The Strategic Authority: Leadership & Presence Coach for Women Executives | Founder, Style Slowly Collective™ | Creator of The Slow Power Leadership Framework™ | JD, ICP-ACC, CSM
From the Diary of Ruth Burk
Founder: Style Slowly Collective™
Ruth Burk, JD, ICP-ACC, CSM, is a distinguished leadership coach and the founder of Style Slowly Collective™. With a background spanning law, international relations, and complex digital transformations for Fortune 1000 accounts, Burk bridges the gap between high-level strategy and sustainable execution. She is the architect of The Slow Power Leadership Framework™, a methodology designed to help women executives trade reactive urgency for “Conscious Momentum™.” By integrating legal rigor with Agile expertise, Burk empowers leaders to cultivate an authoritative executive presence rooted in judgment, internal steadiness, and long-term organizational impact.
In an era where executive success is often measured by the speed of a pivot or the volume of a voice, Ruth Burk, JD, ICP-ACC, CSM, offers a compelling counter-narrative. As the founder of Style Slowly Collective™ and the architect of The Slow Power Leadership Framework™, Burk advocates for a leadership style that prioritizes alignment over urgency and judgment over performance. Her approach is not about doing less; it is about ensuring that as visibility and responsibility grow, a leader’s internal steadiness keeps pace with their external impact.
Midwestern Roots and Legal Rigor
Ruth Burk’s leadership philosophy is deeply rooted in the values of the Midwest Great Lakes region, where practicality and personal responsibility are the cultural bedrock. Her academic journey further refined this perspective; she earned a BA in History with Honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a discipline that taught her to view challenges through the lens of long-term patterns and complex systems.
Her professional identity was truly forged at Syracuse University, where she completed a joint degree in Law and International Relations through the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Law school provided more than just a credential; it offered a masterclass in disciplined reasoning and clarity under pressure. This training instilled in her a foundational belief that remains at the core of her work today: “Effective leadership rests on judgment, restraint, and responsibility”.
From Solo Practice to Digital Transformation
Burk entered into the professional world with immediate responsibility. Rather than joining an established firm, she founded Bozzi Law, LLC, directly after law school. Operating as a solo practitioner in the Greater Milwaukee Area, she was responsible for every legal strategy, client relationship, and organizational outcome. This early immersion in entrepreneurship taught her that there is no separation between a leader’s decision and its consequence. It also highlighted the unique challenges faced by women in leadership, specifically the frequent gap between their demonstrated competence and how their authority is perceived by others.
Her career subsequently evolved into a series of complex operational roles across technology and real estate firms. From recovering at-risk Fortune 1000 accounts at Moore & Alphin to leading digital transformations at Yardi, Burk consistently focused on bridging the gap between strategy and execution. Throughout these transitions, she became a specialist in Agile methodologies, eventually earning certifications as a Scrum Master and Agile Coach to help teams move from reactive work to sustainable momentum.
Cultivating Slow Power
The culmination of Burk’s diverse experiences is the Slow Power Leadership Framework™, a structure designed to help women founders and executives navigate the complexities of organizational growth. Through the Style Slowly Collective™, she partners with leaders whose decisions carry significant organizational and long-term consequences.
Her framework is anchored by three pillars:
- Clarity: Rooting decision-making in sound judgment rather than immediate pressure.
- Connection: Aligning executive presence and emotional intelligence across teams and systems.
- Conscious Momentum™: Achieving sustainable execution and follow-through without the cost of burnout.
Burk’s work often humanizes the executive experience, acknowledging that true leadership begins with the ability to govern oneself. By integrating evidence-based tools like Everything DiSC® and EQ 360® with systems-informed business coaching, she helps leaders regain hours of their week by decreasing reactive work and increasing consistent follow-through.
Vision for the Future: A Legacy of Empowerment
As Ruth Burk looks toward the future, her focus remains on building resilient organizations by empowering the individuals who lead them. She remains an active voice in the leadership community, offering advisory services and strategic collaborations for mission-driven organizations. Her guiding principle remains a reflection of Jane Addams’ belief: “Empowering one another is key to thriving together”.
For the next generation of leaders, Burk’s advice is clear and grounded in the hard-won wisdom of her own journey: “Sustainable influence is built through clarity, consistency, and trust—not constant acceleration”.
Ruth Burk’s journey from a solo law practice to a visionary leadership coach serves as a blueprint for the modern executive. Her story reminds us that the most impactful leaders are not necessarily those who move the fastest, but those who move with the most intention.
