Michael Polydoris is a Senior Consultant and Executive Coach with Highland Performance Solutions, bringing more than 20 years of experience helping executives, leadership teams, and organizations improve performance, navigate complexity, and lead through periods of growth and transformation. Having advised leaders across more than 350 client engagements, Michael specializes in executive coaching, leadership team effectiveness, organizational design, and aligning leadership behavior with business strategy.

Michael partners with CEOs, senior executives, and leadership teams to strengthen strategic thinking, decision-making, communication, and organizational effectiveness. His work includes executive coaching, leadership development programs, leadership team effectiveness engagements, and customized executive offsites designed to accelerate leadership growth and business alignment. His coaching and consulting experience spans multinational organizations, private equity-backed companies, startups, public sector agencies, nonprofits, and global leadership teams, including leaders from organizations such as Amazon, the U.S. Treasury, the U.S. State Department, the City of Sugar Land, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and European multinational organizations.

Known for combining thoughtful executive coaching with practical business insight, Michael helps leaders translate self-awareness into meaningful behavioral change and measurable organizational impact. His coaching style balances candid feedback, strategic thinking, and practical application, enabling leaders to strengthen relationships, build confidence, and achieve stronger business results.

Michael is certified as an Executive Coach through Northwestern University’s Executive Learning and Organizational Change program within the School of Education and Social Policy and is also certified in Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching. In addition, he is certified in Hogan Assessments, The Leadership Challenge®, and holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) designation.

Education

• MBA, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management 
• M.A. in Design, University of Iowa 
• B.A. in English, Cornell College