The distance between what you decided and what got done
That distance is where most leadership teams lose their year. Not to bad strategy. To the ordinary, unglamorous absence of someone whose whole job is making sure the decision survives contact with the calendar.
The pattern, honestly
A leadership team commits to five priorities in January. By December, two are done, one has quietly stopped without anyone saying so, and two have an explanation everyone half believes.
Nobody in that room was lazy or unserious. That's what makes it interesting.
What's usually missing isn't talent or intent. It's a named owner, a definition of done, and someone with enough standing to say the uncomfortable thing in the room where it matters.
That's the job.
I held it for years, as Chief of Staff to CEOs at major corporations. Now I bring it into companies a few days at a time.
What I do
Turn priorities into plans that survive.
Named owners, real sequencing, a written definition of what finished looks like, and the operating cadence to keep it visible.
Run the initiatives nobody has time to run.
The cross-functional project that keeps slipping because it belongs to everyone and therefore to no one.
Build accountability that holds.
A rhythm that surfaces problems early, while they're still cheap, without you having to enforce it personally.
Be the person who says the thing.
Every executive team has a conversation it's been avoiding. Part of what you're hiring is someone with no internal politics and nothing to protect.
Build the infrastructure growth requires.
Business development systems, reporting, vendor and partner management. The scaffolding that gets skipped until it breaks.
Prepare the room.
Board materials, leadership offsites, investor conversations. The meetings that matter most and get the least preparation.
How engagements work
Most begin at one to two days a week and settle into a rhythm from there.
Some are open-ended. Some are a defined sprint with a specific outcome: a systems build, a transition, a launch, a season.
I work with a small number of organizations at a time on purpose. This work doesn't scale by taking on more of it.
What it costs
From $10,000 a month
At one to two days a week. Scope and cadence move the number from there, and I'll give you the final figure on the first call rather than making you ask three times.
A full-time Chief of Staff runs $200,000 and up in salary, before benefits, bonus, and equity. That's a quarter-million-dollar commitment to get senior execution into the room.
A fractional engagement puts the same senior partner into the room for a fraction of that cost. You get the work without the headcount, and you can scale it up or step it back as the business demands.
Not ready for a full engagement?
The Follow-Through Framework
A 90-day install of the accountability system I run inside my Chief of Staff engagements. One list your leadership team trusts, an owner and a date on everything, and a weekly rhythm that keeps it honest.
Who this fits
Founder-led companies growing faster than their operating structure. CEOs carrying too much of the execution personally. Leadership teams with a strategy everyone agrees with and nobody has moved in two quarters. Organizations in transition, where the work is real but temporary.
If you need someone to take work off your desk, you need a great executive assistant and I'll happily say so. If you need someone to take decisions off your desk and make sure they land, that's this.
Not ready for a conversation? Start with the report. I wrote the whole system down: The Follow-Through Problem.
Book a conversation