Executive coach in Nashville.
I coach CEOs, founders and senior executives in Nashville, and I have held the seats they sit in: 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.
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. Nashville companies get the same terms and the same operator.
Three ways to work with a Nashville 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 Nashville 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 Nashville: 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 Nashville companies: transformation leadership, 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 Nashville 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 Nashville.
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 Nashville’s large enterprises
Transformation inside an established enterprise, where the org chart and the history both push back: the hospital operators, headquarters and manufacturers that anchor Middle Tennessee. I led one 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.
Healthcare and health-tech leaders
Nashville’s largest industry, and a regulated one: hospital systems, outpatient and health IT companies, and the venture-backed businesses built around them. Executive coaching for the seat, not the sector: I built and launched an AI engagement platform that rolled out nationally across retail, healthcare and hospitality in under six months, and I know what a regulated operating environment does to the pace of change.
What is different about leading a company in Nashville.
Nashville’s largest industry is health care. The Nashville Health Care Council counts more than 900 healthcare companies in the region, generating over $97 billion a year, and the city’s healthcare entrepreneurs have raised more than $2 billion in venture capital in the past decade; HCA Healthcare was founded here in 1968 and sits at number 61 on the Fortune 500. That is a regulated industry run at scale, where the leadership problems are operational and political at once. I led that kind of change inside an 80-year-old enterprise at Cox Automotive, thousands of servers to the cloud at 99.9% uptime, and I built and launched an AI platform that rolled out nationally across retail, healthcare and hospitality in under six months.
The music industry that gives the city its name is estimated at about $10 billion a year and 56,000 jobs, and technology is growing behind it: Amazon’s retail operations hub at Nashville Yards, and Oracle’s planned campus of 8,500 people. I founded the company that became Web.com, took it to 650 people and a Nasdaq listing, and was EVP at New Relic while it grew from $300M to $500M. Headquarters in the metro include AllianceBernstein, Asurion, Bridgestone Americas, Dollar General, Tractor Supply and Nissan North America in Franklin, and 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 Nashville company, the sectors are different from the ones I led in, and the seats are not.
Executive coaching in Nashville: the questions people actually ask.
How do I choose an executive coach in Nashville?
Ask what you would ask anywhere, starting 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.
Which Nashville leaders do you coach?
CEOs and founders of technology and health-tech companies, senior executives inside hospital systems and other large Nashville enterprises, 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 Nashville?
The mix. Health care is the largest industry and a regulated one, so change is operational and political at once; the music and entertainment businesses run on creative talent and tight margins; technology is arriving at scale; and the growth companies around them have investors on the board. The section above walks through each and the seats I have held that map to it.
Do we need to meet in person in Nashville?
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.
How much does executive coaching cost in Nashville?
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.
Do you coach leadership teams in Nashville, 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 Nashville?
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 healthcare executives?
Yes, senior leaders in health systems, health services and health-tech companies. The coaching is about the seat you hold, not the clinical work: the board, the peers, the pace of change a regulated environment allows, and the team that worked at the last size. I have built and launched a platform into healthcare and led transformation inside a large regulated enterprise.
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.
Are executive coaches worth it?
It depends on what you need. It is worth it if you are ready to change how you operate and want a thinking partner who has held the seat. It is not worth it if you want someone to hand you the answer, if the gap is a technical skill a course would close faster, or if what you need is therapy. The full test is in how to choose an executive coach.
Can my company pay for coaching as professional development?
Usually, yes. Most of my clients are funded by their company, because coaching at this level is normally a line item in leadership development rather than a personal expense. If you need to make the case internally, I will help you build it.
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)