Doing good work matters. Early in your career, though, it’s only part of what determines whether you’re trusted, noticed, and given more responsibility.

The people who start to distinguish themselves understand how to operate inside an organization. They learn the culture quickly, understand what their managers need from them, communicate with confidence, build relationships beyond their immediate teams, and become increasingly thoughtful about where they can add the most value.

The Rising Star Success Formula is a 5-part group coaching program designed to teach those skills explicitly.

Rather than leaving early-career employees to figure out workplace norms, managing up, visibility, and professional credibility through trial and error, I teach them how organizations actually work — and how to work within them more effectively from the beginning.

See more details below or request an invite here.

Is it for you?

The program is designed for college and grad school interns, recent graduates, and early-career professionals who are building the habits and reputations that will shape the next several years of their careers.

It can also be leverage by organizations that want emerging talent to become more confident, self-sufficient, thoughtful, and effective — without expecting managers to teach every unwritten workplace norm individually.

Who’s your leader and what if you miss a session?

Andrea Wasserman, Founder & CEO of The Executive Express, will facilitate all five sessions. Everyone who registers will receive an audio recording and detailed notes from each session. To respect the confidentiality of those participating in live discussion, video recordings won’t be provided.

A limited number of early registrants will be able to schedule a 1:1 follow-up call with Andrea.

What will you learn?

Across five facilitated group coaching sessions, participants will learn how to:

• read workplace culture and adapt without losing their individuality

• understand formal and informal influence inside an organization

• communicate with greater confidence and professional presence

• contribute more effectively in meetings

• understand their managers’ priorities, pressures, and preferences

• bring solutions and recommendations rather than simply escalating problems

• receive and apply feedback without becoming defensive

• build relationships across functions and levels

• develop a reputation around the value they contribute

• distinguish high-impact work from activity that simply keeps them busy

• communicate progress, risks, and results in a way that helps managers understand their impact

Each session combines practical teaching, discussion, coaching, and frameworks participants can begin using immediately.

See more details below or request an invite here.

The Five-Part Program

1. Decode the Culture

Understand how the organization really works

Every workplace has formal rules and unwritten ones. Participants will learn how to identify both.

We’ll look at the signals that reveal how work gets done: how people communicate, how decisions are made, where informal influence sits, what meeting behavior is expected, and how much formality or autonomy the culture rewards.

Participants will learn how to observe before assuming, adapt to the environment around them, and recognize the difference between the org chart and the way the organization actually operates.

We’ll cover:

• workplace norms and communication styles

• formal authority versus informal influence

• decision-making dynamics

• office and virtual-work etiquette

• how to identify and learn from highly credible employees

• how to adapt without simply mimicking everyone around you

Frameworks include: The Culture Code Assessment and the FIT Framework.

2. Build Professional Presence

Make people confident in what you have to say

Executive presence doesn’t begin when someone becomes an executive. Early-career employees are already being evaluated on how they communicate, participate, and carry themselves.

This session focuses on what it means to communicate with confidence without overreaching, contribute in meetings without speaking simply for visibility, and become increasingly concise and clear as the stakes rise.

We’ll also examine how professional presence shows up beyond speaking: preparation, body language, judgment, responsiveness, and understanding the expectations of the environment.

We’ll cover:

• communicating clearly, concisely, and confidently

• eliminating language that unnecessarily weakens a point

• preparing to contribute meaningfully in meetings

• knowing when to speak and when to listen

• professional presence in person and virtually

• understanding how perception affects credibility

Framework includes: The 3C Communication Model — Clear, Concise, Confident.

3. Manage Up Effectively

Make your manager’s job easier — and become someone they can trust with more

Managing up starts with understanding that your manager has priorities, pressures, and preferences that extend well beyond your individual assignments.

Participants will learn how to understand what matters most to their managers, align their work accordingly, provide useful updates, and know when to involve a manager versus when to move independently.

We’ll also work on one of the most important early-career transitions: moving from bringing problems to bringing thinking.

We’ll cover:

• understanding what your manager is trying to accomplish

• identifying your manager’s communication and working preferences

• setting expectations around updates and involvement

• asking questions without handing the thinking back

• bringing options and recommendations

• surfacing risks early

• handling feedback productively and demonstrating that it has been applied

Framework includes: Manage UPPP — Understand Your Manager’s Priorities, Pressures, and Preferences.

4. Build Relationships and Reputation

Become known as someone people want to work with again

Career-building relationships aren’t limited to senior executives, nor should networking begin only when someone needs a new job.

Participants will learn how to build relationships across teams, functions, and levels; engage appropriately with senior leaders; and create a reputation based on the value they consistently contribute.

We’ll talk about networking in practical terms: being curious about other people’s work, becoming useful to colleagues, following up, giving credit, and creating enough connection that people remember you positively when an opportunity arises.

We’ll cover:

• building relationships outside the immediate team

• engaging senior leaders without forcing access

• asking better questions in informational conversations

• identifying potential mentors and advocates

• becoming known for a particular strength or contribution

• managing reputation through everyday interactions

• understanding that people throughout the organization are forming opinions about what it’s like to work with you

Frameworks include: The POWER 5 Strategy, the Executive Engagement Formula, and the Internship Branding Blueprint.

5. Work Strategically

Focus on the work that matters — and make sure its impact is understood

High-performing employees don’t simply complete more assignments. Over time, they become better at distinguishing between work that needs to get done and work that materially advances the priorities of the team or organization.

Participants will learn how to identify high-impact work, look for opportunities to reduce friction or improve a process without overstepping, and communicate progress and results so their managers aren’t left to connect the dots.

We’ll also discuss how to finish a project, internship, rotation, or early-career experience in a way that leaves a clear record of contribution and strengthens future opportunities.

We’ll cover:

• distinguishing high-impact work from busywork

• connecting assignments to team and organizational goals

• identifying problems worth solving

• proposing improvements without charging in before understanding the context

• communicating progress before someone has to ask

• explaining outcomes rather than simply reporting activity

• documenting accomplishments and lessons learned

Frameworks include: The 80/20 Rule, the C.O.R.E. Status Update, and the L.A.S.T. Impression Strategy.

Why This Program

Early-career employees are frequently told to “show initiative,” “build relationships,” “have executive presence,” or “manage up,” without anyone explaining what those concepts actually look like in practice.

The Rising Star Success Formula gives participants a much more concrete road map.

They leave with language they can use with their managers, frameworks they can apply on the job, and a better understanding of the dynamics that determine who becomes trusted, who gets increasingly meaningful work, and who begins to build momentum early in a career.

For organizations, the benefit is equally practical: employees who require less chasing, communicate more effectively, understand how to work with managers and colleagues, and become more thoughtful about how their work contributes to broader priorities.

Program Format

Five interactive group coaching sessions

Each session combines teaching, discussion, practical frameworks, and live coaching around the workplace situations participants are already navigating.

The program can be delivered as a five-week series or adapted to fit an organization’s internship, rotational, early-career, or emerging-talent calendar.

Participants leave each session with specific practices to use before the next one, allowing the learning to happen in the context of their actual work rather than remaining theoretical.