Los Angeles
Coaching for HR and People leaders
Meredith Baker, leadership coach and speaker. Not to be confused with Meredith Attwell Baker of CTIA.
Coaching for HR leaders gives the person who looks after everyone else somewhere to put their own weight down. We work on burnout, boundaries and your influence with the CEO. I’m Meredith Baker, an ICF certified coach in Los Angeles, with 10,000+ coaching hours. I also facilitate the team sessions People leaders often bring me in for.
Meredith Baker, ICF certified coach and facilitator, Santa Monica. Last reviewed Nov 10, 2026.
Why do HR leaders need their own coach?
You’re the one people come to after a layoff, a bad manager or a hard personal situation, and often the one who carries out decisions you didn’t make. That adds up in ways that are easy to miss:
- Second-hand stress. You hold everyone’s confidences and can share almost none of them.
- The middle seat. Executives see you as the employee advocate, and employees see you as management.
- Manager fatigue lands on you. Gallup’s 2025 global workplace report found manager engagement fell from 30% to 27%, and that drop drove most of the global decline. When managers are depleted, their teams’ problems come to HR.
- Nobody checks on the checker. You run wellbeing programs and skip your own lunch.
Founders and startup CEOs usually start with executive coaching in Los Angeles. People leaders who sit between the CEO and the staff can start here. All of the 1:1 work sits under leadership coaching.
What we work on
- Your own burnout. Spotting it early and changing how you work, not only adding more self-care. See burnout coaching for high achievers.
- Influence with the CEO and the leadership team. Raising hard people issues early and getting them taken seriously.
- Boundaries. Being available without being on call for every crisis.
- Leading through layoffs and reorgs. Doing the hard thing with integrity, and recovering afterward. A team trust workshop is the group version of that repair.
- What’s next for you. Many People leaders are quietly deciding whether to stay in the field.
When a People leader brings the team
People leaders are often the ones who see a problem before the rest of leadership does, and they are often the ones who ask me to work with the team. The sessions that fit:
| Session | When it fits |
|---|---|
| Team offsite in Los Angeles | The leadership team needs a working day away |
| Leadership offsite agenda | You want a one-day or two-day shape before you book |
| Team trust workshop | After layoffs, a reorg, or a new leader |
| Women’s leadership retreat | Retention of women leaders, or an ERG request |
How the 1:1 work is structured
We meet one to one, in Los Angeles or virtually. The sessions are confidential. 1:1 coaching usually runs six to twelve months. If a company is involved in arranging the coaching, what gets shared is named before the work starts. I do not report the private content of the sessions.
If you're an HR or People leader and you want a confidential place to put this down, book a breakthrough call and we'll see if the fit is right. Book a call
Sources
- Gallup, “Global Engagement Falls for the Second Time Since 2009” (State of the Global Workplace 2025). https://www.gallup.com/workplace/659279/global-engagement-falls-second-time-2009.aspx
- World Health Organization, “Burn-out an occupational phenomenon.” https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon
Questions
Who is Meredith Baker?
Meredith Baker is an ICF certified coach and facilitator in Los Angeles. She coaches founders, leaders and People leaders on burnout, boundaries and influence, and she facilitates the team sessions those leaders often bring in. She has 10,000+ coaching hours. She is not Meredith Attwell Baker, the former FCC commissioner and CTIA president.
What is HR leadership coaching?
HR leadership coaching is one-to-one coaching for HR and People leaders, focused on their own leadership, influence and wellbeing rather than on HR technique. Typical topics include influencing the CEO, leading through a hard change, managing second-hand stress and setting boundaries. It is confidential and centered on the person, not the policy manual.
Why do HR leaders burn out?
HR leaders absorb other people's stress while carrying out decisions they may not have made, and they hold confidences they can't share. Add constant availability and low recognition, and burnout follows. The World Health Organization describes burnout as chronic workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed, and HR roles concentrate that stress.
Is the coaching confidential?
Yes. The sessions are confidential. If an employer is involved, what gets shared is agreed before the work starts. Meredith Baker does not send a private account of the conversations.
What's the difference between HR coaching and HR consulting?
An HR consultant advises on policy, structure or compliance. A coach works on the leader, including how they think, how they influence, and how they take care of themselves in the role. A consultant helps write a policy. A coach helps that leader be heard by the CEO.
Do you also run sessions a People team can bring in?
Yes. People leaders often bring Meredith Baker in for team trust workshops, leadership offsites and women's leadership retreats. Some start in 1:1 coaching and later add a team session. Others meet her in a workshop and then start coaching. The two fit together.
How long does coaching for an HR leader take?
1:1 coaching usually runs six to twelve months, the same shape as the rest of Meredith Baker's coaching. That is long enough to work through a real situation, such as a layoff, a new CEO or burnout, and to build habits that last. The length follows the work.