Executive Coach · Utah

No company grows faster than the leader running it.

I spent 30 years inside a Fortune 100 company learning what great leadership actually looks like — and what it costs when it's missing. Now I work with the leaders who are ready to close that gap.

The CEOs who find me have tried the obvious answers but didn't get the obvious results. They were right about the symptoms. They were wrong about the cause.

Jon Spiesman, executive coach and leadership coach based in Utah, working with CEOs and senior leaders

My Story

“30 years figuring out what that actually meant.”

“I didn’t feel on the inside the way things looked on the outside.”

“I’d been climbing the wrong ladder.”

“Finding a new path of growth changed everything.”

I didn't set out to become an executive coach. I set out to do work that meant something — and to be the kind of leader I could be proud of. I spent the next 30 years figuring out what that actually meant.

My career took me through a Fortune 100 company that moved me constantly across teams where I was never the technical expert. That turned out to be the best training I never knew I was getting. When you can't lead through answers, you learn to lead through questions. When your team knows the work better than you do, you learn that your job isn't to be the smartest person in the room — it's to make the room smarter.

I carried that for 30 years. And then I ran into the same wall I now see my clients hit.

I had done everything right. But I kept asking myself — is this all there is? Something felt incomplete. I didn't feel on the inside the way things looked on the outside. That's when I realized I'd been climbing the wrong ladder. Finding a new path of growth changed everything. And it became the lens I can't unsee in the leaders I work with now.


Why This Work Matters

Leadership Isn't Just a Business Lever.
It's a Community One.

My convictions about leadership didn't start in a boardroom. They started at home, watching my father.

He worked for a company that didn't value people — and I saw what that did to him. When people aren't treated with dignity at work, that leaves a mark. I saw the powerlessness, the anger, and the fear when they treated people as objects. I saw that close up as a kid and I decided I would never work for a company like that. I would never be that kind of leader and I wouldn't let this be someone else's story if I could help it.

Great leaders build great workplaces. Great workplaces create employees who feel valued. Employees who feel valued go home better — as parents, partners, neighbors.

That's why I do this.

The Pattern I've Seen

You'll linger on one of these. Probably more.

These are the thoughts leaders have with themselves — sometimes at midnight, or when they should be watching their kid's dance recital.

"My team doesn't take initiative. If I'm not watching, things fall through the cracks."
"It's like Groundhog Day. We talk about it, we agree on it — and next week we're having the same conversation."
"We keep pushing harder but nothing moves. It feels like we're beating our heads against a wall we can't see."
"Every time I step back, it ends up back on my desk anyway."
"I'm still proud of what we built. But something has moved. I don't know if it was me or if we just lost our way."
"No matter how many times I hand things off, I'm still the one who has to make the call."
"On the outside, everything looks great. So why am I starting to dread Monday mornings?"

Left alone, these thoughts don't stay quiet. They start making decisions for you — impulsive ones, expensive ones. Or you slowly stop making decisions entirely.... and you find yourself one day going through the motions of running a company you used to love.

The leaders who find me have been carrying one of these for a while. They're not stuck because they're not smart enough or good enough. They're stuck because from where they're standing, they can't see the issue clearly yet.

No company grows faster than the leader running it.

The first step is just a conversation.

The Podcast

Untold — The Best Kept Secrets of Utah

The same reason I coach leaders is the reason I started a podcast on leadership.

Most leadership content tells the same stories. The unicorns. The household names. Companies and journeys most people can't relate to and can't learn from.

I started Untold because the most valuable lessons I know came from real people — Utah CEOs and entrepreneurs who built something meaningful without making the press releases. Real stories, honestly told, for the next generation of Utah leaders. Season 2 is live.