Activating the power within organizations to create meaningful growth

We are a new type of consultancy for a new way of working - built for leaders who want workplaces that are aligned, innovative, high performing and built to last.

An integrated approach

We integrate the best thinking in leadership, innovation, scaling, and execution into a single, practical way of working —

so strategy turns into execution, purpose becomes performance, and change becomes something teams and individuals know how to lead through.

CONNECT WITH US

To a more effective way of working

This is the framework behind the work — the foundation on which meaningful growth is built.

strengthening trust, clarifying purpose, and reconnecting people to shared direction — creating the foundation for purpose-driven growth
Clear, measured and adaptable priorities, products and processes, better, faster, evidence-based decisions, and continuous innovation that delivers real value
where teams move in synch, feel supported and challenged, learn by doing, and where work moves with rhythm, cohesion and momentum, so sustainable high-performance becomes the natural result

CONNECT WITH US

That delivers proven results

Backed by industry research with decades of hands-on practical experience.

ALIGNMENT

Research that supports ALIGNMENT

- How Leaders Open Up to Teams — Explores how trust and openness enable honest dialogue and better outcomes.
- Neuroscience of Trust — Explains trust as a biological and performance-enhancing mechanism.
- Why People Really Quit Their Jobs — Finds misalignment and lack of meaning as primary drivers of attrition.
- How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation — Shows culture as a motivational system, not a soft variable.
- To Improve Your Team, First Work on Yourself — Reinforces self-leadership as the starting point of alignment.
- Reinforcing Organizational Bridges: Four Elements That Strengthen Midlevel Leaders — Highlights the relational role of mid-level leaders in sustaining alignment.
- The Ladder of Inference: — Demonstrates how awareness and reflection improve human-centered leadership.
- What Is Psychological Safety? — Establishes psychological safety as a prerequisite for learning, innovation, and performance.
- Psychological Safety and Leadership Development — Shows how leadership behavior determines whether safety exists in practice.
- How Leaders Champion Culture — Shows that culture is carried primarily through leader behavior, not values statements.
- How to Embed Purpose — Demonstrates that purpose only matters when it is lived through decisions and daily work.
- MIT CSIR- Building Business Value With Employee Experience — Connects employee experience directly to business outcomes and performance.
- Follow the Leader: — Shows how CEO personality and values cascade into organizational culture.
- CEO Personality Matters — Links leadership traits directly to company behavior and outcomes.
- Interpersonal Dynamics — Examines how relationships shape collaboration and trust.
- Barry-Wehmiller — Leadership rooted in dignity, trust, and care; people treated as the strategy.
- Costco — Leadership values aligned with employee trust and customer loyalty.
- Cummins — Culture treated as a strategic imperative, not an HR initiative.
- Hermès — Culture transmitted through lived practice across generations.

FOCUS

Research that supports FOCUS

- What Leaders Get Wrong About Strategic Alignment — Shows alignment as an ongoing discipline.
- Reinventing Performance Management — Moves from control to clarity and accountability.
- Star Performer to Star Manager — Highlights focus shifts required in leadership transitions.
- The more senior you are, the less feedback you get — Reveals focus erosion at senior levels.
- Risks of Prioritizing Short-Term Revenue Over Customer Fit — Illustrates loss of focus through short-termism.
- Match Your AI Strategy to Your Organization's Reality — Connects focus to realistic execution.
- A new operating model for people management — Aligns structure and strategy through clarity.
- New Operating Model for a New World — Highlights the need for focused coordination in complexity.
- Return to Office- Practices Over Policy — Practices Over Policy — Shifts focus from rules to behaviors.
- Scaling the 21st-century leadership factory — Addresses leadership capacity as a focus challenge.
- Missing Link Between Purpose and Performance — Explains why purpose fails without execution discipline.
- Strategic Alignment Reconciles Purpose and Profitability — Shows how clarity enables trade-offs.
- FAST Beats Smart — Demonstrates that speed and simplicity outperform complexity in decision-making.
- Effective Leaders Decide About Deciding — Introduces decision architecture as a leadership responsibility.
- 5 Traits of Leaders Who Excel at Decision Making — Identifies behaviors that sustain focus under pressure.
- Learn From Outcomes to Promote Growth — Emphasizes feedback loops over static plans.
- How to Navigate Rapid Growth — Shows how focus prevents scaling chaos.
- How to Turn Professional Services Into Products — Explores focus as organizations scale.
- Redefining Success: Adopt the Journey Mindset to Move Forward — Frames focus as sustained progress, not episodic wins.
- Goal Setting Strategies: When to Use Sub-Goals and Big Picture Targets — Aligns long-term intent with daily effort.
- Motivating Sustained Progress with Dynamic Feedback — Shows feedback as a focusing mechanism.
- High-Growth Companies Fleeting Success — Demonstrates collapse without sustained focus.
- How Leaders Can Move from Chaos to Clarity — Focus as sense-making.
- Employees Want Their Bosses to Respond to Feedback — Timing and attention matter.
Focus in practice
- Apple — Focus through intentional constraint.
- Costco — Extreme focus through disciplined trade-offs and constraints.
- Equitable — Strategic reset through governance and decision clarity.
- Warby Parker — Focused product strategy aligned with mission.

