Hi, I'm Leland.
I'm an executive coach for extraordinary, thoughtful leaders at inflection points - founders, executives, investors, and high-performers wrestling with what comes next when the strategies that built their successful careers stop being enough.
I founded Kenshō Leadership, an executive coaching and leadership development firm, in 2019. The name comes from the Japanese 見性, "an insight towards one's true nature" - which I love because it captures the essence of subtraction as a means to remember who we really are.
My specialty is creating immersive, outdoor experiences for leaders who want to do more with less. I often take clients out into nature - hiking, polar bear swims, even jumping out of airplanes - as a means to unlock creative thinking, higher focus, and deeper fulfillment.
I'm a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation and a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) through CTI. I'm also a Certified High Flow Meditation Guide, mentored personally by Dan Spinner, former CEO of the Deepak Chopra Foundation.
I've coached senior leaders at high-growth startups and iconic companies including Google, Apple, Anthropic, SpaceX, and LinkedIn. An increasing portion of my work focuses on mission-driven orgs and impact investing funds, including Breathe For Change, High Resolves, Acumen America, and Social Good Fund.
I've worked with over 45 teams; I've facilitated and trained over 750 people managers for companies on 5 continents including Dow Jones, GoFundMe, Lululemon, Oura Ring, Airtable, and Google.
I mentor founding teams through Berkeley SkyDeck, UC Berkeley's startup accelerator, and guest lecture at the Berkeley Haas School of Business on operating at sustainable peak performance and living a meaningful life.
Before becoming a full-time coach, I spent 12 years inside hyper-growth tech companies. Most recently, I led Partner Engineering at Clever, a YC-backed edtech platform used by 95,000 K-12 schools and 22M students a month. We were named one of Inc.'s best places to work and acquired for $500M.
I joined GoPro in 2013 as the first software PM. The team I built shipped 8 flagship HERO cameras and 50+ features that drove the two highest revenue years in company history and over 80% US action camera market share for four consecutive years (2013-2017). We IPO'd in 2014, peaked at a $12B market cap, and won an Emmy along the way.
Earlier, I led 30+ enterprise technology projects for Fortune 500 companies in healthcare, energy, finance, and education at Citrix as a technical consultant and systems architect.
I earned an MBA with Honors from UC Berkeley Haas (Evening & Weekend MBA, ranked #1 by U.S. News), where my cohort voted me "Most Haasome" for best embodying the school's leadership principles, and my classmates voted me "Most likely to make you cry (in a good way)."
I hold an economics and org behavior degree from Brown University, studied behavioral science at Yale School of Management (MBA Intensive, top 10%), and am a Stanford-certified Advanced Project Manager.
Outside of work, I'm a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and retired competitive freefly skydiver with 700 jumps and 3 big-way team FAI world records.
Originally from Hong Kong, I met my wife at Burning Man in 2012 and we now live in the SF Bay Area with our kids and dog.
Impressive, right? Not really.
how I got here
My friends call me a recovering overachiever. For 12 years, I chased external validation and convinced myself that real happiness would arrive with the next accomplishment. The harder I pushed, the more I felt like I was pretending to be someone I wasn't. Outside, I looked successful. Inside, I was deeply dissatisfied and starting to suspect the ladder I'd been climbing my whole career was leaning against the wrong wall.
I began questioning the scaffolding of my identity. With guidance and coaching, I started to see my beliefs - and their effects on my life - more clearly. Every moment of insight brought a little more connection to a more honest version of me.
More accepting of myself. More loving in my relationships. More effective at the work in front of me. Less reactive in heated moments. Less afraid of not being enough. Better at owning my mistakes. Better at not taking myself too seriously.
I'm 40 now. The biggest thing I've learned is that the true journey is the inner journey - and that it turns out to be good for business, too. When leaders operate from a place of inner clarity, they become more effective, creative, and alive. And they give the people around them permission to do the same.
Leland is a remarkable human being.
I have the privilege of being a mentor to him during his Journey of life. Leland has not only successfully navigated several major career changes, but has done so in the pursuit of his own truth and higher purpose. He has a capacity of energetic sensitivity and awareness that belies his 'youth', in other words, he is an Old Soul in a young body. Anyone who works with him in any capacity would be very lucky and dare I say even privileged, to benefit from his intuitive and loving guidance.
some of my lenses
I've been a magician since I was 7.
As a close-up magician, I find tremendous joy in helping people get momentarily reacquainted with their sense of childlike wonder and awe. I've performed for kid's birthday parties, university deans, veterans, Krispy Kreme chefs, and audiences of up to 300 people.
Check out that bowl cut.
I come from a family of educators.
My grandfather worked for a university until he was 93 years old. My father recently turned 76 and is still teaching grad students around the world. My mom has helped thousands of students find careers after school. It runs in my blood - here I am as a Rotary camp leadership facilitator for high school students.
Becoming a dad has been one of the best gifts ever.
I can't put into words how incredible the journey has been. I believe children are our greatest teachers. I've also learned to appreciate moments of occasional silence like I never have before :)
I'm a lifelong student of martial arts.
After several years of Krav Maga, I dipped my toe into a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class and immediately connected with its principles of experimentation, adaptation, integration, and community. 9 years later and going strong, I'm currently a brown belt under Eduardo Fraga (formerly purple belt under Romulo Melo) and now train regularly at Ralph Gracie Berkeley BJJ. I am also an active supporter and former youth instructor at Guardian Gym in Oakland, where every adult membership supports one local youth to train for free.
I've leapt out of airplanes 700 times.
One of my greatest teachers, skydiving has opened up profound experiences and meaningful relationships beyond words. Contrary to most people's assumptions, dancing with gravity is one of the most peaceful and meditative activities in my life where I'm fully present and in flow. Where the mind quiets and time slows down. I earned my Accelerated Freefall (AFF) License in 2011, became a certified USPA skydiving coach a few years later, and went on to set 3 world records with the best group of humans one could ask for. (video)
I've participated in Burning Man 8 times.
You can usually find me handing out pour-over coffee at sunset as part of a theme camp we started in 2013. One of my big takeaways over the years has been embracing the beauty and freedom in imperfection. I am forever grateful to have met my now-wife out there dancing in the dust.
)'(
why I do this
At the end of this life, I want to look back on memories of all the wonderful people I've served, knowing that our time together created ripples we'll never fully see. I'm tremendously honored to work with the people I do - each is an inspiration and a gift.
Thanks for reading this far. If you want to keep going, I've written up the principles I strive to live by and the teachers and mentors who got me here.