Executive coaching in Washington, DC.

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 Washington, DC 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 Washington, DC: 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 Washington organizations: transformation leadership, compliance-first growth for companies selling to government, board counsel and work with private equity portfolio companies.

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.

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.

Leaders inside federal agencies and government contractors

Washington hosts the headquarters of the federal government, and any cloud service that holds federal data must be FedRAMP authorized. I worked closely with the FedRAMP program office and carried FedRAMP through at New Relic and Unqork; at New Relic that work protected $40M of public-sector revenue.

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.

CEOs of companies that sell to government

Selling to the federal government is its own seat: compliance comes before revenue, and the agency CTO wants to meet the person accountable. I carried FedRAMP through at two companies and met those CTOs myself.

Washington runs on the federal government. The city hosts the headquarters of the federal government, and FedRAMP, the government-wide program for the security assessment and authorization of cloud products, decides which cloud services may hold federal data. I worked closely with the FedRAMP program office and drove FedRAMP authorization at both New Relic and Unqork; at New Relic that work protected $40M of public-sector revenue. My New Relic organization included a large government business, and I made many trips to the Social Security Administration and other agencies to meet their CTOs.

Washington is also home to many of the nation’s largest industry associations, non-profit organizations and think tanks, centered on and around K Street, and to the global headquarters of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. I founded Interland, the company that became Web.com, and took it to 650 people and a Nasdaq IPO; as a VP at Unqork I led implementations for Goldman Sachs, Marsh and State Street; I spent a decade as a managing partner at a venture firm and board member across 35 deals and 18 exits, and sat in the COO seat of a VC-backed turnaround. When we talk about your Washington organization, the seats are the ones I have held.

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Ken will get back to you personally. If it's time-sensitive, feel free to grab a slot above.