FLOW

Research that supports FLOW

- Embrace Change Using Emotional Intelligence — Emotional regulation enables momentum.
- Become an Octopus Organization — Adaptive, networked execution.
- Can 10 Minutes of Meditation Make You More Creative? — Presence and creativity.
- 5 Psychology-Backed Principles for More Effective Personalization — Flow through responsiveness.
- Empowering People to Unlock AI's Potential — Human-technology rhythm.
- Can Design Thinking Succeed in Your Organization? — Human-centered problem solving in action.
- Unlock Creativity Through Analogical Thinking — How insight emerges through connection.
- Become a Better Problem Solver by Telling Better Stories — Narrative as sense-making.
- A Better Way to Unlock Innovation and Drive Change— Learning by doing.
- How Remote Work Changes Design Thinking — Flow in distributed environments.
- Nurture a Digital Workforce — Skills, tools, and adaptability in motion.
- Designing AI to complement human decision-making — Flow through augmentation, not automation.
- Why Great Leaders Move Before They Feel Ready — Momentum over certainty. as seen in Forbes
- Stanford GSB reimagines entrepreneurship for the AI era — Flow in emerging systems.
Flow in practice
- The LEGO Group — Collaboration and learning embedded into how work happens.
- Netflix — Freedom and responsibility enabling execution.
- TOMS — Mission-aligned momentum.

Purpose - driven growth

Continuous innovation that deliver real value

Sustainable high performance

Through the way work happens

Research makes one thing clear: no framework executes itself. Even the best strategies, operating models, and playbooks only create value when teams bring them to life - through daily decisions, shared understanding, and practiced ways of working.

Our work takes the best thinking in leadership, innovation, scaling, and execution and integrates it into one practical way of working. It’s how strategy becomes execution, purpose becomes performance, and change becomes something teams know how to lead through.

Because meaningful growth doesn’t happen in theory — it happens in the way work gets done.

CONNECT WITH US

Our Solution

We help your organization turn strategy into sustainable execution through Alignment, Focus, and Flow — the capabilities that convert insight into real-world performance.

PHASE I

We Build an Achievable Plan: we design and develop a unique plan with Alignment, Focus and Flow with your organization to deliver Meaningful Growth:
- Alignment — people share a clear purpose, direction, and way of working
- Focus — organizations have strong priorities, better decisions, faster learning, and adaptive execution
- Flow — teams continuously improve the work, solve problems, and move forward together.
  
  We work with your organization to define an agreed and engaged Meaningful Growth Mission, Strategy, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Organization Model, Sales, Marketing, Product, Technology, Operations, Team and Individual Leadership Development Plan to achieve your organization’s Meaningful Growth.

PHASE II

We Facilitate Execution: we design, execute and optimize workflows with your organization to achieve your organization’s Meaningful Growth.
We work side-by-side with your organization to execute the plan, innovating and adapting throughout the first quarter to embed the new way of working within your organization.
You can choose the level of support you desire.
- Level 1 - Qrtly Progress Review Sessions & Coaching of ELT
- Level 2 - Mnthly Prog Rev Sessions & Coaching of ELT and Team Leaders
- Level 3 - Wkly Prog Rev Sessions & Coaching of ELT, Team Leaders and Team
Upon completion of Phase 2, your organization will have the embedded tools to continue to strategize, execute, and innovate to achieve your organization’s Meaningful Growth.

