Andrea Wasserman is a leadership advisor, former C-suite executive and the founder of The Executive Express. A serial Fortune 500 executive, she spent more than 20 years inside companies including Nordstrom, Verizon, JPMorgan Chase and Hudson's Bay Company, served as EVP and Chief Commercial Officer of European Wax Center, and was recruited at 34 to become CEO of Sole Society. Along the way, she became the person deciding who was hired, who was promoted and how they were paid. Today she coaches executives one-on-one, designs and delivers workshops and leadership programs for companies and universities, speaks to corporate and conference audiences, and writes about career strategy for Business Insider.

A leadership advisor brings direct experience with the decisions a client is trying to influence and gives a point of view on what to do about them. Executive coaching in its classic form relies on questions that help clients reach their own conclusions. Andrea uses that approach where it helps, but she also gives clients an informed read on their situation: how a promotion case is likely to be received by the people deciding it, what a senior leader is actually reacting to, or why a strong performer keeps getting passed over. Having made those calls herself as an executive, she can tell clients what she'd be weighing if the decision were hers and help them act on it.

The Executive Express is a New York City–based leadership advisory, coaching, and workshops practice that also provides meeting facilitation and keynote talks. Founded by Andrea Wasserman, it helps people understand how their organizations actually operate and what they need to do to advance. The Executive Express works with individuals at every level, from people early in their careers to senior executives, through one-on-one coaching on promotion, new leadership roles, executive presence, influence, job search and negotiation. It also works with organizations through employer-sponsored coaching, workshops and leadership programs for companies and universities, and keynotes for corporate and conference audiences. Its clients and program participants number in the thousands, at companies ranging from Google to CHANEL.

Andrea's approach starts from how career decisions are actually made inside companies, which she knows from making them for more than 20 years as a senior executive. Instead of generic career advice, she helps clients read their own organization: who has influence, how decisions get made, what senior leaders pay attention to and which norms are never written down. The work stays practical and focused on behavior. Clients leave each session with fieldwork that requires them to do something in their real job — have the conversation, map the stakeholders, write the recommendation, delegate the work — and the next session builds on what happened.

We work with people at the career moments where how they operate inside the organization matters as much as the quality of their work: getting promoted, stepping into a bigger role, building influence with senior leaders and peers, developing executive presence, moving from doing the work to leading through others, and finding and negotiating a new role. Some clients come to us with a specific goal, such as a promotion cycle six months out. Others come because something isn't working — they keep getting passed over, a new boss reads them differently, or they've been told to be “more strategic” without anyone explaining what that means in their organization.

Yes, when the coaching treats promotion as an influence process rather than a single conversation with your manager. By the time a promotion is formally discussed, leadership usually already has a view of whether someone is ready, formed by how that person shows up in meetings, who has seen their work and who is willing to speak up for them. We help clients understand how promotion decisions get made in their organization, build the evidence and sponsorship their case needs, close the gaps senior leaders are likely to point to, and decide when and how to make the ask. No coach can guarantee a promotion, but clients go into the process knowing what the people deciding will be weighing.

Yes. The first months in a new leadership role shape the reputation you'll carry in it, and early missteps more often come from misreading the organization than from misunderstanding the job. We help clients get an accurate picture of the new environment quickly — who matters, how decisions get made, what their boss and peers expect, which early wins will register — and decide where to spend their first 90 days. For people promoted into a bigger role, we also focus on how the expectations have changed, especially the move from personal execution to producing results through a team and a wider set of stakeholders.

Yes, and we treat all three as observable behavior rather than personality. Executive presence shows up most clearly in meetings, in who sets the purpose, structures the discussion, synthesizes what was said, names the decision and assigns ownership. Influence depends on getting to the point quickly with senior audiences, holding a view in a disagreement without damaging the relationship, and following through so that agreement turns into action. Stakeholder management starts with knowing who actually shapes outcomes in your organization and how they prefer to work. Clients practice each of these in their real meetings and relationships between sessions, and we fine-tune based on what happened.

Yes. The résumé matters less in a senior job search than most people expect, so most of our work goes into positioning, networking, interviewing and managing the live process with recruiters and hiring teams. We help clients define the story the market will hear about them, reach the people who influence hiring decisions, and prepare for interviews as a conversation they adapt in real time, opening with substance and reading the interviewer, instead of a set of memorized answers. On negotiation, we look at the entire package, including compensation, title, scope, resources and timing, so clients can trade across those variables instead of fighting over a single number.

