Level-up your leadership

Potentially. My core approach is to focus my coaching efforts and build deep partnerships with the second-in-command in organizations. These second in command executives -- usually COOs, CROs, CFOs or CoS -- face unique challenges of how to help the CEO shape the strategy, and act as their senior operational partner to integrate business execution on a week-to-week basis. Sometimes CEOs do not have a COO or equivalent and are themselves more operational. In these cases it can make sense for me to support them as CEO in an on-going coaching relationship. Often one of the ways I help these typically scale-up CEOs is to help them find the right COO/CoS type solution to fit their vision, organization and personal style.

In about 50% of businesses there is not a COO, but instead a senior commercially orientated executives – i.e. CBO [Business], CRO [Revenue], CCO [Commercial], CCO [Customer] or 'Strategic' CFO. In these businesses many of the classic COO responsibilities fall on this commercial leader including how to integrate the go-to-market strategy across commercial functions and align with product management teams. I have decades of extensive experience in this area and so these executives find my coaching very helpful. I do not coach CTOs, CPOs or CHROs as coaching these roles require deeper technical knowledge.

Junior CoS and aspiring operational leaders are usually found in business organizations with less than 70 people. In my experience the more limited complexity of operational challenges they face and limited personal development budget they have does not usually lend itself well to individual 121 coaching. For people at this stage of their career, I typically suggest that they join a free ops community, go to peer meet-ups and do group / online training courses. Plus get the core 'must read' set of books. I would be happy to recommend some of these courses, books and communities to you if this is your situation.

No. I coach executives of larger companies where there is complexity due to scale. I do make some rare exceptions for companies of 30 to 100 people depending on the potential of the individual and business. However I do have a large network of other coaches who might be a great fit for executives in the ‘zero-to-one’ stage, so it's worth reaching out.

10 to 12 executives is my sweet spot, and usually 60% of these are COOs, 30% are CEOs/CROs and 10% are senior CoS (note: most CoS in Europe are in more junior positions than the US). This scope ensures I can focus on these individuals in a responsive manner, and gives me time to support my larger company consulting engagements.

As a coach, I work on a monthly retainer that varies depending on whether we meet weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. Usually regular sessions are 60-90 minutes long. Also included are regular in-real-life catch-ups and of course unlimited whatsapps! I do not share my rates online, but they have never been a challenge for the high-growth companies I work with.

I fully agree that 'fit' is critical to build any trusted partnership. What's more I only want to work with clients where their is mutual respect and trust. The best (and only) way to get a feel for fit is just to jump on a call and chat. So let’s have a free no commitment discovery call! You should also know I never work on a minimum commitment basis -- so if you ever feel you are not getting a good RoI you can leave at any time. That’s how confident I am in the value I provide! Over the last decade, no COO has left within six months of starting, and most stay for 18–36 months or longer!

Yes and no. I have a standard set of topics and structures to follow which is flexible enough to cover from aspiring COOs to more experienced executives. However no two senior operators' situations are identical and so I have found blindly following standard structured programs just doesn't work for the complex multi-dimensional challenges leaders face. Instead my approach is to work on parsing through your short-medium-long term goals, to customize my program so that it fits you. This often starts with the immediate business operating challenges you are facing, and evolves into softer more people-orientated elements of your role. Ultimately the trusted relationship we build almost always ends up with me becoming a career confidante.