PHASE III

At this stage we offer additional support that you can choose similar to Phase 2 to support the continued building of Momentum to achieve your organization’s Meaningful Growth.

Our Gaurantee:

When your organization completes Phases I and II, we guarantee at least 2× your investment in measurable, Meaningful Growth.

CONNECT WITH US

We’re builders, operators, and guides committed to helping organizations achieve meaningful growth.
IMPower U was founded on a simple belief: organizations grow when people are aligned around shared direction, focused on what matters most, and able to operate in flow. When these conditions are built into the way work happens, growth becomes sustainable rather than episodic.
Our team brings decades of experience working with global enterprises and growing organizations — supporting strategy, execution, and performance as organizations scale. We’ve lived the realities leaders face: competing priorities, rapid growth, evolving talent needs, and constant pressure to deliver — and we understand what enables growth to continue without losing momentum.
We partner with leaders who want workplaces that are aligned, innovative, high performing and built to last.
Engagements are designed to be focused and practical. We begin by understanding how work happens today, then work with leaders to design and install ways of working that support alignment, focus, and flow.
Our work is delivered in defined phases and sprints, with clear outcomes and shared ownership. This structure helps teams build momentum, improve decision-making, and embed changes that continue to perform over time.
Shared values are one of the strongest drivers of alignment. When values are lived — not just stated — they guide decisions, shape behavior, and build trust over time.
At IMPOWERU, values are built into how work happens, how teams are formed, how goals are set, how performance is measured, and how leaders show up day to day. Our values are simple, lived experiences we practice oursleves and with our clients:
- Curiosity - We remain open and inquisitive, trusting better questions lead to better outcomes.
- Compassion - We lead with respect — for ourselves and others — by seeking understanding before judgment.
- Courage - We meet resistance without retreat and continue forward with purpose.
- Connection - We design experiences that allow real trust and genuine connection to emerge.
- Commitment - We choose responsibility over reaction and show up fully to our work each day.

Meet the Team

Jerry Thompson

Over my two decades of helping organizations achieve meaningful growth — the kind where teams execute and innovate, deliver real value, and sustain high performance over time — I’ve learned that real progress is built from the inside out.
Working across large enterprises and early‑stage companies, both as an executive and a consultant, my career has spanned finance, legal, and operations leadership, covering strategy, operating model design, technology modernization, and large‑scale transformation. Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of leading and supporting highly skilled, cross‑functional teams committed to making a meaningful impact through their work — and also witnessing the impacts of overwhelm, burnout, and resignation when change isn’t supported with the right conditions.
Recognizing this gap between what organizations were trying to achieve and what people were actually experiencing led me to study and practice the human side of change — how people process uncertainty, how leaders create clarity and psychological safety, and how individuals reconnect with confidence, purpose, and their own inner truth. Training in coaching, emotional intelligence, and neuroscience has shaped how I understand what people need to thrive inside fast‑paced, high‑growth environments.
What I learned from these experiences is that organizations don’t change — people do. And leaders and teams who equip themselves with the tools and mindsets to navigate change effectively achieve extraordinary success, both individually and collectively.
At IMPOWERU, we understand that meaningful growth is the product of designing the conditions that allow strategies, people, teams, and systems to work together with alignment, focus, and flow.
We’ve integrated our team’s decades of lived experience with the best thinking in leadership, innovation, scaling, and execution into a single, practical way of working. Our approach strengthens alignment, sharpens focus, and builds flow into the way work gets done — so execution and innovation deliver real value, high performance becomes sustainable, and strategy turns into meaningful growth.
This is the work we believe in — and the vision we share.
Rob Vanderwerf

