Success often looks different from the inside than it does from the outside. Many professionals appear accomplished but feel disconnected, restless, or unfulfilled.
There can be a gigantic gap between what you do and who you are. That gap is filled by guidance from Kristin Kaufman.
Kaufman has over 25 years of experience in leadership roles across Fortune 50 companies and nonprofit organizations. She knows the highs and lows of corporate life. She’s been a sales executive at Hewlett-Packard, a vice president at United Health Group, and part of New York City’s landmark Leadership Academy reform. Along the way, she learned one lesson that now drives her work: alignment matters as much as ambition.
In 2007, she founded Alignment, Inc.®, a coaching and consulting firm built on this principle. Kaufman has made alignment a practical framework for leaders searching for clarity in both work and life through leadership coaching, speaking engagements, workshops, and her bestselling Is This Seat Taken?® book series.
What Alignment Really Means
For Kaufman, alignment is a practice that connects passion, skill, and purpose. As she puts it: “My definition of alignment within an individual is when a person loves what they do, they are good at it, and most importantly, it is tied to something greater than yourself.”
That framework is the base of her Alignment at Work™ methodology. She works with executives, teams, boards, and organizations to identify gaps between intention and action, then builds custom strategies to close them. No two clients get the same plan because, as she emphasizes, no two leaders face the same struggles.
Instead of generic solutions, Kaufman drills down into the specific needs of the individual or group. Every solution that she provides is customized for meaningful progress through leadership assessments, strategy workshops, and more.
Services That Shape Leaders
Kaufman’s company is for leaders who want more than surface-level change. Her services fall into three main areas:
Leadership Coaching and Consulting
- One-on-one executive coaching focused on strengths, challenges, and growth.
- Group and team coaching to help organizations move forward together.
- Workshops designed to address alignment across leadership levels.
Speaking and Writing
- Keynote speeches on alignment, leadership, and reinvention.
- Emcee and panel moderation for corporate and nonprofit events.
- The Is This Seat Taken?® trilogy, which encourages readers to embrace reinvention at any stage of life.
Alignment at Work™ Courses
- Self-directed programs such as Fast Track to Alignment and Brand Alignment.
- Hybrid formats that mix eLearning with direct coaching.
- Practical tools to align personal values with professional branding.
Each path is designed to move leaders from frustration to fulfillment. It gives them tools they can use immediately in their work and long after.
Why Her Approach Is Effective
Kaufman combines hard-earned business experience with personal insight. She has built billion-dollar strategies, trained and coached school principals in one of the largest public systems in America, and guided executives through tough transitions. This makes her coaching more practical than just theoretical.
Her approach is effective because it addresses the very questions leaders avoid:
- Are you using your strengths every day, or are they being sidelined?
- Is your team working in sync, or are silos slowing you down?
- Does your career reflect your values, or have you drifted from what matters most?
- Are you living your brand with intention, or leaving it to chance?
By pushing leaders to face these questions, Kaufman helps them see where passion, purpose, and performance intersect. She insists that alignment is a requirement for lasting fulfillment.
Giving Back Through Alignment
Through Alignment, Inc., Kaufman also donates a portion of revenues to philanthropic causes such as Rotary International and community initiatives in Dallas, Texas. She believes giving is not something to postpone until retirement. It should be done along with everyday life and business.
This is another way of modeling alignment… by living in a way that connects talent and purpose to something greater than oneself.
Conclusion
These days, professional burnout is common, and personal fulfillment feels rare. Kristin Kaufman provides the solution. Through Alignment at Work™, her books, and her speaking, she shows leaders how to align what they do with who they are.
Her message is that success is not measured by titles or paychecks but by how well your work reflects your values, talents, and goals. When passion, purpose, and performance align, fulfillment becomes inevitable.
