The map runs out. That is where I do my best work.
Modern leadership rarely happens inside neat organisational boxes. It happens between teams, functions, stakeholders and communities, where authority is fragmented, interests compete and no single person can see the whole picture.
That is the territory I enjoy working in.
For thirty years I have worked with senior leaders and mission-driven organisations as an executive coach, facilitator and leadership educator, as well as someone who has led organisations myself. I help people make sense of difficult situations, work across boundaries and find useful ways forward when the answer is not obvious.
If you are trying to influence without authority, align people with competing priorities, navigate complexity or lead meaningful change, you are in the right place.
Where hierarchy runs out
Many of the most important leadership challenges cannot be solved through authority alone. They require influence, judgement, sensemaking, collaboration and the ability to work with people who see the situation differently.
This is where much of my work sits: matrix organisations, cross-functional projects, stakeholder networks, partnerships, change initiatives, communities and other complex human systems.
If any of these sound like your week, you are in the right place:
- How do I influence without authority?
- How do I gain stakeholder buy-in?
- How do I lead in a matrix organisation?
- How do I create alignment across competing priorities?
- How do I navigate organisational politics?
- How do I lead when nobody really knows what happens next?
How I help
The leaders and organisations I work with rarely arrive with a neatly defined problem. More often, something important is proving harder than expected.
A senior leader may need to influence people they cannot direct. A leadership team may be struggling to align around competing priorities. A transformation may make sense on paper but keep becoming stuck in the organisation. Or a capable executive may simply have reached a situation where the approaches that got them this far are no longer enough. That is usually where I come in.
Depending on the challenge, I work as an executive coach, facilitator or leadership educator, sometimes combining all three. The format matters less to me than understanding what is really happening and helping people make a better next move.
Working across boundaries: Leadership increasingly happens across teams, functions, organisations, professions and communities. I help leaders build influence, understand stakeholders, strengthen relationships and create alignment when formal authority is not enough.
Navigating complexity: Some situations cannot be solved simply by gathering more data or producing a better plan. I help leaders make sense of uncertain and interdependent situations, see the wider system, experiment intelligently and act when certainty is unavailable.
Creating meaningful change: Real change rarely happens because somebody has produced a compelling strategy document. It happens when people make sense of what is changing, understand what matters, take ownership and begin creating something different together.
A little about me
I have spent much of my working life in situations where the map and the territory do not quite match. My early career was in outdoor and experiential education. Since then I have led businesses, worked in a Fortune 500 organisation, taught thousands of leaders in executive education, facilitated groups around the world and coached senior leaders through some of the more difficult moments of their careers.
Those experiences look quite different, but the same question runs through them: what do capable people do when they reach the edge of what they already know? That question still fascinates me.
My approach brings together practical leadership experience, systems thinking, experiential learning and more than thirty years of working with people and organisations across cultures. I take ideas and research seriously, but I am much more interested in what happens when we put them to work in the messiness of organisational life.
Explore my leadership resources
Much of what I learn through coaching, facilitation, executive education and research eventually finds its way onto this site. I write primarily for leaders dealing with the realities of organisational life rather than leadership in the abstract.
If you have arrived looking for an idea, framework or practical way into a problem, these collections are good places to start:
Five useful starting points
If you are dealing with a specific leadership challenge, these pieces offer a useful place to begin.
- How do I decide when both options seem right? Exploring how leaders exercise judgement when there is no clearly correct choice.
- How to use the Cynefin framework to lead accordingly Examining how leaders match their response to the nature of the situation.
- Leading in complexity: pilots, probes and experiments Looking at how leaders create movement and learning when outcomes cannot be predicted in advance.
- How can I motivate a burned-out team? What leadership looks like when energy, trust and capacity are depleted.
- I’m burnt out. What can I do to lead well? Exploring leadership sustainability, personal limits and responsible action.
What are you trying to navigate?
You may not yet know whether you need coaching, facilitation, leadership development or something else. You may simply know that an important situation has become difficult to move.
If you are working through a leadership challenge where authority is limited, stakeholders disagree, the system is complicated or the way forward is not obvious, I would be interested to hear about it.
We can start with the situation rather than the solution.