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Schedule a free 45-minute connection session today!
A cohort-based leadership lab for engineering and R&D leaders who want to lead with clarity, integrity, and sustainable influence—in community
Technical leadership asks so much: strategic decision-making, clear and motivating communication to keep the team aligned, emotional resilience, constant adaptation, and more, often without protected space to reflect or a community of peers to talk honestly with.
Without structure and a support system, R&D leadership can feel like wrestling an octopus.
The Center Shift Leadership Lab is designed to change that.
This 12-week, small-group coaching experience is designed for mid-career R&D leaders who want to:
move their careers forward, true to their values
create and maintain space for strategic thinking, reflection, and growth
gain accountability and structure in community with others
This isn’t a course, though each session introduces practical frameworks grounded in cognitive science and leadership research.
It’s a community of practice: leaders learning, reflecting, and making progress together in a structured, supportive environment.
Why Center Shift?
Why Center Shift?
R&D leaders spend much of their time operating in a reactive mode, optimizing for urgency instead of importance, absorbing pressure from above and below. Complex systems, constant change, and high expectations lead to these patterns naturally if guardrails aren't in place.
Center Shift refers to a deliberate recentering around your personal and professional vision and strategy, before you act, making you an more effective leader under pressure.
Center Shift Leadership Lab offers protected time, skilled facilitation, and peer community to help you make that shift sustainably.
What We’ll Work On Together
What We’ll Work On Together
Over 12 weeks, we’ll focus on six core areas of sustainable leadership:
Leading from your center: Reconnect with what motivates you, clarifies your judgment, and grounds your leadership presence.
Strategic thinking and decision-making: Learn to ask sharper questions—why, who, where, and what matters most—so your effort is focused for higher impact.
Communication that creates shared understanding and moves teams forward: Practice expressing ideas in ways people can receive, align around, and act on.
Feedback that builds trust and grows others: Develop feedback practices that reduce anxiety, strengthen relationships, and support long-term growth.
Preventing burnout through sustainable leadership: Identify patterns that drain you and build leadership practices that preserve energy and meaning.
Planning a next chapter you can stand behind: Clarify where you’re heading and what support you need to get there with integrity.
Each session is based around one of these areas, and includes:
research-informed frameworks grounded in the cognitive science of leadership
guided personal reflection
facilitated group conversation focused on real-world challenges
an accountability touchpoint to sustain growth from session to session
This is designed to give you new frameworks to address problems relevant to your current situation, and make real sustainable forward movement toward leading from your center.
What Makes This Different
What Makes This Different
This is not a content-heavy program. It’s a space to think, speak honestly, and learn alongside peers facing similar challenges.
You’ll get:
A consistent, trusted peer community outside your workplace
Facilitated conversations that go beneath surface-level leadership talk
Time and accountability to reflect, integrate, and act
Language and insight you can use immediately in your work
The Lab is rooted in the Engineering Is Human philosophy:
Human connection is the center of great R&D leadership
Who This Is For
Who This Is For
This Lab is for you if you’re a leader who:
Leads an engineering, product, design, or data science team
Wants more clarity, community, and forward movement
Feels ready to reflect more deeply on how you lead
Wants to grow influence while maintaining a connection to your core values
Is planning a next chapter, near or far, and wants to do it intentionally
What You’ll Leave With
What You’ll Leave With
By the end of the Lab, you'll have:
Greater clarity about your leadership patterns and priorities
Increased confidence rooted in alignment with your principles and strategic goals
Stronger communication and decision-making instincts
A sense of growth that feels sustainable
A peer community you want to stay connected to
Format
Format
Over 12 weeks, this small cohort (capped at 8 leaders) includes:
6x 90-minute live, virtual facilitated group sessions with an emphasis on reflection, dialogue, application, and accountability
Guided reflection-to-action activities on weeks with no group meeting
2x 60-minute 1:1 coaching conversations, for deeper dives into where you're getting stuck
A private Slack group to connect with each other during and after the cohort
The investment for this program is $1440, or 3 monthly payments of $480. Scholarships are available; please reach out.
Your Guide
Your Guide
I'm Jordana Heller, PhD, founder of Engineering Is Human.
I'm an engineering leader, linguist, cognitive scientist, and leadership coach who brings a deep understanding of human behavior to help R&D leaders overcome real-world challenges and build more connected careers.
I have 20 years of experience in R&D, first in research, then in leading teams to develop human-centered, data-powered products. Prior to focusing on Engineering Is Human, I spent nearly 7 years at Textio, where I led full-stack R&D teams using data and ML/AI to interrupt bias performance feedback and recruiting, in real time.
Now, blending my background in engineering leadership and communication science, I coach tech leaders to reduce friction, align teams through context-aware communication, and lead teams that thrive.
I started the Center Shift Leadership Lab because it's what I wanted as a leader, and what I hear my clients wishing for: A dedicated space for strategizing in a supportive team environment, separate from the politics of work, however subtle they may be.
Interested?
Interested?
There’s a more grounded, connected, forward way to lead.
There’s a more grounded, connected, forward way to lead.
If you want space and community to practice it,
If you want space and community to practice it,
Center Shift Leadership Lab is for you.
Center Shift Leadership Lab is for you.
The next cohort begins Wednesday, February 4, 2026.
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