Frequently asked questions
How Janika works with individuals, leaders, teams, and organizations, and the moments people most often reach out for. Don’t see your question? A complimentary Discovery Call is the best way to find out if there’s a fit.
Getting started
What does Janika Smit do?
Janika is an executive coach, leadership facilitator, and keynote speaker, and the Founder and CEO of Quantum Growth LLC. She works with individuals through 1:1 and executive coaching, with teams and organizations through assessments, team coaching, workshops, leadership development, and change management, and with audiences through keynotes and signature talks. Every engagement is built around the real people and the real moment, not a generic curriculum.
Who does Janika work with?
Her clients range from individual professionals stepping into bigger roles to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies and highly ranked U.S. Military leadership. She has designed and delivered programs across technology, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, and small business. Whether you are one leader or a whole organization investing in your people, there is a format that fits.
What is the difference between coaching and therapy?
Therapy tends to look backward, to heal and understand the past. Coaching looks forward, focused on where you are now and where you want to go. Janika's work is action-oriented: clarify the goal, do the work between sessions, and build tools you keep long after the engagement ends. As she puts it, insight without action isn't transformation, it's just a good conversation.
Are sessions virtual or in person?
1:1 and executive coaching sessions are typically held over Zoom, which keeps scheduling flexible for busy leaders. Team coaching, workshops, facilitation, and keynotes can be delivered virtually or on site, depending on your group and your event.
How do I get started?
The first step is a complimentary 30-minute Discovery Call. It's a no-pressure conversation to explore fit and find the right format for you, whether that's 1:1 coaching, an executive engagement, or work with your team. You can book it directly from this site.
1:1 Coaching
Can coaching help me prepare for a new job or role?
Yes. Starting a new role is one of the most common reasons people reach out. 1:1 coaching helps you enter with clarity: understanding the expectations, building the relationships that matter early, and making confident decisions before the patterns set. You define what a strong start looks like, and Janika helps you get there.
I was just promoted, or I'm up for a promotion. Can coaching help?
Absolutely. Stepping into expanded scope is exactly the moment 1:1 coaching is built for. The skills that earned you the promotion aren't always the ones the next level demands. Coaching helps you grow into the bigger role, navigate new dynamics, and lead with confidence instead of second-guessing.
What does 1:1 coaching for individuals look like?
It's for anyone stepping into expanded scope, navigating a new role, or rebuilding momentum after a setback. Sessions run 60 minutes over Zoom, available individually or in packages, and are structured around what's actually moving in your work: the stalled team conversation, the decision you've been circling, the boundary that keeps slipping. Concrete progress, session by session, with accountability built in between.
Can you help me prepare for an interview?
Yes. Interview preparation is something Janika has done with many clients, and it's one of the most common reasons people book a short engagement. Whether you're interviewing for a new role, an internal promotion, or a board seat, she helps you get clear on your story, anticipate the hard questions, and walk in able to speak about your value with confidence instead of nerves. The work is practical: rehearse, refine, and build a calm, credible presence so the conversation goes the way you want it to.
Executive Coaching
What is executive coaching, and who is it for?
Executive coaching is Janika's premier 1:1 offering, built for senior executives, C-suite leaders, CEOs, and founders operating at strategic altitude, where decisions compound and the room gets smaller at the top. She brings more than two decades inside executive rooms, her own and her clients', to every conversation. Engagements are shaped around an executive's real calendar (quarterly intensives, sustained partnership, or bespoke arrangements) and include behavioral assessments and 360 feedback, strict confidentiality, and the discretion senior work requires.
Do you coach CEOs and senior executives one-on-one?
Yes. CEOs, C-suite leaders, and senior executives are the heart of Janika's executive practice. At the top the role gets lonelier and the stakes get higher, with fewer people who can speak candidly with you. Janika is a confidential thinking partner for the decisions, relationships, and pressures that come with carrying organizational weight, drawing on her own years as a Senior Director leading enterprise-scale work.
Can you support executive-level strategic planning?
Yes. A large part of executive coaching is creating the space to think clearly about strategy, set direction, and pressure-test big decisions with someone who has sat in the executive seat. Janika helps leaders step back from the day-to-day, weigh complex trade-offs, and align their team and their organization behind a clear path forward.
Can you help me lead organizational change?
Yes, and it's central to Janika's background. She spent more than 25 years in organizational change management, including leading complex, enterprise-scale change initiatives as a Senior Director at Wyndham Worldwide, and she is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner. Using the Prosci ADKAR model, she coaches executives to build genuine buy-in, work through resistance, and sustain momentum so change actually takes hold across the organization.
Can you support change driven by a merger or acquisition?
Yes. M&A is one of the most demanding kinds of change a leader can face, integrating cultures, structures, and teams while keeping the business running. Janika helps executives lead through that complexity with a clear plan and a people-first approach, applying her Prosci change methodology and her experience with enterprise-scale transformation so the human side of integration doesn't get lost.
Do you coach executives through a leadership transition?
Yes, and it's one of Janika's most common areas of support. She helps executives preparing to move into a new role get ready for the shift before it happens, and she works with leaders who have already transitioned to navigate the first 90 days and the change management that a new seat demands. Drawing on her Prosci change practice and her years inside executive rooms, she helps you build early credibility, read the organization, and establish the relationships and priorities that make a transition stick rather than stall.
Can you help me prepare for a board seat or board-level role?
