Ulrika Gustafson Advisory
You run the thing. And in the meeting you still get treated like the one who's there to take notes.
Nobody says it out loud. You see it in who gets interrupted, who gets asked to send the follow-up, and whose decision quietly gets revisited afterwards.
I work with senior leaders and founders who are the most capable person in the room and still get read as the expert, the fixer, or the very good second-in-command. Not the person in charge.
THE COST
The promotion that hasn't moved. The business that should be further along. The team that never quite gets better, because you keep fixing what they should be fixing themselves. And the part nobody sees, which is how much of your week goes on work that stopped being yours years ago.
THE LOOP
When it gets tense, you do what you've always done. You explain more. You take the work back. You make sure it gets done properly, because that's the one thing you know you'll be graded well on. It works, and it's also the thing confirming what the room already thinks about you. You're paying twice.
THE ROOM
You are the most prepared person in the meeting and somehow the conversation happens slightly to the side of you. You get interrupted. You get asked to follow up. Your decision gets revisited afterwards by someone who wasn't in the room. Nobody is being rude about it. That's what makes it hard to name.
AS FEATURED IN
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Hello, I am Ulrika!
I'm a former attorney, City Manager, one of Europe's youngest female ones, and a C-suite executive. Three-time founder across five countries and three continents. I've led organizations from one person to 11,000.
I've made decisions under public scrutiny. I've negotiated under political pressure. I've run turnarounds where the margin for error was thin and the cost of getting it wrong was public.
That's what I bring into the room with you. Not theory. Not frameworks. Judgment, built from having been in the seat.
I help accomplished leaders stop proving their competence and start owning the room. Not by making them louder or more polished, and not by teaching them to present better. I help them walk in as the person in charge, because that's what they already are.
I'VE COACHED LEADERS INSIDE
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Free For Subscribers
WHEN THE PLAYBOOK STOPS WORKING
For leaders and founders who are doing everything they've always done and quietly wondering why it isn't landing the same way.
You're not stuck because something is wrong with you. You're stuck because the rules changed and nobody told you.
This isn't a checklist. It's a real look at what happens when the way you've always worked stops matching the level you're operating at, and what to do once you can see it.
My Services
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
1:1 EXECUTIVE COACHING
For senior leaders and founders navigating high-stakes decisions, public scrutiny, or moments where reputation, power and timing all matter at once.
Private work. Direct. Strategic. By referral or direct inquiry. I take a limited number of clients each quarter.
RECALIBRATED -
GROUP PROGRAM
For accomplished women who are done being the most capable person in the room and ready to be the one running it.
Twelve weeks. Small group, eight to ten women per cohort, kept deliberately small. The work is direct. The room is high trust.
Applications for the next cohort open in autumn. Join the waitlist and you'll hear before it's announced anywhere else.
SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS
I speak and run workshops on what changes when capability stops being enough. Why the room reads capable people as staff, what it costs, and how to change it without becoming louder, harder or more performative.
For conferences, internal leadership programs and curated communities.
Testimonials
WHAT MY CLIENTS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH ME
“I was referred to Ulrika by someone I trust - another woman in a senior leadership group I’ve been part of for years. She said, ‘If you’re ready to really grow, and not just be encouraged, talk to her.’ From our first session, I knew it was different. Ulrika doesn’t circle around things. She goes straight to what no one else is naming and she does it with zero ego. I wasn’t looking for someone to cheerlead. I was looking for someone who could actually challenge how I show up in high-stakes rooms, and help me lead at the level I know I’m capable of. After six months, I was leading with more clarity, presence, and authority than I ever have. And it wasn’t just me who felt it - my team delivered some of our best creative work to date, and we ended up winning a major international award. Ulrika doesn’t coach for comfort. She coaches for impact. And it works."
Executive Creative Director, Global Advertising Agency, USA
"I was honestly exhausted. I could see exactly why certain people were getting ahead, and it felt draining. They weren't better at the job. They were better at playing the game. And I didn't want to be that person. Working with Ulrika helped me realize I didn't need to change who I am. I just needed to understand what was really happening in the room, and how I was showing up inside it. I'm still direct, still myself, and still not into politics for politics' sake. But now I'm not sidelined and don't get overlooked. I finally feel like I'm moving forward without selling out."
Director, Operations & Strategy, Financial Services
"What pushed me to join wasn't self-doubt about my capabilities. My skills were the sole reason I volunteered to take on a complicated and very sensitive project. But I was watching leadership say one thing and do another. I stopped waiting for alignment that wasn't coming and started moving with strategic clarity. I didn't become tougher or change my ways to fit the norm. I became clearer. And that changed how people saw and responded to me almost immediately. The biggest relief comes from trusting my instincts again."
Managing Director, Global Asset Management
How The Work Actually Happens
A PARTNERSHIP,
NOT A PRESET PROGRAM
1.
APPLICATION OR INQUIRY
For 1:1, a direct conversation. Twenty minutes. An honest read. I'll tell you whether the work fits what you're dealing with, and if it doesn't, I'll tell you that too. For Recalibrated, a short application so we can make sure the room is right, for you and for the cohort.
2.
PRECISION FIT
The work is built around what you're actually carrying, not a stock framework. Recalibrated has a structure, twelve weeks with a defined arc, but how it applies to you is yours. 1:1 work is shaped entirely around the moment you're in.
3.
IN THE ROOM
This is where the work happens. Sharp, direct, grounded in real situations and real questions. No performance. Truth over comfort.
4.
SUSTAINED
I stay close after the initial work. Recalibrated includes ongoing access during and after. 1:1 clients stay connected, sometimes for years, for when the pressure returns and a clean read of the room matters again.
Get All The Details
FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Senior leaders and founders who are good at their job and still get read as the expert, the fixer, or the very good second-in-command instead of the person in charge. Managing directors, general counsels, COOs, chiefs of staff, and founders running companies they built. My 1:1 work is not gendered and plenty of my clients are men. Recalibrated, my group program, is for women only.
Most coaching helps you process, reflect and build skills. Useful work. Not what I do. I bring an outside read on the system you're inside, and that read comes from having run those systems. City manager, C-suite, turnarounds across five countries. Not studied them. Run them. You do develop through the work, but that comes out of seeing clearly rather than the other way round.
A twelve-week group program for accomplished women who are done being the most capable person in the room and ready to be the one running it. Eight to ten women per cohort, kept deliberately small. Applications open a few times a year and the waitlist gets first access. The investment is depending on the tier.
Six months minimum. Anything shorter doesn't hold. Sessions are usually sixty minutes, most clients meet every two weeks, and some periods need weekly work. The cadence follows the pressure rather than a preset schedule. Engagements are quoted individually. If you're walking into a board conversation or a decision where timing matters, we deal with it then rather than waiting for the next slot.
No. Some people arrive with a clear mandate. Most arrive with tension they can feel and haven't named yet. We start where you are and we don't stay there. The early work is about finding what's actually causing the stall. Once that's visible the objective is usually obvious and the work moves fast.
Most teams I work with aren't dysfunctional. They're capable, experienced and busy, and stuck in patterns that quietly slow decisions and dilute accountability. I work with senior teams when alignment looks fine on the surface and momentum has stalled underneath. We surface what's being avoided, clarify where authority actually sits, and reset how decisions get made. Off site, no optics, high trust.