our story

You possess the qualities of a brave, resilient leader, even when facing challenges to your effectiveness.

Together we'll develop adaptable leadership practices tailored to your needs, guiding you toward your goals.

Collaborative Coaching

Coaching is a shared journey. As you share your story, current challenges, and where you’d like to be, Chris is here to listen, ask questions, and share his observations. Together we’ll explore options and design action plans to move you forward. Chris’ coaching approach will draw out your inherent leadership skills and capacities as you break reactive patterns and lead with confidence others want to follow. This partnership is our story of working together as you reach your personal and professional goals.

Chris believes in coaching the whole person—mind, heart, body, and soul— as he pulls from a wide range of tools. He’s here to help you evoke the excellence you desire as you set goals and get results on your terms. Clients describe their work with Chris as supportive and challenging, empowering and results-driven. As you work with Chris, you’ll discover that these are key ways you too can show up in service to your teams.

Leadership and Coaching Experience

For more than 30 years, Chris worked as an in-house strategist with C-suite executives. He understands firsthand the immense pressure on today’s leaders. Chris’s expertise leading and coaching at a growth edge offers a co-creative process that taps your leadership core to achieve your desired outcomes.

His coaching experience over the past twelve years includes work as a:

Team development facilitator
Executive coach for experienced leaders in both nonprofits and for-profit enterprises
Coach for emerging leaders and leaders in transition
Pro bono coach for community leaders

Senior Director serving top leadership (30+ years)
Intrapreneur, program developer, and instructional designer
Team lead at major universities and global nonprofits
Instructor at Carnegie Mellon University and Penn State

Education, Training, and Certifications

Chris’s approach is purposeful, thought-provoking, and co-creative. He’s developed his coaching techniques through extensive continued education and certification. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Wheaton College and pursued philosophy graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

He holds certifications from:

Georgetown University Institute of Transformational Leadership, Executive Certificate in Leadership Coaching
International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach
ICF continuing education in adult development, embodied presence, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, Certificates in the Foundations and Practices of Servant Leadership
EQi.20/EQ360

Perspectives+ 360 from Pixel Leadership
M•CODE (formerly SIMA’s Motivated Abilities Pattern)
Leadership Circle Profile 360
Gallup StrengthsFinder
Three Vital Questions / TED (The Empowerment Dynamic)
Key Polarities Indicator
DiSC: Five Functions of Cohesive Teams

Representative Clients

Throughout his career, Chris has coached leaders in nearly every industry. His former and current clients work in:

Wealth management
Hospital systems, medical and legal practices
Leadership development services
Education from early childhood to university
Tech, energy, transportation
Corporate insurance

International development
Government agencies, including USAID and the US Army
Family businesses from chocolate making to heavy equipment
Nonprofits and foundations, including faith-based and arts organizations
Mentor and coach for other coaches

Chris Thyberg's Story. It’s All About Trusted Relationships.

“Your enterprise will thrive when you combine passion for the results that matter most with commitment to the well-being of those doing the work.”

CHRIS THYBERG

Founder and Principal Coach, The Serving Way

The Serving Way, Inc., is a registered Sect. 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

Tax EIN: 92-2284245

Address: 6425 Living Place, Suite 200, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Phone: +1 917-535-6832
Email: Chris.Thyberg@TheServingWay.com

Chris has a driving commitment to serve leaders who serve purposes greater than themselves and seek to offer real value to all their stakeholders. If this is you, Chris is your coach.

Chris and his wife have been married for over four decades. Together, they raise chickens, tend the garden, and renew with slow meals, eclectic reading, and outdoor adventures. They delight in spending time with their adult kids, their partners, and are enjoying their first grandchild!

Chris enjoys an occasional whiskey and cigar night with his two grown sons, cheering for Liverpool FC, having fancy coffee with his daughter, and listening to music from ambient to zydeco.

Chris loves to travel extensively for professional and personal growth, having visited and worked in Africa, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

For more than 35 years, Chris and his family have lived in a socially and economically diverse Pittsburgh neighborhood. They love being a part of this vibrant, changing community. Chris and his wife advocate for equitable housing, employment, and education in their area. This passion for service carries into Chris’s calling to help leaders navigate the realities of identity, power, and culture. We all need places where we get to do great work that’s worth doing. That’s why we’re called “The Serving Way.”

If not now, when?

It’s time for fresh options, bold choices, and strong action to achieve the results that matter most to you.