Hello Human
What if leadership is less about what you do and more about what you co-create in relation?
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Most people move through their professional lives as if their actions, decisions, and ambitions were neatly separable from the relationships that shape them. They aren’t. Leadership unfolds in the messy, textured, relational fabric of everyday interactions.
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I study and work with this fabric.
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My research explores how leadership comes into being through processes, relations, and lived experience rather than fixed traits. My coaching extends the same logic: a space to notice how you show up, how you’re shaped by the relations around you, and how your presence shapes others in return.
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Let’s inquire into the worlds you’re entangled with, and what becomes possible when you pay attention to them.
About Ellina
Ellina Watanabe, Ph.D.(c), is a Relational Intelligence and Executive Coach committed to transforming leadership from an individual-driven to a connection-driven paradigm. Her mission is to foster deep human connection, relational awareness, and sustainable change in how we lead and relate.
With almost two decades of international experience across branding, entrepreneurship, and academia in APAC and EMEA, Ellina blends a rigorous research foundation with a deeply intuitive coaching presence. She specializes in creating reflective spaces where individuals and teams can uncover autopilot behaviors, examine ingrained assumptions, and shift toward more conscious, relational ways of being.
Ellina’s coaching approach integrates mindset work, somatic awareness, and gentle yet focused inquiry. While she offers practical tools and models, her most transformative work happens in co-creative dialogue—where insight emerges organically, and lasting change takes root.
In parallel to her coaching practice, Ellina is a doctoral candidate at ESADE Business School, with research interests on relationality in leadership, process-relational ontology, qualitative methodology, and ethnography. Her work has been presented at international academic conferences in Denmark, U.S., and the U.K., and she serves as an ad hoc reviewer for peer-reviewed academic journals and academic conferences.
Ellina is a Member of the Association for Coaching, and holds three business diplomas earned across three continents. She is also a Certified Reiki Master & Teacher, bringing a holistic dimension to her work. Fluent in English and Russian, and conversational in Japanese and French, she currently resides in Barcelona, Spain.
Contact
I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities and conversations. Let's connect.