After twenty-five years helping organizations achieve meaningful growth — the kind where teams execute and innovate, deliver real value, and sustain high performance over time — I saw that these outcomes weren’t driven by a single strategy, tool, or initiative. They emerged when the right conditions existed in the way work happened every day.
I’ve served as an executive and consultant leading operational and transformational growth teams across global enterprise, mid-market, and start-up environments — working with some of the best leaders and companies and achieving 2–10x business growth.
Through work in strategy, organizational development, sales and marketing, product development, technology, and operations — across industries including technology, consumer and industrial goods, healthcare, financial, business and professional services — I have experienced firsthand what strong strategies, effective operating systems, and aligned leadership can unlock for organizations, teams, and individuals.
Working closely with these exceptional organizations and the leaders behind them — across stages, capabilities, and industries — I have experienced how Alignment, Focus and Flow work together in practice to achieve meaningful growth.
After years of having the privilege to learn from and partner with these high-performing teams — and being influenced so significantly by the way they worked — I decided I wanted to bring these successful ways of working to as many individuals and organizations as I could, so that all could achieve meaningful growth.
At IMPOWERU, we understand that meaningful growth is the product of designing the conditions that allow strategies, people, teams, and systems to work together with alignment, focus, and flow.
We’ve integrated our team’s decades of lived experience with the best thinking in leadership, innovation, scaling, and execution into a single, practical way of working. Our approach strengthens alignment, sharpens focus, and builds flow into the way work gets done — so execution and innovation deliver real value, high performance becomes sustainable, and strategy turns into meaningful growth.
This is the work we believe in — and the vision we share.
Sanaa Darif

Partner – Head of Creative Experience

Welcome! I’m so glad you’re here.
My professional journey spans hospitality, global technology initiatives, and organizational transformation, all rooted in a deep respect for how people come together around meaningful work. I began as a restaurateur, where I learned how thoughtful design, nourishment, and service create environments where people feel connected and energized. I later brought those principles into the IT and transformation space, leading large-scale international initiatives, including work on the largest hospital project of its time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and supporting digital transformation across U.S. federal civilian organizations.
Across these diverse settings, I’ve had the privilege of seeing what allows organizations to move with clarity and momentum. When purpose is shared, priorities are visible, and systems are intentionally designed, teams gain the confidence and clarity to execute, adapt, and innovate together. Focus sharpens. Energy flows. Work becomes both effective and sustainable.
Through years of leading change and guiding teams, I came to understand execution as a design practice. When strategy is translated into clear structures, supportive processes, and empowered ways of working, people naturally align around what matters most. Growth becomes integrated into daily operations.
This understanding is the foundation of IMPOWERU. IMPOWERU exists to help organizations intentionally design the conditions that enable alignment, focus, and flow—so meaningful growth can happen consistently and humanely. My approach is practical, informed by systems thinking, leadership development, neuroscience, Ayurveda, and consciousness studies, and always centered on the lived experience of the people doing the work.
Personal Passions & Community Engagement:
Now living and serving in West Virginia, community care is central to both my personal and professional life. I actively volunteer locally and see leadership as an act of stewardship—of people, place, and possibility. Outside of work, I find joy in cooking and hosting as expressions of connection, traveling with curiosity, and spending time outdoors biking, hiking, and swimming in natural waters. These practices ground my leadership, nourish my spirit, and keep me deeply connected to balance, equity, and authentic growth.
Mary Kay Sheets

SENIOR EXECUTIVE ADVISOR

Hello—and welcome. Most people call me MK, and you’re welcome to do the same. I’m a Midwestern gal at heart: a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend who loves meaningful time with good people, working hard and playing just as hard—often outdoors, near water.
Professionally, I’m a seasoned entrepreneur and executive advisor with more than 30 years of experience founding companies, scaling ventures, and guiding leaders through ambiguity into growth and impact.
I’ve learned that meaningful work is built on strong relationships and helping people uncover their brilliance while aligning purpose with performance. Sustainable growth shows up when curiosity, courage, and clarity lead the way—and when the lessons uncovered through failure is embraced as part of the journey. Through IMPOWERU, I’m committed to unlocking human potential, shifting mindsets, and fueling leaders who are shaping better futures. At the end of the day, helping others rethink how they live and lead is the work that matters most to me.
Personal Passion / Interest:
I’m passionate about travel and being active in the outdoors — whether that’s biking new trails, hiking national parks, playing pickleball, swimming and boating on our lakes, or finding fresh perspectives in great conversation with friends.