Yes. Moving toward the boardroom is a real shift in altitude, from running the business to governing it, and from being in the detail to asking the questions that shape direction. Janika coaches senior leaders preparing for board readiness: sharpening the executive presence the room expects, learning to operate in a governance mindset, and building the confidence to contribute at that level. She draws on more than two decades inside executive rooms, her own and her clients', to help you arrive ready.
Do you work on succession and preparing the next generation of leaders?
Yes. Succession is one of the most important responsibilities a senior leader carries, and it cuts both ways: preparing yourself to step up, and preparing the people who will step into the roles you leave behind. Janika helps executives think through who is ready, where the gaps are, and how to develop successors deliberately rather than hoping it works out. For the leader being groomed, coaching builds the capabilities the next level demands before the role arrives.
Can you help align my leadership team?
Yes. A senior leader is only as effective as the team around them, and misalignment at the top ripples through the whole organization. Janika works with executives and their leadership teams to build trust, create a shared language, and align on direction and execution, drawing on her team coaching practice and the assessments she's certified in, including Emergenetics, DiSC, and the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team. The result is a leadership team that pulls in the same direction instead of quietly working at cross-purposes.
How are executive engagements structured and kept confidential?
Engagements are built around an executive's actual calendar, with quarterly intensives, sustained partnership, or bespoke arrangements, and can include behavioral assessments and 360 feedback. Strict discretion and confidentiality protocols are standard. What you discuss stays between you and Janika, which is what makes candid, high-stakes conversation possible.
Teams and organizations
Do you offer group sessions and team coaching?
Yes. Team coaching is an ongoing, structured engagement that goes beyond a one-time training event. Over a series of sessions customized to your team's context, Janika works directly with teams and their leaders to surface what's working, clear what's getting in the way, and build the habits that make high performance sustainable.
We have a newly formed team. Can you help them come together?
This is one of the best moments to bring Janika in. Team coaching is ideal for newly formed teams establishing norms and ways of working, as well as intact teams navigating change or conflict and leadership teams preparing for expanded scope. The work builds trust, a shared language, and aligned execution from the start, instead of leaving culture to form by accident.
What behavior and personality assessments do you offer?
Janika is certified in three powerful frameworks. Emergenetics measures how people think and behave. DiSC profiles how people respond to challenges, influence others, and collaborate. A Custom 360 gathers multi-perspective feedback from direct reports, peers, and managers. She also delivers the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, based on Patrick Lencioni's work. Assessments give individuals honest self-awareness and give teams a shared language that makes collaboration faster and more human.
Do you facilitate workshops and offsites?
Yes. Janika designs and facilitates workshops built for the specific group in the room, drawing on 25 years across HR, organizational change, learning and development, and executive coaching. Topics include communication and collaboration, leadership effectiveness, conflict navigation, change resilience, women in leadership, and team culture. If your team has a specific challenge or goal, she'll design something for it.
Can you help our leaders lead through change?
Yes, and it's core to her work. Janika is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, the global gold standard in change management methodology. Using the Prosci ADKAR model, she coaches leaders to understand where resistance comes from, build genuine buy-in, and sustain momentum when the energy for change starts to fade, so change actually sticks rather than stalling on paper.
Do you run leadership development programs?
Yes. These are fully customized, multi-session journeys delivered over weeks or months, integrating coaching, assessment, facilitation, peer learning, and real-world application. Janika has built programs for emerging talent, future-manager pipelines, and existing leadership teams across organizations from small businesses to the Fortune 500.
What is #IAmRemarkable group coaching?
#IAmRemarkable is a 6-session group coaching series for women ready to find their voice and step into their power, built on the foundation of Google's #IAmRemarkable initiative. Janika is a Platinum Facilitator who has trained more than 800 participants. The series moves through owning your remarkable story, dismantling imposter syndrome, self-confidence and self-compassion, the elevator speech, finding your voice, and becoming an advocate for yourself and others.
Can you help our organization get ready for AI?
Yes. Janika takes a people-first approach to AI readiness, one that starts with people, not platforms. Through keynotes, lunch-and-learns, and leader coaching, she helps teams navigate AI-driven change with clarity and confidence, ask the right questions, and keep the human at the center of the work.
Speaking, membership, and logistics
Does Janika speak at conferences and events?
Yes. Janika delivers keynotes and signature talks for conferences, leadership offsites, and company-wide events. Signature topics include leading through change, AI and the human practice of leadership, and her own journey from IT to the executive table. She'll also build a custom talk around your audience and the outcome you want the room to leave with.
What is The Growth Circle?
The Growth Circle is a monthly membership for leaders who want consistent access to coaching, tools, and support without committing to a full program. It includes a monthly 60-minute 1:1 coaching call with Janika, a curated library of leadership tools and resources, monthly growth assignments, and 24/7 access to JanikAi. The Growth Circle is launching soon.
Is what I share confidential?
Yes. Confidentiality is foundational to coaching, and especially to senior executive work, where engagements include strict discretion and confidentiality protocols. What you share in coaching stays between you and Janika.
What are Janika's credentials?
Janika is an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), a BetterUp Premier Executive Coach, and a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner. She is a certified practitioner of Emergenetics, DiSC, and the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team. She brings more than 25 years of leadership experience in organizational change management, HR, talent development, and business transformation, including her time as a Senior Director at Wyndham Worldwide.