Your senior team got where they are by being good at the last job. The role they’re in now asks for something different, and nobody hands you a manual for it. The pressure, the self-doubt, the weight of people depending on you, most leaders carry that alone.
I run sessions that bring it into the open. Facilitated, practical, built around what your leaders are actually wrestling with. Usually a leadership team or a group of emerging leaders in a room together. When it suits, the same thinking works as a talk to a bigger audience.
I’m not a career speaker with a polished routine. Thirty years in industry, apprentice to CEO, and I hit most of the walls I now help others climb. I’m not describing the view from the top. I’ve done the climb, and I know what it costs.
Facilitation is the core of what I do. A leadership team or a group of emerging leaders, in a room together, working through something real. I’m not there to present at them. I’m there to run the conversation, ask the questions they’re avoiding, and make it safe enough that people say what they actually think. The value isn’t just in what I tell them. It’s in what they work out together, out loud, that they’d never have reached alone. It works because it’s their problems on the table, not my slides.
Speaking is the same thinking for a bigger room. When you’ve got a conference, an away day or a whole layer of managers to reach at once, a talk carries further than a workshop can. It’s more me talking and less them, by necessity, but the substance is the same, real experience, honestly told, aimed at whatever your people are actually up against.
Most clients start with one and come back for the other. A talk that lands often turns into “can you do that properly with our senior team,” and a facilitated session that works often becomes “will you say that to the whole company.”
What it’s never is a motivational set piece or an off-the-shelf course. I build every session around your people and the specific thing they’re wrestling with. If I don’t think I’m the right person for it, I’ll tell you.
Choosing who stands in front of your leaders is a judgement about whether they’ll trust the person. Four reasons they will.
Most people running leadership sessions have never led anything bigger than a workshop.
I ran operations and carried the P&L, apprentice to CEO. I have my own growth stories and the scars on my back to prove it.
Your leaders can tell within minutes whether the person at the front has actually been where they are.
I have, and it changes how the room listens.
Pressure, self-doubt, the cost of getting it wrong, I’m not facilitating those as concepts.
I’ve lived them.
That’s what gives people permission to be honest, because I’ll go first, and I won’t pretend I had it all figured out.
No fixed deck, no course I roll out unchanged.
I find out what your leaders are actually struggling with and build the session around that.
Same reason it works, and the same reason it’s worth more than something off the shelf.
Anyone can run a session where the confident people talk.
The value is in the room where the person who never speaks up finally does.
Getting there takes reading a room, not working a stage, and that’s the part I’m actually good at.
How it works
We talk first. A short call, no charge. You tell me who the group is and what’s really going on, and I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person and which format fits, a facilitated session or a talk.
I build it around your people. Not a deck off the shelf. The session is shaped by what your leaders are dealing with, so it lands as theirs rather than mine.
Then we’re in the room. Half a day, a full day, or a slot at your event, whatever suits. What matters is that people leave having said the things they usually don’t, and with something they can actually use on Monday.
I don’t run a fixed menu. The session is built around whatever your leaders are actually wrestling with. But if it helps to see the territory, these are the ones I’m asked for most:
Imposter syndrome and self-doubt. Employee engagement and getting the best from a team. Wellbeing, and leading without burning out. Building and leading teams that don’t all think alike. Knowing when to push and when to stop.
If the thing you’re facing isn’t there, it’s probably still one I can help with. Ask.
Building leaders who can go the distance
Leadership can be lonely.
Vistage changes that.
Within my groups, you’re surrounded by people who understand the weight of decisions, the pressure to perform and the responsibility that comes with leading others.
It’s a space where you can be honest, be challenged and grow; not just as a leader,
but as a person.
Formats:
CEO, MD, Owner and Senior Leadership groups
Smaller Business and SIC (Second in Command) groups
For leaders carrying real responsibility
1:1 or small-group coaching for MDs, CEOs, founders, and senior leaders.
A confidential sounding board focused on building self awareness, clarity, value’s & beliefs, decision-making, resilience, accountability and sustainable performance.
(Not motivational fluff).
Formats:
Executive coaching
Leadership mentoring
Peer or leadership team facilitation
1:1 or small group
Clear thinking, delivered simply
Engaging talks, facilitated sessions, and practical tuition on leadership, performance, wellbeing, and sustainable success.
Grounded in real experience, not theory.
Formats:
Conference & event speaking
Leadership programmes & capability development
Tuition on leadership, wellbeing, and performance
Workshops, toolbox talks, deep dives and shop floor sessions
If you’re unsure, stuck, or just want to sense-check your thinking, reach out. Sometimes a single conversation is enough to bring clarity and direction.