How many times have you been a part of leadership programs, off-sites, or conferences that felt good in the moment but ultimately, not so helpful back in real life?

I started People Culture to tackle that chronic, dusty trend.

Danette Johnson
Owner + Talent Coach

I am an executive coach and learning & development expert practitioner with 20+ years of experience helping leaders and teams operate with greater clarity, confidence, and effectiveness.

I partner with organizations to design and deliver customized leadership and team effectiveness initiatives and 1:1 coaching engagements grounded in real-world business experience—not theory alone.

my background + style

Before launching People Culture in 2020, I spent 24 years at Turner Broadcasting, where I ultimately served as Vice President of Human Resources. I led a small (at times stealth!) team responsible for enterprise learning, organizational development, and diversity and inclusion initiatives across global businesses. Coaching was embedded in all of it for sustainability and lasting traction.

That experience, along with the past five years of working with clients ranging from nonprofits to start-ups, shapes how I coach: practical, contextual, and grounded in how organizations really work. I’m a straight-shooter who uses humor along the way; I find that bringing some lightness to serious work keeps people open and engaged.

working with me

I don’t coach to fix people.

I coach to unlock leadership authenticity, capability, and confidence so leaders can move their organizations forward with clarity, intention, and more joy.

coaching with me helps bridge:

Strategy and execution
Awareness and action
Individual leadership and organizational impact

I help leaders:

Lead with empathy and rigor, replacing “nice” with honest, respectful dialogue

Build trust and set clear standards

Create cultures where people can perform at their best, sustainably

Leadership capability must transfer and insight alone does not change behavior.

Coaching should build leadership capability in practical, usable ways so leaders can immediately apply what they learn with their teams and organizations.

I work with:

Senior executives

High-potential “critical core” leaders (better way of saying “middle managers”)

Leadership teams navigating growth, change, complexity or just need to get in a
room and sort some things out!

my coaching engagements are:

Highly customized to the leader and organizational context - stickiness matters

Informed by decades of corporate and HR leadership experience

Supported by validated assessment and development tools (Hogan, CCL Benchmarks, EQ, Corporate Athlete, Agility, and more)