I work with CEOs and Senior Executives in all phases of their leadership journey to bring clarity, expand influence, and create impact.
I work with CEOs and Senior Executives in all phases of their leadership journey to bring clarity, expand influence, and create impact.
Being a CEO can be isolating and insular, making it challenging to create and innovate in a “safe” environment. As a coach and advisor, I cultivate a conversation space for my clients to tap into their creativity, harness their intellect, talk through challenges, and focus on their growth and development.
I use selected processes and tools to help leaders manage their energy, relationships, and connections while leveraging systems and structures to get more done.
I value my relationships with clients. These relationships are characterized by the level of generosity and vulnerability they allow and are nurtured by trust, openness, curiosity, and the willingness to be changed by the conversation. The relationships I build with my clients open up possibilities, expand capabilities, and inspire new directions, actions, and outcomes.
Integrating the Multiple Roles of the CEO
CEOs are human beings. They occupy multiple roles in life, including spouse/life partner, parent, caregiver, citizen, and enterprise leader. Unfortunately, the reality is that these roles put values in tension with each other in ways that can be difficult to reconcile — sometimes making it hard to live with yourself.
Authentic leadership requires an honest and open reckoning with the interior conflicts and the exterior choices the CEO role demands — the brutal truths of a business facing competition (cost cutting, layoffs, etc.), dealing with the risks emerging in the macro-environment (reverse globalization, climate change, great power conflicts, energy crises, VUCA), generational changes in the employment contract (work from anywhere, support for social identity groups, social justice, and intersectionality), disruption across business and society as a consequence of emerging technologies (AI, robotics, mobility, blockchain, VR, etc.). No one understands the full complexity of these times. Some of the threats are or at least can feel, existential. How you deal with them reflects your character and tells your stakeholders who you are.
Our intentions and actions shape who we are and who we become through the relationships we cultivate over a career and a lifetime. Becoming a CEO who is a match for the challenges of these particular times calls for a shift in perspective from individual to team, from having answers to generating questions, from knowing to learning, from some of us to all of us, from transactional to transformational.
Being a leader, being a CEO is a great responsibility and a great privilege. While extending the privilege in ways that benefit your company, your stakeholders, and the greater human community may not be easy — it is worthy.
Supporting you in all phases of your CEO journey
I understand that both the voyage and the destination are unique to each individual. For some, the most direct course is best, whereas for others, a more leisurely cruise can be more fruitful. In order to determine the approach best suited to your specific circumstances, I begin every client relationship with an initial needs assessment and analysis. Based on these findings, I recommend which approach is best to help guide you through part or all of your journey.
Testimonials
“Charles has a set of techniques that helped me learn things about myself that I know I never would have discovered on my own.”
“The toolbox Charles has given me is invaluable; I find myself tapping into it day in and day out.”
“It is always fun and interesting to work with Charles. You can feel how much he cares about his clients and our success.”
“I’ve worked with Charles in many different capacities for over 10 years, and he has been one of the most influential characters in my life and my career. He has an uncanny capability to quickly understand complex environments and provide deep insight into how one can better function in those environments.”
“In my work I value the insights and advice of only a few outside advisors. I look for the rare combination of a strong conceptual grounding and mastery of relevant frameworks for understanding and intervening in whole systems, coupled with a practical grounding in the reality of doing business in the corporate environment. Charles possesses each of these in great measure, and brings a third set of gifts, namely a strong personal presence, an ability to create rapport with leaders in the organization, and the ability to coach others in order to bring out their highest aspiration and potential. This combination of these three dimensions is what sets Charles apart.”
“Charles is a mind-blowingly great coach who works from deep empathy and his commitment to a healthy and equitable society. I’ve worked with probably 6 good to great coaches over time and Charles is in a whole other league.”
“After each conversation with Charles, I feel lighter and clearer about the path forward. An amazing listener, Charles has a knack for asking questions that enable me to get to the root cause of a challenge. In addition, he creates a space of psychological safety. I am able to be vulnerable with Charles. With him, I know there will be no judgment. Instead, he offers a tremendous amount of care and empathy, deep knowledge and understanding of human behaviors, and meaningful insights. Charles is simply a wonderful human. I am genuinely grateful to know and have the privilege to work with him.”
“Charles has played an integral role in my leadership journey from a Global Finance Integration Lead to Senior Vice President and CFO at Del Monte to Executive Vice President and CFO at Perrigo. Throughout this journey, Charles has challenged me to think more strategically, to broaden my perspective to consider multiple stakeholders’ views, to invest my time wisely (balancing work and personal life), and to be clear about my intentions and purpose. It is a pleasure to work with Charles.”
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