Star Dargin, PCC, CPCC
Positive Results for Smart Leaders Ready for the Next Level
Focused and customized solutions for your professional and personal growth. Measurable success using a proven process based on experience and project management methodology. Click here (I need the link) to learn more about our coaching process and how we measure success. Star works with:
- Leaders who are ready to discover and act on what needs to be done to move to the next level.
- Leaders with a technical background (IT, Dev, Bio, Medical, Project and Program Managers, Accountants, Scientists, Engineers).
- Senior Managers and Director level ready to advance to Vice President.
Your growth is accelerated when working with a coach. The focus is on what matters most with clear actionable steps. Star has a wealth of experience and reference material ready to adapt for your success. Star will help you get clarity, strategize, positively support you, keep you accountable, and be there when it gets challenging.
Star’s Coaching Journey
Born Coaching
With Star as her first name, it’s hard to believe that, as a child, this now accomplished professional was painfully shy. Always eager to help others, Star naturally became the ‘Dear Abby’, in grade school.
Determined to overcome her shyness, Star snuck out from home and, at age 16, took an assertiveness class for nurses.
Raised a few miles from the headquarters of a billion-dollar computer company, the inspired Star taught herself programming.
Her compulsion to help others is lifelong. Star volunteered at a drug and suicide hotline in high school.
Software Engineer
Star’s dream of becoming a teacher was quickly quelled when she realized teaching didn’t pay enough to support herself. Instead, she became a software engineer, getting a BS in CS. Through trial and error, plus sheer determination, Star learned that anything is possible.
She started out working in an R&D group. She worked on a project that delivered a talking Kurtzweil synthesizer to music pioneer Stevie Wonder.
Star has worked with some of the top engineers in the world and witnessed up close amazing technological advancements.
Star discovered her natural skill of bridging people and tech to practical and successful uses and was promoted to manager.
Promotion to Manager
When Star began her employment journey, there were few female engineering managers. ‘Women are too emotional to be good managers,’ and ‘Check with your husband first [before taking a business trip]’ are just a few of the comments Star heard during her career.
Once, when she suggested a technical alternative, a Senior VP threw a coke can aimed directly at Star. “I froze, and then I learned how to speak up and get stuff done!”
Star participated in a year-long leadership program for top performing managers. It helped her overcome many implied and actual biases.
She also learned and embraced on-the-job management and leadership strategies, which she now brings to her clients.
Lots of Promotions
Over the years, Star has delivered products that brought in over $500 M/year in revenue.
She managed a staff of more than 100 people, as well as several large programs, and ran a project office of over 1,000 websites.
Star has a love of learning and self-improvement. That’s why, when Star experienced a 360-feedback session, she embraced it all – the good, the challenges, and areas for improvement.
Star takes every advantage presented to learn and teach and encourages her clients to do the same.
Burnout, Life Changes
Star is a hard worker and dedicated to the people and projects. When Star became a mother, she didn’t see her young sons enough, so she left the corporate world and opened her own business, Star Leadership LLC.
When her former husband died unexpectedly less than a year after the divorce, she turned to gratitude for healing and discovered it’s transformational. During this period, she earned coaching certifications through the International Coaches Federation and the Coaches Training Institute, PCC, and CPCC.
Star has been twice nominated for Business Coach of the Year.
She taught project management at a master’s level at Boston University for 20 years.
Loving Life
It’s true, claims Star! If you find a job you love, you’ll never work another day.
Star’s passion is to coach leaders and companies who are ready to move to the next level of success. And she’s done just that! For more than 20 years, Star taught project management; she has delivered hundreds of workshops on leadership, teams, communication, and more to top organizations, including NASA.
She has coached more than 10,000 hours, which only an engineer would track.
She’s the author of several articles in Forbes, Star released her first book, Leading with Gratitude.
Star’s Coaching Journey
Born Coaching
With Star as her first name, it’s hard to believe that, as a child, this now accomplished professional was painfully shy. Always eager to help others, Star naturally became the ‘Dear Abby’, in grade school.
Determined to overcome her shyness, Star snuck out from home and, at age 16, took an assertiveness class for nurses.
Raised a few miles from the headquarters of a billion-dollar computer company, the inspired Star taught herself programming.
Her compulsion to help others is lifelong. Star volunteered at a drug and suicide hotline in high school.
Software Engineer
Star’s dream of becoming a teacher was quickly quelled when she realized teaching didn’t pay enough to support herself. Instead, she became a software engineer, getting a BS in CS. Through trial and error, plus sheer determination, Star learned that anything is possible.
She started out working in an R&D group. She worked on a project that delivered a talking Kurtzweil synthesizer to music pioneer Stevie Wonder.
Star has worked with some of the top engineers in the world and witnessed up close amazing technological advancements.
Star discovered her natural skill of bridging people and tech to practical and successful uses and was promoted to manager.
Promotion to Manager
When Star began her employment journey, there were few female engineering managers. ‘Women are too emotional to be good managers,’ and ‘Check with your husband first [before taking a business trip]’ are just a few of the comments Star heard during her career.
Once, when she suggested a technical alternative, a Senior VP threw a coke can aimed directly at Star. “I froze, and then I learned how to speak up and get stuff done!”
Star participated in a year-long leadership program for top performing managers. It helped her overcome many implied and actual biases.
She also learned and embraced on-the-job management and leadership strategies, which she now brings to her clients.
Lots of Promotions
Over the years, Star has delivered products that brought in over $500 M/year in revenue.
She managed a staff of more than 100 people, as well as several large programs, and ran a project office of over 1,000 websites.
Star has a love of learning and self-improvement. That’s why, when Star experienced a 360-feedback session, she embraced it all – the good, the challenges, and areas for improvement.
Star takes every advantage presented to learn and teach and encourages her clients to do the same.
Burnout, Life Changes
Star is a hard worker and dedicated to the people and projects. When Star became a mother, she didn’t see her young sons enough, so she left the corporate world and opened her own business, Star Leadership LLC.
When her former husband died unexpectedly less than a year after the divorce, she turned to gratitude for healing and discovered it’s transformational. During this period, she earned coaching certifications through the International Coaches Federation and the Coaches Training Institute, PCC and CPCC.
Star has been twice nominated for Business Coach of the Year.
She taught project management at a master’s level at Boston University for 20 years.
Loving Life
It’s true, claims Star! If you find a job you love, you’ll never work another day.
Star’s passion is to coach leaders and companies who are ready to move to the next level of success. And she’s done just that! For more than 20 years, Star taught project management; she has delivered hundreds of workshops on leadership, teams, communication, and more to top organizations, including NASA.
She has coached more than 10,000 hours, which only an engineer would track.
She’s the author of several articles in Forbes, Star released her first book, Leading with Gratitude.
