What is Vanya Koonce Advisory?

Vanya Koonce Advisory supports leaders with executive coaching, AI research, and guidance for organizations managing growth and change, with 16 pages.

Insights

Thinking on leadership, people and the conversations that shape them.

Writing for leaders who want to understand what’s actually happening — not just what to do about it.

Leadership in Practice

Why "Ownership" Is Not Useful Feedback Until You Define the Behavior

Abstract concepts like ownership, confidence and communication don’t change behavior. Specific descriptions of what someone would do differently do.

September 2026

Managing & Developing People

The Leadership Problem Behind Delegation

When a leader can’t delegate, the issue is rarely time management. It’s usually about trust, control, and what the leader believes their role is.

July 2026

AI + Human Leadership

AI Can Analyze a Conversation. Can It Understand One?

Technology surfaces more information about what happens in a coaching conversation. Whether that produces deeper understanding is a different question.

August 2026

Leadership in Practice

What Executive Presence Actually Looks Like in Practice

Executive presence is one of the most requested — and least defined — leadership qualities. Here’s what it actually looks like when you break it down.

June 2026

AI + Human Leadership

What AI Should — and Shouldn’t — Do in Executive Coaching

AI has a real role in coaching. But the boundary between what it supports and what it replaces matters more than the technology itself.

May 2026

Managing & Developing People

The Difference Between Giving Someone Autonomy and Abandoning Them

Autonomy and abandonment look similar from the manager’s side. From the employee’s side, they feel completely different.

April 2026

Meaningful Conversations

What Makes a Conversation Meaningful (and Why Most Leadership Conversations Aren’t)

Most leadership conversations are efficient, pleasant, and forgettable. The ones that change things share a different structure.

October 2026

Leadership in Practice

The Confidence-Competence Gap That Derails Promotions

High performers get promoted for their competence, then stall because the new role rewards a different kind of confidence. The gap is predictable — and fixable.

October 2026

Organizational Change

When Teams Stop Telling You the Truth

Silence is not agreement. If your team has stopped bringing you problems, the problem isn’t that they don’t have any.

October 2026

Strategic Relationships

Managing Up Without Becoming a Problem

Managing up is not politics or flattery. It’s the practice of making your leader’s job easier so yours gets easier too. Most people get it backwards.

October 2026