About Michelle

Practice Small. Lead With Meaning.

Meaning isn't something you discover once.

It's something you practice in the conversations you have, the choices you make, and the way you show up for the people around you.

For Michelle Hollingshead, leadership is not about having all the answers. It's about paying attention to the moments that shape trust, relationships, and culture. Because while those moments may seem small, they're often the ones that leave the greatest imprint.

That belief is at the heart of what she does.

A Different Way to Lead

We tend to think significant change comes from big decisions, bold visions, or sweeping initiatives.

Those things matter. But they only become real through the way we live them every day.

The leaders who build healthy cultures know that strategy alone isn't enough. They bring it to life through consistency. They ask thoughtful questions. They stay curious. They listen before they react. They create environments where people feel seen, valued, and connected to meaningful work.

This is the philosophy behind Practice Small.

It's a way of approaching leadership that recognizes meaningful change isn't created all at once. It's sustained over time through everyday choices that strengthen relationships, shape culture, and help people find greater meaning in their work and lives.

Because leadership isn't something you declare.
It's something you practice.

Michelle Hollingshead holding her book Meaning Indicator

Meet Michelle

Nearly two decades alongside founders, executives, and teams

For nearly two decades, Michelle has partnered with founders, executives, leadership teams, and organizations committed to building workplaces where both people and performance thrive.

As the founder of Imprint Coaching, she brings together executive coaching, leadership development, organizational consulting, and facilitator training to help leaders meet a changing world with greater awareness, clarity, and purpose.

Michelle is one of a select group of coaches worldwide to earn the International Coaching Federation's Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential. She also serves as faculty for ACT Leadership and Brown University's Leadership Coaching Certification program, where she helps develop the next generation of leadership coaches. Her work draws from neuroscience, positive psychology, adult development, systems thinking, and decades of practical experience.

More than any framework or methodology, she's guided by a simple belief: How we make meaning matters. It shapes how we understand our lives, what we move toward, how we know we matter, and what we see ourselves as part of.

At the heart of her work is an exploration of how we connect to ourselves, to one another, and to the larger systems we're part of, and what becomes possible when we live and lead with that orientation. That inquiry became the foundation for her book, <a href="" style="color:var(--brass-deep)">Meaning Indicator, which explores four dimensions of meaning: comprehension, purpose, significance, and belonging, and offers practical ways to cultivate more meaning in work and life.

In her own words

The Unofficial Bio

I learned a lot about change long before I started writing or teaching about it. In my twenties, I was excommunicated from the Mormon church. Years later, I lost my younger brother, Matt, ten days after 9/11. Losing him made the fact that we are all going to die much more real to me. It also made me want to live more consciously.

I'm a mom, which has been one of the great joys of my life. I love to travel, read, play tennis, practice yoga and meditation, listen to music, and dance. I ran a marathon when my son was seven months old. I'm sure that also says something about me.

Dan and I are both entrepreneurs and love to travel and play tennis. We combined two of those loves into what we called our marital Grand Slam, celebrating milestone anniversaries at the US Open, Wimbledon, the French Open, and finally the Australian Open for our 25th. It took us twenty years to finish, but we did it.