Six months,built aroundthe rooms that matter.
The work follows the successor's real calendar. Every board meeting, announcement and difficult conversation in the next six months becomes the material, and each one is prepared before it happens.
The private diagnostic
Weeks one and two
It begins with two conversations: one with the parent about the business, the timeline and what success looks like, and one with the successor about how they see the handover and where they feel least credible.
Then three to five confidential interviews with the people the successor will lead: senior executives, a board member, sometimes a sibling. Underneath every interview sits one question: what would make you follow them?
Finally, a recorded baseline. A short address to the whole company, a board update with hard questions, and a difficult conversation, all done cold.
The result is a written diagnostic: how the successor comes across today, the three patterns costing them the most authority, and a leadership calendar of every high-stakes moment ahead.
The preparation
Twenty-four weekly sessions
One private session a week, sixty minutes, remote. The first half introduces something new and tries it cold. The second half applies it to the next real event on the calendar, coached live.
The order flexes. When a board meeting or an announcement comes early, the work it needs moves forward.
Speak like an owner
Leading with the decision, not the background. Answering the questions they dread from the board in under a minute. Telling the same news three ways: to the board, the senior team and the family. The quiet shift from "my father thinks" to "we decided".
Earn the room
The founding story, retold with the chapter they will write. A voice that carries authority: pace, pauses, where a sentence lands. Leading people with more tenure, including those who knew them as a child. Holding the room when a senior director disagrees in front of others. The first company address, drafted and tested in a recorded mock board meeting.
Lead the room
Unscripted moments: town halls, client dinners, the corridor. Winning over banks, partners and key customers who are loyal to the parent. Investor and press conversations. A full stress test: bad numbers, a hostile director, no notes.
The family table
Saying what they need from the handover without sounding ungrateful. Siblings, fairness and who decides what. Designing the family meeting and rehearsing it. A two-page personal playbook, and the three baseline scenarios recorded again, side by side with week two.
- Before real events
- A short rehearsal in the days before any moment on the leadership calendar
- Between sessions
- Voice notes on anything that cannot wait a week, answered within one business day
The handover
End of month six
One facilitated session, two and a half to three hours, with the successor, the parent and anyone the family chooses. In person where possible.
The successor speaks first. Then the questions that usually stay unspoken: which decisions move and when, how the two generations disagree in front of the team, what the parent's role becomes, and who tells the company, the board and key partners, in what order.
It ends with a one-page Handover Charter, written in the room and signed by both.
Informed, without reading session notes.
- Week one
- A private intake: the business, the timeline, what you want to see by month six
- Week two
- A summary of the diagnostic
- Monthly
- A thirty-minute briefing on progress, upcoming events and how you can help
- Month six
- The handover session, the signed charter and a written closing report
One successor. Six months. Every room that matters.
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