I coach CEOs, founders and senior executives in Dallas, and I held the seats before I coached them: founder and CEO of the company that became Web.com, taken to a Nasdaq IPO; EVP at New Relic while it grew from $300M to $500M; VP at Cox Automotive through a cloud and DevOps transformation; COO in a VC-backed turnaround. I am CEC and ICF certified, with a BS in Psychology and a master’s in CMHC underway.
I am a native Texan, born and raised in Galveston, and my practice runs nationally: standing coaching calls on video with leaders everywhere, and on-site work, offsites, working sessions and consulting, anywhere in the country when the engagement books time for it. Dallas companies get the same terms and the same operator.
Three ways to work with a Dallas company.
Executive coaching, on a standing cadence
A standing cadence on video, weekly, every other week or monthly, with access between calls, on the same terms as all my executive coaching: a practical, candid thought partner who has held the seat you sit in. Executive coaching in Dallas for CEOs, founders and senior executives, and leadership team coaching when the team is the unit.
Offsites, in your room
Executive offsites, strategic planning sessions, retreats and leadership alignment workshops, run by an operator, not a moderator. See facilitation for how the room works. Executive offsite facilitation in Dallas: strategic planning sessions, leadership retreats and executive team alignment, in your room or the venue your team chooses.
Consulting, on your site
Operational work happens where the work is: your floor, your standups, your board meeting. From strategy consulting to AI consulting, on site when the engagement calls for it. Strategy consulting for Dallas companies: transformation leadership, integration after a relocation or an acquisition, board counsel and work with private equity portfolio companies.
What you get from executive coaching.
Executive coaching is leadership development built around the seat you are in, not a course. Here is what an engagement delivers, as leadership development for Dallas executives built around the company you actually run.
Success, defined up front
Before the work starts we agree what success looks like and how we will both know, and we check the work against that measure at set points along the way, not only at the end.
A thinking partner who has held the seat
Standing calls weekly, every other week or monthly, in person or on video, and access between calls, because the hard things do not wait for the calendar.
A sharper view of your own patterns
Blind spots named early, and a clear view of how you lead under pressure. We can work on the board meeting and the person walking into it in the same hour.
Executive presence and stakeholder management
Presence with a board, investors, PE operating partners and the peers who wanted your job, and a plan for the transition into a bigger seat before it arrives.
Progress on the problems that do not fit on a slide
The team that worked at the last size and does not at this one. The difficult conversation you have been putting off. Accountability that does not backfire. Alignment across a leadership team.
Habits that outlast the coaching
The right formula, the right tactics, and repeatable actions: the rhythm that keeps the change alive after we finish. Insight alone does not survive a real quarter.
Your company can fund it. Most of my clients are funded by their company as leadership or professional development, because companies invest in the leaders they intend to keep. If you need to make that case internally, I will help you build it.
Who I work with in Dallas.
I have sat on every side of the table, so I understand how the whole organization moves, not just the seat you are in.
Technology founders and CEOs
CEO coaching for founders and first-time CEOs: scaling past the team you started with, investor expectations, and the move from founder-led to a real leadership team. I have made that move myself, and I was EVP at New Relic while it grew from $300M to $500M.
Leaders of PE- and VC-backed companies
A sponsor with a playbook and a clock, and a board that wants the plan delivered. I spent a decade as a managing partner at a venture firm, and I was COO in a VC-backed turnaround.
Executives inside Dallas headquarters
The headquarters that moved here, Toyota to Plano, McKesson to Irving, CBRE and Charles Schwab, and the ones that grew here. A relocated headquarters is a transformation with a new org chart and an old history. I led transformation inside an 80-year-old enterprise at Cox Automotive.
Leadership teams
Leadership team coaching: the team as a unit, not only its leader. Executive team alignment, clear decision rights, and an offsite that turns into follow-through. More on facilitation.
COOs, presidents and product leaders
The second in command, whether the title is chief operating officer or president, and the most senior product leader. I have held the COO seat and the product seat. More on coaching for COOs and coaching for Chief Product Officers.
Financial services leaders
Dallas-Fort Worth is the second-largest financial services hub in the country. Executive coaching for leaders in banking, asset management and fintech, where regulation sets the pace of change. As a VP at Unqork I led implementations for Goldman Sachs, Marsh and State Street.
What is different about leading a company in Dallas.
I am a native Texan: born on Galveston Island, BOI as islanders say, and raised there. I caught my first sandtrout off the Gulf Coast Fishing Pier at 4 and started on computers at 10 in Galveston. Texas is where my story starts, and Dallas is where so much of Texas business now runs.