Engagements range from a trial session or a focused mini-series on a specific goal to larger multi-session packages and 6–12 month retainer support. Whatever the length, sessions build on each other: we work through an approach, the client uses it in their job, and the next session picks up from what happened. Between sessions, clients have fieldwork tied to real behavior, such as preparing for a specific meeting, mapping stakeholders before a promotion conversation or delegating work they'd normally keep. For employer-sponsored engagements, the structure, including any stakeholder interviews and manager check-ins, is agreed at the outset.

It's worth it when the gap between where someone is and where they want to be comes from how they operate inside their organization, which is hard to see from the inside and seldom spelled out by managers. Most capable people already know how to do their jobs. What they often lack is a clear read on how they're perceived, how decisions about them get made and what senior leaders expect at the next level. Coaching is less useful for someone looking for general encouragement or who isn't in a position to try anything different at work, because the results come from changing what you do in real situations.

In an employer-sponsored engagement, the company pays for the coaching, and the coaching serves the individual within goals that both the employee and the organization agree on. We start by understanding what the sponsor, usually the manager, HR or L&D, hopes will change and why, and we hold that view alongside the client's own account until the evidence supports a conclusion. The engagement can include confidential stakeholder interviews at the start to establish how the client is currently perceived. From there, coaching runs one-on-one with the client, focused on the goals agreed at the outset.

Agreements about manager check-ins, coaching confidentiality and shared alignment meetings are set at the outset of every engagement, in a way that respects everyone involved, so the client and the sponsor both know from the start what will be shared, with whom and when. When stakeholder interviews are part of the engagement, feedback is reported by theme rather than by person and written so that individual interviewees can't be identified.

Yes, upon request. We conduct confidential one-on-one interviews with a client's manager, peers, direct reports and other stakeholders, then synthesize what we hear into themes supported by specific, observable behavior. We report only what the interviews support, which means we don't turn one person's comment into a theme, soften a consistent concern or add strengths the interviews didn't mention. The summary is written so the client can read it as fair and usable, and so individual interviewees can't be identified. It then becomes the starting point for the client's development goals.

We design and deliver workshops and leadership programs for companies and universities, built around how careers and organizations actually work. Topics include how promotion and readiness decisions get made, building influence and executive presence, moving from doing the work to leading through others, managing stakeholders, getting new hires up to speed, and growing a career in a virtual workplace. Each program is tailored to the audience's level and organization, with practical tools and exercises participants can use in their jobs the following week.

We define success at the start of an engagement in terms of what should be visibly different afterward: a promotion or expanded scope, a key relationship that works better, a change in how senior leaders describe the client, or a new role landed. Progress is tracked against those goals over the course of the engagement. For employer-sponsored work, how progress is discussed with the manager or sponsor, whether through check-ins or shared alignment meetings, is agreed at the outset. When stakeholder interviews are part of the engagement, they provide a baseline for how the client was perceived when the work began.

Andrea speaks on how careers and organizations actually work, drawing on more than 20 years as a Fortune 500 and C-suite executive. Her keynotes are:

• How Careers Actually Work Inside Organizations

• Building an Owner's Mindset at Every Level: Leading with Influence from Wherever you Sit

• Why Growth Breaks Down Between the Org Chart Boxes

• The Rule-Changer Mindset: Don't Follow the Path. Don't Break It. Build a New One.

She tailors each talk to the audience and organization, and also delivers workshops on influence, advancement and executive presence.

Yes. In addition to keynotes, Andrea works as a moderator, host and emcee for conferences, panels and corporate events, and facilitates executive offsites and customer and partner advisory board meetings. Having run businesses in retail, financial services and telecommunications, she can hold her own with senior speakers, ask questions that go past their prepared remarks, and keep a live audience engaged.

Schedule a consult from this website or email andrea@theexecutiveexpress.com. It helps to include the event date, location or virtual format, audience size and seniority, and what you want the audience to take away. Andrea will follow up to discuss the topic, format and fee.

Both. Coaching is held by video by default, and by phone or in person whenever an individual or organization prefers. We're based in New York City, and Andrea travels globally for keynotes, workshops, moderating and facilitation, all of which can also be delivered virtually.