Coaching
I coach leaders one to one, I work with leadership teams and I chair two Vistage peer advisory groups that meet monthly in the San Francisco Bay Area.
One-to-one coaching
For CEOs and executives who want an outside view on the decisions in front of them
Most of my one-to-one clients are in a similar position: the decisions have gotten bigger, and fewer people around them can honestly weigh in. They want to think out loud, ask questions and work through issues.
Sessions run about an hour, every week or every other week, in person or by video. Email and calls in between are included, and I’ll often leave you with something to work on before the next session.
I always ask to start with a three-month engagement, because it takes a few sessions to go from “getting to know each other” to “doing the work.” After that we continue month to month for as long as it’s useful.
The first conversation is free, because you’re deciding about me as much as I’m deciding about you.
“Arjen has kept me focused and held me accountable, which led to solutions I wouldn’t have reached on my own. His style is straightforward and supportive, and he challenges me when I need it. I only wish I’d hired him sooner.”
Coaching a leadership team
For leaders who want their leadership team working better together
Here, my client is the whole team.
The CEO usually brings me in and tells me what outcomes they’re after or what’s getting in the way. Then I meet each team member individually and have everyone take assessments such as Predictive Index or Positive Intelligence, so the whole team can see how each person works.
What comes up most often is roles and expectations: who owns what, and what each person should be able to expect from the others once a plan is agreed. I work through that with people individually and then with the team together.
I also work with teams on strategy and culture: what they’re trying to achieve together, and how they want to behave with each other, their people, their clients and their partners.
Once the top team is aligned, the level below often goes through the same process, so everyone in a leadership role is working from the same language.
The team decides how long we work together, and many carry on with a new goal once they’ve reached the first.
“I brought Arjen in because my leadership team was not operating as efficiently as I wanted. He started by meeting each of us separately, which got at things we had not been saying clearly enough to each other. Most of it turned out to be about who owns what. The conversations are more honest now and decisions take less time. I would recommend him to any CEO.”
Vistage peer advisory groups
For CEOs and senior leaders who want to think things through with their peers
I’m a Vistage Chair, selected and trained for the role, and I lead two Vistage peer advisory groups here in the Bay Area. Both meet in person every month. Members join by invitation after several conversations on both sides.
Vistage has been refining the peer advisory model for more than 65 years and has over 45,000 members worldwide. Vistage member companies grow 2.2 times faster than non-members and stay in business far longer than the national average.
Chief Executive Group
For leaders of established businesses with $5 to $500 million in annual revenue
Members bring real issues, test decisions before they make them and hold each other to what they said they’d do. The group stays small, at no more than sixteen CEOs, and each meeting is a full day, often with an outside expert speaker. It’s a real working group, not another networking club.
What members get:
- Better decisions, from the range of experience in the group and the time to step back from the day-to-day
- Accountability to people whose opinion they care about
- A place to speak freely, because what’s said in the group stays in the group
- Real relationships, built by working on each other’s problems
- Growth, personally and in the business
- Relief from how isolating the top job can be
- Somewhere to work through change, whether it comes from inside or outside the business
Trusted Advisor Group
For senior people in professional services such as accounting, law, financial advisory, PR or consulting
Members are advisors who work with CEOs and business owners. The group helps them sharpen their own leadership, improve what they offer clients and grow their practice through closer ties to the Vistage CEO network. Meetings are half a day.
“I have been a member of Arjen’s Vistage CEO group for several years. His thoughtful approach and calm demeanor, combined with his strategic insight and practical advice, are exceptional. The group under his leadership has helped me think through complex challenges. I consider Arjen a trusted advisor and mentor.”