Erica Peng
Executive Coach, Senior Consultant, Facilitator
Erica Peng is Faculty at University California at Berkeley Haas School of Business, and founder of Deep Stream Leadership, a coaching and consulting firm focused on leadership, organizational culture, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Erica has over ten years of experience designing and delivering interpersonal development and leadership courses at Haas School of Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), and University of San Francisco Law School. Her course, “Interpersonal Skills and Embodied Leadership,” has been profiled in Poets and Quants as one of the favorite MBA classes among top business schools.
Erica equips individuals with both internal resilience and emotional literacy, and external interpersonal skills and competencies, foundational to being an effective and influential leader amidst the complexities and stress of our dynamic and uncertain global context. Erica draws on extensive work through Strozzi Institute, generative somatics, and author and deep ecologist, Joanna Macy, as a member of Joanna’s leadership and design team. Her expertise includes: innovative somatic* and experiential approaches; a systems and neuroscience perspective grounded in awareness of the greater ecological system; and addressing trauma within organizational systems.
Having lived, worked, and traveled extensively in Asia, Latin America, and Europe, Erica speaks Mandarin and Spanish, and brings nuanced awareness and skill in navigating leadership and organizational challenges involving social identity, power, status, and other dimensions of difference.
*Somatic means “of the body” and comes from the Greek root, soma.
The Science Behind Our Practice
Our work is grounded in established methodologies and models of human and organizational behavior, including, but not limited to the following:
Emotional Intelligence
The competencies of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management) account for an individual’s ability to understand their own and others’ emotions and use that information to guide decision-making and action. Research has shown that leaders who master the competencies of emotional intelligence have a distinct advantage.
Positivity & Resilience
The incredible developments in neuroscience research over the last several decades have enabled a greater understanding of how practices that promote positivity and resilience—both individually and organizationally—have a significant and lasting impact on our capacity for creative thinking, productivity, efficiency, empathy, focus and more.
Intentional Change
Developed by Richard Boyatzis, the Intentional Change Model underpins successful leadership development programs by supporting an individual or group in intentionally moving through five stages of change that close the gap between a current “real” self and a clearly articulated “ideal” self.
Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry, developed by David Cooper Rider, is a strengths-based model of analysis, decision-making and strategic change that clarifies the assets and motivations that are an organization’s strengths in order to build or rebuild an organization based on what is working rather than trying to fix what doesn’t.
Resistance and Cycle of Change
People are at their most creative in their resistance. The Gestalt cycle of change maps the critical stages of change that all members of a group must experience in order to optimize success and minimize resistance. Disruption of the cycle manifests in very specific levels of resistance that can be effectively mitigated through intentional responses.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the awareness that one develops through paying attention to the present moment through your five senses without judgment. In addition to relieving stress and building resilience, even a simple mindfulness practice can significantly expand your range of options in any given moment. Incorporating mindfulness into any process of change or development supports an individual or group by rewiring the brain for more intentional responses and behaviors.
Dynamic Inquiry
Dynamic Inquiry, developed by Annie McKee and the Teleos Leadership Institute, is a method of discovery that uncovers an organization’s emotional reality–what people care about, what is working well, and what’s getting in the way. The purpose of the inquiry is twofold: 1) to identify underlying issues related to culture and leadership that are helping or hindering implementation of a strategy; and 2) to build ownership and commitment to the mission, vision, strategy, ideal culture and leadership framework among key stakeholders.