits, organizational effectiveness programs
Description:
You’re managing an impossible equation: workload is increasing, budgets are tight, and you can’t offer the promotions or meaningful raises your high performers deserve. You’re about to have uncomfortable conversations with top talent about why you can’t reward them appropriately while simultaneously asking them to carry more load because you’re not hiring.
The gap between what people deserve and what you can deliver is widening. You’re spending hours worrying about who might burn out or quietly check out. You’re watching cracks form in team engagement. You know the current pace is sustainable today but won’t be for another 12-18 months. And you’re terrified your best people will leave when the market improves, taking institutional knowledge with them.
Every leadership article says “build trust” but offers no practical guidance on how to do that when you can’t provide what people actually need: advancement and compensation. The typical advice(team building activities, transparent communication, recognition programs) feels insufficient for the magnitude of the challenge you’re facing.
Here’s what matters: some organizations are maintaining and even building trust through uncertainty while others are hemorrhaging engagement. The difference isn’t about perks or platitudes. It’s about understanding what actually fills people’s tanks beyond money, how fear erodes trust at multiple organizational levels, and what you can control when everything else feels uncertain.
This talk shares what’s actually working for leaders navigating the trust gap and what fails despite good intentions’]
Audience Takeaways:
One of my favorite stories from early in my management career taught me a lesson I carry with me to this day. Just a week into my new leadership role, I was thrown into the deep end when I had to put a former coworker on a Performance Improvement Plan. There was pressure to let her go, but I saw her potential and chose instead to become her biggest advocate.
With belief, support, and clear expectations, we turned things around together. Over a decade later, she's still a rockstar at that company.
That experience shaped my philosophy: when we lead with intention and invest in people, we don't just help individuals thrive—we create workplaces where everyone rises.
Picture this: I'm about to jet off for my honeymoon when my boss drops a bombshell - a massive company reorganization. That was just the beginning. Over the next three years, I navigated a relentless storm: a demanding VP role, a house hunt, a promotion, and our infertility journey.
I was drowning in the 'do-it-all' mentality that so many women in tech know too well - proving myself twice as hard while carrying invisible burdens. But in that chaos, one question changed everything: 'How do I want to live my life?'
That's when I discovered the frameworks that helped me reclaim my authority without sacrificing my values. I learned to set boundaries that stuck, advocate for what I deserved, and lead authentically. Now I teach other senior women in STEM these same strategies.
Ideal Audiences: Senior professionals in tech, leaders in leadership transitions, ERG members, DEI and talent leaders invested in retaining senior talent
Event Types: Leadership conferences, tech industry events, corporate ERG events, DEI and retention-focused programs, professional development series
Description: Somewhere right now, a leader in tech is wondering what they need to become in order to advance. Do they need to give up their warmth? Their human connection? Their life outside work? Because they're watching the leaders above them and doing the math: Is my humanity the price of admission?
The system will absolutely try to charge you that price.
Be collaborative? "Not strategic enough. No executive presence."
Be decisive? "Too aggressive. Not a team player."
There is no authentic version of you the system approves of. So leaders face an impossible choice: perform to survive or leave tech entirely. And the leaders who perform longest don't just lose themselves—the armor that protected them slowly turns them into enforcers of the very system that cost them everything.
Learn what happens when you stop paying with your humanity. When you keep it, everyone watching you keeps theirs too.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
Mid to senior-level professionals, emerging leaders, individual contributors seeking advancement
Event Types:
Women’s leadership conferences, career advancement programs, corporate women’s ERGs, professional development series
Description:
You’re exhausted. Overdelivering on every project, exceeding every metric, doing director-level work while holding a manager-level title. You’re the “go-to” person everyone relies on when things get complicated.
And you’re still not getting promoted.
You’re stuck on the credibility hamster wheel: constantly proving your worth through execution while remaining invisible to decision-makers who actually control your advancement. You believe if you just work harder, deliver more, prove yourself sufficiently, you’ll finally get noticed. But proving yourself isn’t just a trap, it’s a performance. One you learned to survive. And like all performances, it’s exhausting, invisible work that keeps you stuck at exactly the level you’re trying to leave.
