How I work
Direct, structured, and on a clear clock.
Every engagement is scoped in writing before it starts: what we are working on, how long it runs, who else is told, and what would make it a success. Nothing rolls on indefinitely without a review.
Four commitments
Candour is the deliverable
You can buy agreement anywhere. If I think a decision is wrong, you will hear it in the session rather than in a carefully worded summary afterwards. Clients describe the style as direct and fair, in that order.
Confidentiality has a defined edge
What you say stays with me. Before we begin we agree exactly what is reported to a sponsor or a chair — usually themes and progress, never content — and you see anything written about you before anyone else does.
Advice comes with a plan attached
Problems are easy to name. The work is the system, the sequence and the people that fix them, with quality processes put in place so the improvement survives my leaving.
Engagements end
The aim is that you need me less, not more. Every engagement has a defined close and an honest conversation about whether continuing adds anything.
Shapes an engagement takes
| Format | Shape | Typical span |
|---|---|---|
| First conversation | One session on the decision in front of you. No obligation either way. | 90 minutes |
| Coaching engagement | Fortnightly sessions, stakeholder input at the start, formal review at six months. Taken as an annual commitment — the work that changes how someone leads does not fit in a quarter. | 12 months |
| Advisory retainer | Standing counsel to an owner, CEO or chair: monthly cadence plus access between meetings. | 6–12 months |
| Board review | Interviews with every director, observation of two meetings, written findings, working session. | 8–12 weeks |
| Team intervention | Diagnostic interviews, two facilitated sessions, follow-through one-to-ones. | 10–14 weeks |
| Board seat | Non-executive director, advisory board member or committee chair — audit and risk, compensation, nominating and governance — where the fit is right and the conflicts are clear. | By appointment |
Fees
Engagements run on a monthly retainer, scoped and agreed in writing before any work begins — no hourly billing and no meter running between sessions.
Where an engagement has a defined, measurable outcome — a transaction closed, a financing raised, a target delivered — part of the fee can be structured as a success fee, agreed at the outset so that a share of the cost sits with the result rather than the calendar. Coaching and board effectiveness work is retainer-only: independence there is worth more than the upside.
Work is delivered as a mix of in-person and remote sessions — board reviews, team facilitation and first meetings in the room; regular coaching and retainer sessions remote unless there is a reason not to be. Travel outside Chicago and Toronto is billed at cost.
What a first conversation looks like
- Before. You send two or three paragraphs on the situation. Nothing formal, no documents needed.
- During. Ninety minutes, mostly you talking and me asking. By the end you should have at least one thing you had not considered.
- After. A short note from me: what I heard, what I would do, and whether I am the right person for it. Sometimes the answer is that you need a lawyer, a banker, or nobody at all.
- Then. If we go ahead, a one-page engagement letter — scope, duration, confidentiality, fee — before any further work.