Melissa Dawn: Leading With Both Heart and Strategy

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Melissa Dawn spent more than two decades in the corporate world before deciding there was a more human way to lead. Today the Canadian bestselling author and Montreal-based executive coach runs CEO of Your Life, the practice she founded in 2014, and works with CEOs, founders and leadership teams on the hard calls that come with their roles. Her next book, Heart & Strategy: How the Best Leaders Navigate Uncertainty, brings that work to the page.

From marketing executive to coach

Dawn’s last corporate role was Vice President of Marketing. She left that world and started CEO of Your Life in 2014 as an individual coaching practice. Over time, her focus moved toward the people who carry the most weight in an organization: executives, CEOs, founders and the teams around them.

She holds the Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation, the profession’s highest credential, held by roughly 4% of coaches worldwide. She is also a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a Certified Team Performance Coach (CTPC) and a Certified Conscious Business Coach, and she holds a Bachelor of Commerce.

Who she works with

Dawn works in English and French, in person or online, with clients across North America and beyond. Her work includes one-on-one executive coaching, advisory work with CEOs and founders, coaching for leaders of family businesses and team performance coaching. She also gives keynotes, runs workshops and leads small executive retreats. Leaders at Fortune 500 organizations, global companies and family enterprises trust her, and HubSpot has recognized CEO of Your Life as one of the top coaching companies.

She calls her approach Heart & Strategy Leadership. One line on her website sums it up:

Heart without strategy can lose direction. Strategy without heart can lose people.

A new book on leading through uncertainty

Heart & Strategy looks at what leadership asks of people when the way forward is unclear and the pressure is high. Dawn argues that getting ready for those moments starts long before a crisis arrives, and that it starts with knowing yourself. Her website says the book draws on real stories, practical tools and deeply human questions, and explores values, the inner critic, self-awareness, courage, relationships and learning to trust yourself.

As of November 2026, the book is listed as coming soon on her site. A publisher and release date have not been announced there yet.

Taking off the masks

The new book builds on ideas Dawn has written about for years. She is the author of I Attract What I Am, and in January 2024 Brandylane Publishers released Why Can’t I Just Be Me? Remove the Masks That Hide You from the World and from Yourself, a guidebook with worksheets, exercises and coaching tips. A free companion eWorkbook is available on her website.

She came back to the theme of masks in a November 2025 episode of the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast, where the conversation centred on authentic leadership starting with self-awareness and on the professional masks many leaders wear at work. She has also written for Entrepreneur and Brainz Magazine.

Follow their work

• CEO of Your Life, Melissa Dawn’s coaching practice
• About Melissa Dawn
• Heart & Strategy book page

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