For academic leaders
A 90-day coaching cluster for academic leaders ready to be magnificent at the thing that decides everything: the conditions their people work in. You can't change your people. You can change the conditions they work in.
"Who you are changes what they do."
The program
A 90-day coaching cluster for academic leaders who are already good and want to be exceptional at the thing that decides everything: the conditions their people work in. Under real pressure, a studio of talented academics quietly turns into a factory, where everyone hand-makes everything until the work suffers and the people fray. You do not make the work, and you cannot rescue your people one at a time. You build the studio they work in.
The work happens through three components, applied first to you, then to the conditions around you. Beliefs, what you hold to be true about academic work, overwork, capability, and your own role. Relating, whether your people can ask for help, admit they are struggling, or push back without it quietly costing them. Work, how you design the conditions: workload models, what gets counted and rewarded, protected time, distributed load. Most leadership programs work on one of these. This one works on all three.
A discovery conversation, then a single integrated diagnostic, the Studio Conditions Map, across Beliefs, Relating, and Work. You receive a personalised report drawn from your own words back to you, with my annotations, two to three days before Session 1.
Sessions 1 and 2. We investigate what is actually going on from three sources: the diagnostic, your own reading, and your team's voice. Between sessions you hold structured listening conversations with your people. By the end, a clear, evidence-based reading of the system you lead inside, with candidate changes identified.
Sessions 3, 4, and 5. You name one specific change worth making and run deliberate experiments in the real rooms of your leadership: the workload meeting, the 1:1, the promotion conversation, the email sent at 11pm or not sent. Each session reads what happened, what it revealed, and designs the next move.
Session 6. We name what changed, build the personal model you carry forward, and look at what comes next, for you, for your team, and for the wider organisation. A short consolidation document follows within the week. You leave with the change made, and with the lens to read any team you will ever lead.
The shape of it
90 days. Six 90-minute sessions, fortnightly. Pre-work begins with a discovery conversation: fit, felt needs, permission to lead. The program is bought directly by the leader, self-funded or expensed through a professional development budget.
By the end you will have made one named change to the conditions your team works in, made it stick, and have the evidence to show it.
Beyond the program
Some leaders want a defined door to walk through, and the program is exactly that. Others want to keep going: an ongoing thinking partner, no fixed end date, no module structure, just a long-term relationship with someone who knows the science and isn't afraid to use it on the real problems of leading an academic team.
"I bring behavioural science, evolutionary psychology, and genuine creativity to the table. I ask good questions and I don't back away from the answers."
I'll stand alongside you as you work through the complexity of leading real humans in a real institution, and when I see something in you worth naming, I'll name it. Even if it's uncomfortable. Especially if it's uncomfortable.
Sometimes that looks like unpacking a theory that reframes everything. Sometimes it looks like a question that stays with you for weeks. Sometimes it looks like a moment of honest reflection that nobody else in your world was willing to offer.
The difference
Traditional coaching tends to work within the frame the client brings. A thinking partner challenges the frame itself. When the map isn't matching the territory, we don't keep reading the map. We question whether it was ever accurate.
I bring domain knowledge: deep expertise in behavioural science, evolutionary psychology, and the science of human performance. I don't just ask questions. I bring answers, frameworks, and the occasional uncomfortable truth that changes how you see the whole problem.
Who it's for
Heads of School, Directors, Deans, and senior academic leaders who are already good and want to be exceptional at the thing that decides everything: the conditions their people work in. Not leaders who want validation. Leaders who are tired of having the same workload conversation, who know their team is capable of more, and who are willing to examine what is getting in the way, including, sometimes, themselves. If that's you, let's talk.
Make an enquiry
Tell me a little about your team and what you're weighing up. I'll reply personally, usually within a day or two, and we'll work out together whether the 90 days is the right fit.
Thank you.
Your enquiry is with Brad. You'll hear back personally, usually within a day or two.
Only Human
A short piece of thinking, every so often. Written for leaders who are curious about the humans they lead, including themselves.