Dallas runs on headquarters. The region holds 23 Fortune 500 headquarters, 11 of them in the city itself, and it keeps drawing more: Toyota moved its North American headquarters to Plano, McKesson to Irving, CBRE from Los Angeles and Jacobs from Pasadena, and AT&T runs its headquarters from Downtown Dallas. A relocated headquarters is a leadership problem before it is a real estate one: a new team, a new city and the old company’s habits arriving on the same moving truck. I have led that kind of integration: the company I founded merged with MicronPC to become Web.com, and I have been through 35 M&A transactions across my career; I led transformation inside an 80-year-old enterprise at Cox Automotive.
The other two engines are technology and money. The Telecom Corridor in Richardson is home to more than 5,700 companies, Texas Instruments among them, and Dallas-Fort Worth has passed Chicago as the second-largest financial services hub in the country. I founded an internet infrastructure company and took it to 650 people and a Nasdaq listing, was EVP at New Relic while it grew from $300M to $500M, and led implementations for Goldman Sachs, Marsh and State Street as a VP at Unqork. Around them sit the PE- and VC-backed companies with a sponsor, a plan and a clock; I spent a decade as a managing partner at a venture firm and sat on the operating side as COO in a VC-backed turnaround. When we talk about your Dallas company, the seats are the ones I have held.
Executive coaching in Dallas: the questions people actually ask.
How do I choose an executive coach in Dallas?
Start with which seat the coach has held and what happened to the company, then how the cadence works week to week. I wrote up six questions to ask any executive coach, including me.
How is your coaching different from other Dallas executive coaches?
I held the seats before I coached them: founder and public-company CEO, EVP, VP and COO. You work with me directly for the whole engagement, not a matched associate, and the advice comes from decisions I have made, not only studied. I am CEC and ICF certified, a member of the APA, ACA and LPCA, the author of the Amazon best seller Business Breakthrough 3, and a native Texan, born and raised in Galveston.
How much does executive coaching cost in Dallas?
Most of my clients are funded by their company. The price depends on cadence, length and how much of the work is on site; you get a scope and a number on the discovery call. What the market charges is in my guide to executive coaching costs.
Which Dallas leaders do you coach?
CEOs and founders of technology companies, executives inside Dallas headquarters, leaders in financial services, leaders of PE- and VC-backed companies, COOs, presidents and product leaders, and whole leadership teams. Most are in significant growth or a significant change.
What is different about leading a company in Dallas?
The headquarters. Dallas keeps drawing relocations, so many leaders are running a company that just moved, with a new team and old habits. Add the Telecom Corridor and the second-largest financial services hub in the country. The section above walks through each and the seats I held that map to it.
Do you coach leaders through a headquarters relocation or an integration?
Yes. A relocation or an acquisition is an integration problem: two cultures, one org chart, and a board watching the quarter. I have led one through a public-company merger and been through 35 M&A transactions across my career.
Do we need to meet in person in Dallas?
No. Most of my clients work with me on video on a standing cadence, with access between calls. On-site work, an offsite, a strategic planning session or a working session with your team, happens where your team is, anywhere in the country, when the engagement books time for it.
Do you coach leadership teams in Dallas, or only individuals?
Both. Leadership team coaching treats the team as the unit: decision rights, how the team disagrees, and the follow-through after an offsite. It often starts with one executive and widens to the team.
Do you facilitate executive offsites in Dallas?
Yes: executive offsites, annual and quarterly strategic planning sessions, and leadership team working sessions, run by an operator, in your room or the venue your team chooses. See facilitation for how the room works.
Do you coach financial services executives?
Yes. The coaching is about the seat you hold: the board, the regulators’ pace, the peers and the team. As a VP at Unqork I led implementations for Goldman Sachs, Marsh and State Street, so I know how change moves inside a regulated firm.
Do you coach new CEOs and leaders stepping into a bigger seat?
Yes, and it is some of the most valuable work: a first-time CEO, a new COO, or a leader promoted into a seat their peers used to hold. I have made those transitions myself, from founder to public-company CEO and into the COO seat of a company in a turnaround.
How do we start?
The same way every engagement starts: a discovery call. Forty-five minutes on video, the real problem on your desk, and a straight answer on whether I am the right person for it.
Start with the real problem.
Forty-five minutes, no pressure, no pitch. Bring the real problem on your desk and you will leave with a sharper version of it, and a straight answer on whether I am the right person for it.
- Send the note, or book the call if you would rather pick a time.
- Forty-five minutes, on video.
- A scope and a number if it makes sense to work together, and a straight no if it does not.
Or reach me directly:
(629) 304-8755
ken@kengavranovic.com
In person, or remote. City by city.
Executive coaching across a table, offsites in your room, consulting on your site. Based in Alpharetta, Georgia; remote everywhere.
- Alpharetta (home base)
- Atlanta (home market)
- Nashville (travel, remote)
- Dallas (travel, remote)
- Austin (travel, remote)
- Charlotte (travel, remote)
- New York (travel, remote)
- San Francisco (travel, remote)
- Chicago (travel, remote)
- Miami (travel, remote)
- Washington DC (travel, remote)
- Boston (travel, remote)