Stephanie Chen Banjo, PCC
Consultant
Doing excellent work is only part of what makes someone successful. How you build trust, navigate relationships, understand organizational dynamics, and influence others matters just as much. I help leaders decode this “hidden curriculum” side of work and navigate it more intentionally.
Meet Stephanie Chen Banjo
Stephanie Chen Banjo, PCC, is an executive coach and leadership advisor who helps high-performing professionals become more effective leaders while building careers and ways of working they can sustain. As Founder and Principal of Have Your All Career, she designs and leads executive coaching engagements, leadership development programs, and team interventions across law, accounting and advisory, consulting, technology, financial services, and international development. Her work spans executive presence, communication and influence, team effectiveness, business development, career strategy, and sustainable performance.
Stephanie brings a practical, highly personalized approach to leadership development, grounded in deep self-awareness and a bias for action. She is known for building trust and rapport quickly, getting to the heart of what matters, and translating insight into changes leaders can put into practice immediately. Her style is warm, candid, curious, and energetic, whether working one-on-one with a senior leader or facilitating a room. She moves easily between the big picture — helping clients examine their leadership, career, or definition of success — and the practical realities of how they communicate, build relationships, lead others, and get work done.
Having lived, worked, and studied across six countries, Stephanie brings a globally informed perspective and an appreciation for how cultural, generational, and individual differences shape communication, trust, and relationships. Before founding Have Your All Career in 2018, she worked across technology, government, international education, strategy, and organizational change, including roles with Teach First in London, supporting the U.S. Department of Justice as a government contractor, and at a high-growth technology company. She now lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband and three children.
MEMBERSHIPS, ASSOCIATIONS,
+ CERTIFICATIONS
IProfessional Certified Coach (PCC), International Coaching Federation
Everything DiSC® Certified Practitioner, Wiley
The Five Behaviors® Certified Practitioner, Wiley
Team Coaching Certification, Kick Start Your Edge
EQ-i 2.0® / EQ 360® Certified
Energy Leadership Index™
i4 Neuroleader™ / Neuroleadership Development
EducatioN
Virginia Tech – B.A., English Literature, Language and Culture
University of Cambridge – Executive CoachingInstitute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) – Professional Coach Training
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Leadership Development
Emotional Intelligence & Self-Awareness
Executive Presence & Communication
Team Effectiveness & Trust
Career Strategy & Advancement
Relationship Building, Influence & Sponsorship
Organizational Culture & Engagement
Sustainable Performance & Stress Management
Business Development
PRESENTATIONS + PUBLICATIONS
Culture Con: How Professional Development Leaders Cultivate Firm Culture One Conversation at a Time — Professional Development Consortium (PDC), 2026
Beyond Excellent Work: Building Visibility, Trust, and Sponsorship — Affinity Group Gathering, Am Law 100 Global Law Firm, 2026
Navigating Candidate Roadblocks — National Association of Legal Search Consultants (NALSC), 2026
The Power of Your Workstyle: Why How You Work Matters—and How to Make It Work for You — Am Law 100 Global Law Firm, 2025
Leveraging Your Networks: Take Charge of Your Career by Leveraging Your Networks More Intentionally — Am Law 100 Global Law Firm, 2025
Be Your Own Consultant: Turning Existing Inclusion Initiatives into Strategic Talent Solutions — Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals (ALFDP), 2026 (Upcoming)
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Industry: Legal / Professional Services
Issue: An Am Law 100 firm was focused on associate retention and wanted to strengthen career clarity, confidence, and connection among high-performing attorneys.
Approach: Designed and led a seven-month leadership and career development program, now delivered for six consecutive years, combining workshops, individual coaching, assessments, peer learning, and partner involvement.
Outcome: Participants improved across every measure surveyed, with particularly strong gains in stress management, peer connection, and confidence—each increasing by more than a full point on a five-point scale.
Industry: Consulting
Issue: A consulting team wanted to strengthen how they worked together before entering their annual strategic planning process.
Approach: Designed and facilitated a team retreat to surface how each sub-team contributed, break down silos, identify opportunities for collaboration, and establish shared operating norms.
Outcome: The team entered strategic planning with a shared team charter, clearer ways of working, and specific commitments for greater collaboration across sub-teams.
Industry: Accounting & Advisory
Issue: A Managing Director’s path to Partner had stalled because of concerns about collaboration and interpersonal effectiveness.
Approach: Used executive coaching and 360-degree feedback to identify specific behavior changes and strengthen communication, relationships, and leadership effectiveness.
Outcome: Within six months, he was promoted to Partner and his overall 360-degree rating increased nearly 20%, with improvement across every measured competency.
Industry: Legal / Professional Services
Issue: A global law firm wanted to better understand the experience and needs of its business professionals before determining how to strengthen community and affinity-based programming.
Approach: Conducted a series of listening sessions across the organization, synthesized themes and differences across groups, and translated the findings into actionable recommendations for leadership.
Outcome: Equipped firm leaders with the data and insights to confidently design and launch business-professional affinity programs that remain active today.
Industry: Technology
Issue: A senior strategic partnerships leader wanted to strengthen her executive influence, navigate complex stakeholder dynamics, and gain clarity about her next career move.
Approach: Used individual coaching to strengthen stakeholder strategy, executive communication, visibility, and confidence in navigating high-stakes decisions.
Outcome: Built greater senior-level sponsorship and confidence, and reinitiated a high-stakes contract negotiation she said she would not have pursued without coaching.
Industry: Accounting & Advisory
Issue: A global accounting and advisory firm sought to strengthen communication, leadership effectiveness, and engagement among its Managing Directors and Partners.
Approach: Led a year-long cohort of 35 senior leaders as part of the firm’s broader Leader of Leaders program, combining two 2.5-day in-person offsites, virtual sessions, and 12 individual coaching sessions per leader.
Outcome: Received a 5-star evaluation, with feedback highlighting strong coaching presence, thought-provoking facilitation, and the ability to add value beyond the standard curriculum.
Q&A WITH SHANEIREE DAMES
What unique perspective do you bring to your practice?
Having lived, worked, and studied across six countries, adaptation has been a recurring theme in my life. I’ve learned that succeeding in organizations requires understanding both yourself and the environment around you: how people communicate, what they value, where influence sits, and how things get done. I bring that same lens to my work, helping clients better read the people and dynamics around them and adapt intentionally.
Describe major career/life decisions that led you to your current role. How have these experiences shaped the way you engage with clients?
I’d always been curious about the parts of work no one really teaches you: how to navigate relationships, build influence, understand organizational dynamics, and make career decisions when the path isn’t obvious. When my family moved from England to Jamaica and later back to the U.S., I used the transition as an opportunity to change careers and build a company around helping people figure out those very things. That’s still the work I love most: helping people navigate the dynamics and relationships that shape their work, while being intentional about the career they’re building.
What are a couple of your biggest successes?
One of my proudest professional successes was coaching a senior leader whose advancement had stalled because of concerns about his interpersonal effectiveness. Within six months, he was promoted to Partner, with gains across every competency measured in his follow-up 360. What meant the most was seeing that the people around him could genuinely experience the change.
Personally, I’m proud of building a business and a family at the same time. We’ve found a formula that works for this season, knowing that it will need to evolve as life does. It’s taught me that success isn’t about finding the perfect balance; it’s about being intentional about what works for you now and being willing to redefine it along the way.
