With a multifaceted career spanning executive coaching, leadership development, and organizational culture transformation, I have dedicated my professional journey to empowering leaders and organizations to foster environments where everyone feels valued, seen, and engaged. As the CEO of Appreciation at Work, I leverage my expertise to enhance workplace cultures, driving performance, and employee satisfaction through the power of appreciation.

My approach combines strategic leadership with empathetic engagement, offering solutions that are not only effective but sustainable. Through keynote speaking, coaching, and my podcast, Catalytic Leadership, I share insights and strategies that inspire change and promote a culture of appreciation across various industries. My mission is to transform workplaces into spaces where employees thrive and business goals are exceeded.

With a background as a pastor, I bring a unique perspective to leadership and organizational development, emphasizing the importance of integrity, compassion, and community. My work is not just about improving metrics but about creating meaningful, lasting change that positively impacts individuals' lives and organizational health.

If you're looking to elevate your organization's culture, develop impactful leadership skills, or inspire your team to achieve their best, let's connect. Together, we can build an engaging and appreciative workplace where everyone feels empowered to contribute their best work.

️William Attaway

As your business grows, the job changes. What worked in the early days isn’t enough anymore—and neither is leading the same way you always have. You want strong results without sacrificing purpose, or building success at the expense of your people, sanity, or soul.

I partner with people-focused CEOs and founders navigating growth, complexity, and generational change—supporting the leadership evolution required to scale both the business and the person leading it.

After more than two decades leading teams across corporate and entrepreneurial environments, I learned the hard way that when performance outpaces leadership capacity, people burn out, cultures break, and growth stalls.

That experience led me to develop Work ALIVE™, a work-life integration approach that underpins how I work with leaders and teams today. When leaders align how they lead with how they live, both business and personal success accelerate.

Today, I work with service- and knowledge-driven organizations growing beyond founder-led systems—building leadership capacity, leading hybrid teams, and strengthening cultures that perform without wearing people down.

In practice, this means expanding your ability to adapt to evolving talent expectations, technology, trust challenges, and generational change—without losing what makes your business human.

If you’re leading a growing organization and starting to feel the weight of scale—on your leaders, your team, or yourself—I invite you to have a conversation.

Sonita Reese

Visible growth gets the applause.



We celebrate the launch, the milestone, the win.

But invisible growth is what makes it possible.

Having tough conversations.
Learning to delegate well.
Staying clear under pressure.

Many leaders underestimate how much of the work happens where no one is watching.

High-integrity leaders commit to that work anyway.

To those doing the unseen work to grow themselves and their businesses—keep going.

That work is what makes your next level of impact possible.

Grow Capacity & Culture as You Scale | Leadership Advisor for People-Focused Founders & Executives

Watching from the sidelines of a college showcase last weekend, I saw up close how perspective is often the difference between effort and results.

My son’s team played a decent first half and a disappointing second.

From where I stood, something had shifted — and we didn’t adjust.

After the game, we debriefed.

We all saw the obvious changes — player rotations, some mistakes, more defensive play.

But the shift wasn’t just on our side of the field.

They raised the pressure and dictated the pace. We reacted.

My son hadn’t fully seen it. The coach didn’t call it out. But once we named it, we could talk about what an adjustment might have looked like.

When you’re always in action, you fix what’s visible.

But you can miss what’s changing right in front of you.

Stepping to the sidelines, even briefly, creates strategic distance.

Distance to see patterns.
To notice shifts.
To ask, “What's really happening here?”

Because when you don’t step back to notice and discern, you miss what’s changing.

And then you push harder with the same playbook… instead of adjusting.

How do you create space to see what’s changing so you can adjust your approach?

It’s hard to listen when someone’s constantly yelling at you.



An executive I spoke with this week had to step out of a conversation because the other person was so in their face.

When it’s a person, it’s obvious.

Less obvious is how much our tech is constantly “yelling” at us—pings, feeds, alerts, updates. 

Constant noise makes good decisions harder than they should be.

One strategic advantage you have today?

Proactively turning the volume down.

Mute the feed.
Silence notifications.
Create space to think.

How do you shut out the noise when an important decision needs your attention?

What if we’re thinking about AI upside down?



Everyone thinks the competitive advantage in AI is the technology.

I think we’re looking at it the wrong way.

𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫.

When leadership is intentional, and AI is used responsibly, it unlocks growth and new opportunities.

But when leadership is unclear?

AI scales confusion.

It multiplies:
- unclear priorities
- bad decisions
- team anxiety
- work that no one really owns

The technology isn’t the adult in the room.

Leaders are.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬.

If you're a leader navigating this moment,

Where have you seen AI act as a multiplier — for better or worse — inside your organization?

In my part of the world, it’s been bitterly cold.

But that didn’t stop us from going sledding.

Last week, we headed out anyway.

At the top of the icy hill, I hesitated.

Then I thought: I’m excited.

And I went for it.

It was exhilarating.

But on one run, I clipped my left elbow on some hard ice and earned a pretty impressive bruise.

Looking at it later, something clicked.

This year feels a lot like that sledding hill.

Growth is rarely smooth —

But it’s often worth it when you’re clear on why you’re going and who you’re going with.

There’s excitement.
A desire to go for what’s ahead.

But there will be bumps.

For leaders reaching the next stage, those bumps can look like:

– Misalignment on your team
– Communication that starts to drop
– Feeling stretched in your ability to lead
– Cultural or operational drag

That doesn’t mean you stop.

Because the joy of the ride matters more than avoiding every hard edge.

So if you’re taking on a growth challenge this year, here are three things to keep in mind:

🎯 𝘍𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦.
Keep your eyes on the outcome that makes the effort worthwhile.

🤝 𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦.
Surround yourself with people who encourage you and help you stay the course.

🧊 𝘌𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘣𝘶𝘮𝘱𝘴.
They’re temporary. They heal. And they’re often the price of forward motion.

Growth can be bumpy.

But when you have a clear purpose — and the right support — the ride is worth it.

taplio

The Battle

️William Attaway

Sonita Reese

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The Battle

️William Attaway

Sonita Reese

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sonita Reese's LinkedIn Performance

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