Angie Wong: Enhance Thinking, Forge New Paths
Executive coach, and founder of The Growth Ally LLC
In today’s fast-paced business environment, companies need a solution to complicated problems they face daily. Juggling between several aspects and striving to run the venture smoothly leaves them with little or no bandwidth to resolve all the issues themselves. This is where management consultants can play a vital role by providing them with the much-needed expertise in identifying new markets, improving internal processes, and solving conflicts. Angie Wong, executive coach, and founder of The Growth Ally LLC (a management consulting firm), develops leaders who are better equipped to challenge and inspire teams, see possibilities, and lead through change.
Multiple Hats
Angie’s career graph traces many roles as she went from being a follower to a collaborator, manager, influencer, and now a leader. Her educational background (MA and BA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (I/O Psychology) from San Jose State University) aided her when she started her career in corporate America. She became an HR professional and worked closely with employees and management at all levels to help people grow professionally, manage career journeys, and guide them on all employment-related matters. As she rose the ranks and held leadership roles in multiple companies, Angie collaborated with senior leaders to develop and communicate the organization’s strategy and navigate the barriers that prevented them from obtaining their goals. This also gave her more insights into the recurring issues faced by people in leadership positions and encouraged her to do something more meaningful and create more impact.
The Growth Ally
Backed by a positive mindset, clear planning, and a solid support system, Angie took the plunge into entrepreneurship and founded The Growth Ally, LLC in 2021. During her two-decade-long career in corporate America, Angie witnessed executives undergoing great pressure to achieve impossible goals in short spans of time, often leading to ineffective communication and poor collaboration, straining relationships with their team members, and hampering the overall well-being of the organization. Aiming to change this pattern and help leaders better understand and support their employees, Angie works with executives, entrepreneurs, and ultra-high-performing individuals to develop their leadership styles and enhance their emotional and social intelligence levels.
Angie is also a certified professional coach and an expert practitioner in psychometric tools, which provides the foundation for her leadership and career coaching. With the services that her company offers, including executive coaching and career transitions, she works on the underlying beliefs, assumptions, and behaviors of the clients by defining their issues, encouraging diversity of thought, and supporting courageous thinking and expression. “The beauty of my services is that I tailor my approach to align with the concept of leaders making a positive impact through a deeper connection with their employees. When my clients are clear about who they are and know how to effectively communicate the results that they seek, their employees and, subsequently, the organization will grow and thrive,” Angie said.
Derailing Challenges
Angie fought through several barriers herself before she could get rid of her perfectionism and the dreaded imposter syndrome while she was thinking of starting her own business. Although she was armed with apt degrees and certifications and vast professional experience, she kept making excuses that hindered her path to becoming an entrepreneur. She finally sought help from coaches who guided her in getting over the attachments that were holding her back. She adapted to her situations and went with the flow, which is something that she now stresses in her coaching – the power of adaptability. Clients often put their jobs over everything else in their lives, leaving them physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained. Angie helps them overcome these habits and move forward by leaning into personal strengths.
Embracing Change
With over two decades of experience in human resources management, building and leading teams in Fortune 100 and 500 companies in Silicon Valley, Angie understands the power of trusting relationships to influence, motivate, and inspire others. Drawing inspiration from her own successes and failures, she focuses on igniting growth through compassion, resilience, and deeper emotional intelligence. Moreover, being an entrepreneur has also made her understand that running a business is not easy, and it takes alignment of a lot of things for it to survive and thrive.
Angie invokes the women who want to get into entrepreneurship to believe in themselves before anyone else. “Commit to positivity and prioritize your time. Analyze your energy and channel it to keep your focus intact. Avoid burnout by knowing what is important for your business and draw a line on things that can wait. Also, leverage your network to make connections, promote your business, or provide support. Last but not least, do not be afraid to fail; rather, learn from it.”
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