ABOUT BETHANY HAWKINS
I am an executive advisor with 25+ years across strategy, operations, and enterprise execution — from global Fortune 100 organizations to founder-led businesses running lean and fast, leading high-stakes cross-functional initiatives from the inside and advising leaders through them as a consultant.
It started earlier than I expected — in my twenties, assigned to a high-stakes cross-functional role before I fully understood what I was walking into. The pressure was real because the cost of getting it wrong was also real. I've never left that kind of work since — in corporate it found me, in consulting I never stopped choosing it.
What I didn't fully appreciate until much later was the caliber of people around me — leaders who invested in my development before I knew I needed it. That breadth of business acumen became an instinct, showing up in how I think — built from learning what worked, and from the scars of hard landings when it didn't. I don't just see the action. I see the connections.
I know what it means to have someone genuinely in your corner — and what it feels like when you don't. That's what drives this work. And it's what I bring to every leader I sit beside.
What I Believe
Cross-functional work is its own discipline - underestimated, underleveraged, and rarely understood for what it demands.
I built this practice because I've seen what it costs when the gap goes unaddressed - for the results, the organization, and the leader carrying it.
Most organizations have someone to lead the work. The sponsor is invested but stretched thin. Meanwhile the lead is performing on a highly visible stage - accountable for outcomes that shape organizational results and their own career trajectory - while developing the skills to do it in real time.
Cross-functional work accelerates development faster than any other arena. It builds quickly, under pressure, with everything on the line. That's where I work.
I'm not a coach - I'm an operator. Coaching meets you in the complexity too - but in service of who you're becoming. What I do is in service of what you're delivering.
HOW I WORK
I don't come in to run your initiative. I come in as the outside perspective the person accountable can't get from inside.
Direct, practical, calm under pressure. I ask questions nobody has time to ask, surface what's unclear, find the disconnects, and help you see the system you're too close to see on your own.
How we work together depends on what the situation requires - a focused session for an outside read, structured monthly access for sustained complexity, a defined assessment with a clear readout, or active presence through a critical delivery phase.