Insights

Insights

Essays and stories on the leadership work behind Compass Coaching — for founders, CEOs and senior leaders navigating the moments that matter.

Essay12 min read

Why the Ship Isn't Moving — Founder Team Alignment Coaching

The Captain Who Wonders Why the Ship Isn't Moving

Your strategy is clear. Your team is busy. The ship still isn't moving. Four gaps between founder and team — and how executive coaching closes them.

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Essay12 min read

The Captain Who Won't Look at the Map — Founder Self-Awareness

Founder self-awareness coaching on the decisions you already know you need to make.

The greatest risk isn't the storm outside — it's the hole in the hull you refuse to look at.

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Essay12 min read

Founder to CEO Transition Coaching

The five shifts from operator to CEO, and how executive coaching accelerates them.

That gap — between the operator who built the boat and the leader who now has to captain it — is where most growing companies stall. Not for lack of a market, or product, or ambition. They stall because the founder is still rowing when the job has become setting the heading.

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Story9 min read

The Compass

A story about what happens when the boat gets too far from shore.

A £50k lunch. A businessman who's forgotten what it feels like to be lost. The moment every leader hits when the shoreline disappears — and how the four points of a compass answer the questions the sea keeps asking.

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Essay11 min read

The North Star — why the first thing a coach does is help you pick a shore

A founder with a great team, healthy revenue, and no idea where he's rowing to.

The N pillar of Compass Coaching. Healthy revenue, a team that delivers, and no shore to row towards — why the first thing a coach does is help a founder pick one, and what changes the moment he does.

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Essay13 min read

Execution — why rowing hard isn't the same as moving fast

A founder with a great strategy, a strong team, and a boat that doesn't move.

Nine months in. Strategy set. Team strong. Everyone rowing hard. And still miles behind. Why execution isn't harder work — it's a system. Rhythm, ownership, accountability. Get the three right and the boat moves.

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Essay9 min read

Self-Awareness — why the rudder matters more than the rowing

A boat that pulls slightly to starboard, and the founder who built the business fighting a drift he didn't know he'd built in.

Different quarter, different decision, different team member — but underneath, the same shape he can't quite name. The S pillar of Compass Coaching: why the rudder underwater matters more than the rowing on deck.

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Buyer's Guide11 min read

Coach, Mentor, or Advisor — which do you actually need?

The market has confused these three words for a decade. Here's how to tell them apart.

A founder sat opposite me last month and said: 'I've been told I need a coach. I've been told I need a mentor. Someone at my board said I need an advisor. I don't know the difference.' Here's how to hear the difference — and hire the one you actually need.

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Essay6 min read

You built it. Now what?

The founder-to-CEO transition is the moment nobody warns you about.

A founder who has, by every external measure, won — and can't work out why the winning feels like sinking. The transition nobody puts in the calendar, and the four points of the compass that get founders through the crossing.

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Buyer's Guide7 min read

When to hire an executive coach

Most leaders hire an executive coach eighteen months too late.

Six honest signals it's time — and the wrong reasons most founders wait for. Plus the honesty check on whether what you actually need is a coach, a mentor, an advisor, or a combination.

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