Leadership that stays human in complicated times.
Reflections, coaching, and inquiry for leaders who want to lead with clarity, courage, and moral presence in a fractured world.
We are living in a moment when leadership is being tested not just by complexity, but by conscience.
Fear, polarization, and certainty are pulling at us from every direction. It is easier than ever to become reactive, hardened, or performative. It is harder — and more necessary — to remain grounded, curious, and humane.
One Intention Coaching exists for leaders who refuse to give up that deeper work.
Whether you lead an organization, a community, a family, or simply yourself, this is a place to slow down, think carefully, and reconnect with what really matters.
Imagine and Plan Your Future
Imagine and Plan Your Future
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Reflections and practices for leading with clarity, courage, and humanity in complicated times.
What I Offer
I work with leaders, change makers, and coaches who find themselves in the in-between — between certainty and doubt, belonging and difference, power and vulnerability.
Our work isn’t about quick fixes or polished performance.
We learn to hold complexity without collapsing into fear, and to act from values that don’t shift with the news cycle.
Together we explore:
How your identity, history, and responsibilities intersect in your leadership
How to stay grounded and discerning when the world feels unstable
How to speak and act with dignity in moments that tempt us toward reactivity
How to lead without losing yourself
This is leadership as a moral and human practice — not just a technical one.
About Michael
Michael Painter (JD, MD, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma) brings a lifetime of layered identities into his leadership coaching — not to impress, but to model what it means to lead with full humanity in times of tension, change, and complexity.
I bring many lives into this work: coach, physician, lawyer, husband, father, son, and citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. I am also a gay man who has lived inside both profound belonging and painful difference.
Those intersections shape how I understand leadership.
They have taught me that who we are — our identities, loyalties, and histories — is always present in how we lead, whether we acknowledge it or not.
My work is grounded in that truth: that the deepest leadership happens not when we flatten ourselves, but when we learn to hold the full complexity of being human with courage and care.
Reflections
I write regularly about leadership, love, dignity, and what it means to stay awake in difficult times.
These are stories, questions, and practices drawn from real life — from families, organizations, and the places where people are trying to remain connected across deep difference.
Together we explore what leadership means in your unique life and context — not just what goals you want to achieve, but how you want to show up in complexity, challenge and change.
Our work is grounded in presence, reflection, real experience — weaving your identities, values, and responsibilities into a humane practice of leadership.
I am trained broadly and have worked in a variety of fields, including law, medicine and philanthropy.
I coach using the renowned Hudson Institute of Coaching methodology following the ethics of the International Coaching Federation.
I bring my experiences as a leader, physician, lawyer, community member, senior philanthropy officer, father, son, Indigenous citizen, gay man, husband, and friend.
My Coaching Vision
Working Together
If you’re navigating a moment of change, conflict, or moral tension — in your leadership or your life — we can explore it together.
Coaching with me is a space for:
honest conversation
careful listening
reflection that leads to wiser action