But here’s the organizational reality: proving yourself and positioning yourself are fundamentally different skills. One keeps you indispensable at your current level. The other gets you promoted.
The professionals who advance aren’t necessarily more talented or harder working. They’ve figured out how to shift their energy from execution focused work to strategic influence-focused leadership. They’ve stopped trying to prove they deserve a seat at the table and started acting like they already belong there.
This talk helps you understand why “proving yourself” is actually a trap that keeps talented professionals invisible, how to recognize when you’re stuck on the credibility hamster wheel, and the specific shifts that move you from reactive execution to proactive strategic positioning.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
Senior individual contributors, cross-functional leaders, matrix organization managers, technical professionals, project leads, women in tech
Event Types:
Leadership conferences, matrix organization programs, technical leadership events, professional networks, women in tech conferences
Description:
You’re expected to drive cross-functional initiatives, influence decisions, and shape organizational strategy. All without the formal authority to actually make decisions or direct resources.
When you try to lead, you’re accused of overstepping. When you hold back, you’re criticized for lacking leadership presence.
This isn’t an individual failing. It’s a structural reality. Organizations increasingly expect senior contributors and managers to operate like executives while keeping them locked out of actual decision-making power.
This talk reveals three authority traps that keep high-performers stuck proving competence instead of building strategy. You’ll shift how you see these dynamics and why what got you here won’t get you to the executive table.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
New managers, individual contributors transitioning to leadership, technical leaders moving into people management
Event Types:
Leadership development programs, new manager training, technical leadership conferences, career transition events
Description:
You’re supposed to be leading. But when you can’t point to tangible outputs – project delivered, problems solved, fires put out – you question your value. So you get pulled back into execution mode because at least then you know you are contributing something.
Here’s the problem: leadership contribution feels intangible. Strategic questions. Pattern recognition. Creating clarity. Holding vision while others are in the weeds. None of this produces the satisfying “done” that execution work does. And when you can’t see concrete evidence of your impact, imposter syndrome starts to scream.
So, you default back to doing. Here’s what no one says: defaulting to execution isn’t just a habit. It’s a performance of safety. You tell yourself you’re “just helping out” or “filling a gap” or “staying close to the work.” It’s a way of staying likable, valuable, unthreateningly competent. But really, you’re measuring your leadership value by doer standards and that keeps you and your team stuck. And you can’t lead your way out of a performance you don’t know you are doing.
You’ll never feel like you’re doing enough. You’ll burn out trying to lead AND execute. And you’ll miss the actual contribution only you as a leader can provide.
This talk reveals why leaders get pulled back into execution even when they know better, how to recognize what actually counts as leadership contribution when it feels intangible, and how to trust your instinct about where you need to focus your energy to lead effectively.
Audience Takeaways:
Ideal Audiences:
People managers, directors, HR and talent leaders, organizational leadership, team leads
Event Types:
Leadership conferences, management training programs, HR and talent development events, retention-focused summits, organizational effectiveness programs
Description:
You’re managing an impossible equation: workload is increasing, budgets are tight, and you can’t offer the promotions or meaningful raises your high performers deserve. You’re about to have uncomfortable conversations with top talent about why you can’t reward them appropriately while simultaneously asking them to carry more load because you’re not hiring.
The gap between what people deserve and what you can deliver is widening. You’re spending hours worrying about who might burn out or quietly check out. You’re watching cracks form in team engagement. You know the current pace is sustainable today but won’t be for another 12-18 months. And you’re terrified your best people will leave when the market improves, taking institutional knowledge with them.
Every leadership article says “build trust” but offers no practical guidance on how to do that when you can’t provide what people actually need: advancement and compensation. The typical advice(team building activities, transparent communication, recognition programs) feels insufficient for the magnitude of the challenge you’re facing.
Here’s what matters: some organizations are maintaining and even building trust through uncertainty while others are hemorrhaging engagement. The difference isn’t about perks or platitudes. It’s about understanding what actually fills people’s tanks beyond money, how fear erodes trust at multiple organizational levels, and what you can control when everything else feels uncertain.
This talk shares what’s actually working for leaders navigating the trust gap and what fails despite good intentions’]
Audience Takeaways:
