A private practicefor one kind ofleadership test.
Second Chair™ prepares the successor of a family business for the rooms where authority is decided. It is one person's work, done one family at a time.
Nikola Jovanović
The work has always been practical. Not theory about leadership, but the next real meeting.
For more than thirteen years, Nikola has worked with executives on how they come across in the moments that decide careers: the boardroom, the pitch, the announcement. Chief executives and senior leaders among them, most under NDA.
What to say first, how to answer the question everyone is waiting for, how to hold a room that would rather be listening to someone else.
His training is in language and communication: a degree in English language and literature, a specialisation in business communication, and certification as an accent coach and communication coach. Through Intonetic™, the communication practice he runs with his wife from Europe, he has worked with more than 6,700 clients. More about Nikola.
Second Chair™ brings that work to the most personal leadership test there is: taking over what a parent built, in front of people who have known you all your life. He takes on every engagement himself.
Every principal once sat beside one.
In an orchestra, the second chair sits beside the principal and learns every passage until the day the seat is theirs. In a courtroom, the second chair prepares every argument before leading a case of their own.
A successor is in that seat for a while. The work is making sure that when they move, the room moves with them.
Lawyers prepare the structure. Banks prepare the wealth. We prepare the person.
What we do
- How the successor communicates, and how they are heard
- Carrying authority with people who knew the founder first
- Leading the board, the senior team and the family table
- Preparing every high-stakes moment before it happens
What we leave to others
- Succession planning and governance
- Tax, law and the structure of ownership
- Investments and the management of wealth
- Deciding whether the successor should take the role
Families who need that advice already have advisors, and we work comfortably alongside them. We begin once the successor has decided to take the role. If that decision is still open, it is too early for this work.
Nothing about a family leaves the room.
We do not publish case studies. We do not name the families we work with. Every engagement begins under a mutual NDA.
The parent receives a monthly briefing on progress and priorities. What the successor says in sessions stays between coach and successor. That is what makes the work honest.
The handover will happen either way.
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