These are real people we have worked with. Some have asked us to use first names only.
We brought them in because our leadership team had grown from four to nine people in eighteen months and the decision-making process had completely broken down. Within two workshops, everyone had a clear remit. The monthly follow-up calls kept us honest. Six months later, our board noted that papers were coming through faster and with fewer rewrites.
I was sceptical. I had done executive coaching before and it felt like paying someone to listen to me talk. This was different. My coach challenged me directly, sometimes uncomfortably. After three months I had a completely different relationship with my finance director, and our weekly one-to-ones went from dreaded to productive.
The succession planning process was thorough. They interviewed twelve people across two levels and came back with a recommendation that surprised us but, in hindsight, was exactly right. The person they identified has now been in the role for a year and is performing above expectations. My only minor gripe: the final report could have been shorter.
We used them twice: once for a team alignment workshop and then, two years later, for coaching our new head of operations. Both times they remembered the context, read back their notes from the first engagement, and built on what had already been done. That continuity saved us weeks of re-explaining.
Two engagements described in more detail, with permission from the organisations involved.
A health board in South Wales had merged two directorates and needed to appoint a single clinical director from a pool of four internal candidates. Two of the four were openly in conflict about the direction of the new directorate.
We ran a twelve-week succession process. It started with individual interviews, then a structured assessment day that included a live scenario: each candidate chaired a mock budget-review meeting while we observed. We also gathered confidential feedback from 28 clinical staff across both former directorates.
The board accepted our recommendation. The appointed director has now served for two years. Staff engagement scores in the merged directorate rose from 54% to 71% in the first annual survey after the appointment.
Staff engagement score increase over 12 months
A Cardiff-based SaaS company had tripled its headcount in two years. The founding team of three still made every significant decision, and middle managers felt they had titles but no authority. Turnover among mid-level staff had reached 28% annualised.
We ran two alignment workshops with the founders and their six direct reports, then coached each founder individually for four months. The workshops produced a written decision-rights matrix: who can approve what, up to what value, without escalation. The coaching focused on the founders' habit of overriding decisions they had already delegated.
Within nine months, mid-level turnover dropped to 11%. The founders reported spending roughly 15 fewer hours per week on operational decisions, which freed them to focus on product strategy and investor relations.
Mid-level staff turnover reduction in 9 months
If any of these situations sound familiar, we would like to hear from you. Initial conversations are free and typically last about 30 minutes.
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