Even the best-run organizations have hidden systems—unspoken rules and “just this once” exceptions that quietly disrupt progress. These covert actions can seem harmless but over time, they create confusion and undermine the very processes you carefully designed to drive success. Addressing these hidden systems can be a powerful way to unlock your team’s full potential.

Intentional, pre-meeting planning helps you hold more effective, empathetic, and strategic meetings with your team. Taking a few minutes to ask yourself these questions can transform your meetings from simple check-ins to powerful tools for leadership and growth. Implement these tips and watch how well your direct reports respond to your increased focus, support, and connection.

Today’s executives are 5X more likely to end up at a private equity-backed company than before. If you’re interviewing for an executive role in a PE-backed firm, you’ll need to adjust your approach, both in your interviews and in day-to-day leadership. Here’s what makes PE-backed firms unique and how you can get, and keep, one of these roles.

As a busy executive, you have a lot on your plate already. You’d like your team to take ownership of some important initiatives, but they seem unable to make progress without your involvement.

How can you drive change, without having to get deep in the weeds with your team to get results?

In an executive transition, often substantial severance packages can be on the line (mid-six figures). As an executive, you need to approach the final conversation in a way that will protect both your reputation and your financial stability. Here is some counterintuitive advice that can significantly boost your severance pay in an exit negotiation.

In decision-making, it’s tempting to dive straight into solving problems or to take the closest path at hand. But making the best decision requires stepping back to evaluate what options are in front of you. What would have to be true for (X) to be a good option?” - is one of my favorite questions for decision-making.

It’s not uncommon for executives to feel stuck when facing a job search, pivot, or reinvention. But the truth is, the skills leaders use to drive business success every day are the very skills that can simplify and energize a career transition. Here’s how to translate each component of a job search into the language of business - a language you already know well.

Executive Intelligence (ExI) means the ability to synthesize, simplify and communicate complex information in a way that turns chaos into clear action. Leaders with high ExI are fantastic at cognitive processing, problem-solving and building concrete execution plans. You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room to have the highest Executive Intelligence, but you do need to know how to hone this core skill.

I’ve worked with many with C-suite clients transitioning to fractional or consulting roles, and there’s one costly mistake I’ve seen many times over.

While one of the first questions consultants want to know is whether the work will make them enough money, unfortunately, bringing up pricing too soon is a mistake many consultants make, and it can cost you the deal.

When we think of networking, the image that often comes to mind is attending conferences, industry meetups, or connecting with people outside of our organization. But what about the relationships you cultivate inside your company? Internal networking is just as important - perhaps even more so - for your long-term success.

As a fractional executive, you bring expertise to businesses regarding their transformation, growth, or specific challenges. But finding new consulting work can be daunting. Traditional methods like direct outreach to your target clients often require long lead cycles, high effort, and low returns. However, there is a more efficient way to attract clients: by leveraging the power of strategic relationships.

Burnout happens when there’s an unequal exchange between the effort you’re putting into work and what you’re getting in return. If the equation stays unbalanced for too long, you’ll reduce your output to protect yourself. If you’re feeling burnt out, know that it’s a common experience, and you’re not alone. Start small—find ways to reignite your passion and creativity, and work towards rebalancing your Burnout Equation.

The inverted pyramid is a communications approach that top consultants use to engage their executive clientele in strategic decision-making. It involves starting with the most important information first, followed by supporting details and then background data. This puts the proposal or conclusion front and center, making it more likely that the reader or listener will engage with the content.

Companies need C-Suite leaders, but they don't always need those leaders full-time. A new model has emerged:
one of the fastest-growing segments of the job market is Fractional C-Suite work, or said another way, part-time C-Suite executives. It’s a win/win for leaders who are looking for strategic, part-time work, and for companies who need strategic experts, but can't afford to hire full-time ones.

You may have had many interviews before you received your job offer, which formed the early part of your “listening tour.” You got an audience that gave you valuable insight - information that most employees don’t regularly get - about the strategic decisions in front of your management team, your boss’s biggest problem right now and the biggest impact you need to make. How you use that information to make a great first impression is up to you.

Deciding whether to leave a job - especially when the current situation feels unhealthy - stirs up a whirlwind of emotions: loyalty, unfulfilled dreams, guilt, burnout, hope, grief, excitement, fear, and uncertainty. To avoid jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, it’s important to examine these feelings thoughtfully and make a strategic decision that genuinely supports your career and life goals.

Like so many people, you most likely want to grow your knowledge to advance in your career, but you’re not sure where or how to start. There are a lot of options, and you don’t have a lot of time. Reskilling or upskilling doesn’t have to be complicated—you just need the right plan and some focus.

Onboarding starts you off on the right foot with your coworkers, showcases your leadership, and gets you insider access to the key information you need to do your job well. By navigating your onboarding with an intentional and organized approach, you’ll own your own onboarding and be well positioned for success.

“Forget the job boards; use your network,” goes pretty much all the advice you hear when you talk to others about your job search. But how? If you want to crack the code to getting a response from a busy executive, you’ll need to use some creative persistence and be willing to “find the third door” by thinking outside the traditional inbox.

Leaders with CEO aspirations are likely quite familiar with long-range planning, and getting to the pinnacle of the C-suite is no exception: it requires a long-range plan.

Long before you take the helm, you’ll need to map out the path, the people, the portfolio, the perspective and the pitch that will give you the best possible chance of getting that coveted CEO role.