Leadership can be lonely. It doesn't have to be.
The further you progress as a leader, the fewer people you have around you who can challenge your thinking, ask the difficult questions and give you an independent perspective without an agenda.
That's where I come in.
I work with CEOs, business owners, senior executives and leadership teams who want to become better leaders, build stronger teams and create better businesses.
It's about having the right conversations.
Todd Millar — Calgary, Alberta
I don't approach leadership from a textbook.
I've spent much of my career leading organizations and working alongside CEOs, entrepreneurs and executives.
I've experienced the challenges that come with leadership — growth, people, performance, strategy, succession, difficult decisions and the responsibility of ultimately being accountable for the result.
I've also spent years coaching and advising leaders facing those same challenges. That experience shapes how I work today.
I approach it from the perspective of someone who has sat in the chair — someone who understands that the real issues are rarely as simple as they appear from the outside.
Former President & CEO, TEC Canada · Former President, Superpages (Bain Capital)
Every leader and every organization is different.
That's why my practice isn't built around a standardized coaching program or a catalogue of courses. We start with the issue in front of you.
From there, our work can take several forms.
Four ways to work together.
Coach Me
Leadership requires perspective. Sometimes you need someone outside the organization who understands business, understands leadership and isn't afraid to challenge your thinking.
Executive coaching with me is an ongoing relationship built around you — your leadership, your business, your priorities and the issues that matter most.
Develop My Team
Strong organizations require strong leadership teams. I work with leadership teams to build greater trust, improve communication, strengthen accountability and help leaders become better at getting results through others.
Programs can incorporate proven frameworks including Everything DiSC and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, together with practical leadership disciplines developed through years of working with executives and management teams.
Help Us Think Strategically
Sometimes organizations don't need another consultant. They need the right conversation.
I facilitate strategic-planning sessions, leadership meetings and executive offsites designed to help teams step away from the day-to-day, confront the important issues and create greater clarity about where they're going and what needs to happen next.
Clarity · Alignment · Accountability · Execution
Advise Our Business
There are moments in the life of a business when an experienced outside perspective becomes particularly valuable — growth, succession, leadership transition, ownership change, acquisition, organizational challenges. Or simply the realization that the CEO or owner could benefit from another experienced voice around the table.
There is no shortage of information available to leaders today. The challenge isn't finding another article, podcast, book or management theory. The challenge is applying good thinking to your situation.
That's the work. I create the space for leaders to step away from the noise, think more clearly, challenge their assumptions and decide what they're going to do next.
Not trying to become the biggest coaching firm.
Quite deliberately, it's the opposite.
I work with a limited number of CEOs, owners, executives, leadership teams and organizations where I believe there is a strong fit and where I can make a meaningful contribution.
That allows the relationships to be personal. It allows me to understand the individual and the business. And it allows the work to go deeper than a series of coaching appointments.
Because you're not buying an hour of my time.
Two books, one thread — leadership tested outside the boardroom.
Long before coaching became the work, writing was how I made sense of the lessons. Both books come from the same place as everything above: the belief that real leadership shows itself away from the title, the office and the easy answers.
Boardroom to Base Camp
Written after 25 years leading in the boardrooms of North America and 25 days trekking to Everest Base Camp with my son, T.J. The book lays out the Everest Model — the leadership and life lessons that surfaced on that climb and how directly they paralleled the hardest calls I made in business.
It's not a business book in the traditional sense. It's a primer for leading — a company, a family or simply your own life — built from a trip that changed how I saw both.
View on Amazon →Moron: The Behind the Scenes Story of Minor Hockey
Written during my time as President of Hockey Calgary, this book takes on a harder subject: the adults in minor hockey, not the kids. It's a direct, sometimes uncomfortable look at how parents and coaches can lose sight of what youth sports are actually for — and a call to put the game back in the hands of the players.
Former NHL player Jim Peplinski wrote the foreword. It's the same instinct that shows up in my coaching work: naming the hard truth first, because that's where the real change starts.
View on Amazon →You don't need to know exactly what you're looking for.
You may be considering executive coaching. Your leadership team may not be performing the way you know it can. You may be preparing for a strategic planning session, succession or major transition. Or you may simply want an experienced outside perspective on what's next.
That's enough to start a conversation.