One-on-One Coaching
Your first or next board seat, earned by design, not left to chance.
You have done the right things, and you are used to being tapped for your next opportunity. But board service has long been a mystery, even to the leaders most qualified to serve, and the path that advanced your career rarely opens the boardroom door. For some, it once did. It no longer does.
I remove the mystery, because I sit inside the process most candidates only see from the outside. As a sitting independent director, a search professional who sees how seats are filled, and a researcher who has formally and informally interviewed hundreds of directors who made this exact transition, I know what moves a candidate from qualified to invited, and how little of it is left to chance.
Trusted, published, and in the rooms where board decisions are made.
• Author of The Boardroom Journey (Wiley)
• NACD Directorship Certified, and a 2023 NACD Directorship 100 honoree
• Published in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes, and Directors & Boards
• A sitting independent director, and a senior advisor in the CEO and board services practice of a global executive search firm, so I see how board seats are actually filled, from every side of the table
You are not behind. You are in new terrain.
For most of your career, opportunity found you. You did excellent work, and the next role followed. That pattern rewarded you for decades, and it built a quiet assumption: that board service would arrive the same way, and for some it did, but no longer does.
Boards are filled through a different process than the one that advanced your executive career, and that process has tightened. The skills it rewards, positioning, visibility to the right people, and interviewing as a non-executive director rather than an operator, are ones most accomplished leaders have simply never needed to build. Not because you lack them. Because nothing in your path has asked for them yet. And if you already serve on one board, you may have discovered that the first seat does not make the next one automatic. That has been proven to be more of a myth than reality. (See how boards are actually filled.)
So you may be one of two people right now. The enthusiastic beginner, energized about board service but unsure where to truly begin. Or the disillusioned learner, who has done the programs, earned the certifications, perhaps even served on a corporate board, and still finds the next door closed, with no one giving direction specific enough to your situation to change the outcome.
Either way, the answer is not to do more of what is not working, or to keep waiting to be tapped. It is to train the specific capabilities board service requires, with someone who can meet you exactly where you are.
You have done the programs. Here is why this is different.
The board-readiness and education programs are good. Many of my clients have completed them, and I recommend them often. They teach the landscape, the governance fundamentals, and the broad strokes of how board service works. That foundation matters. (More on the board readiness ecosystem.)
Board-readiness programs are often rightfully designed to meet the “many” where they are and typically won’t diagnose where you, specifically, are stuck, why your outreach is not converting, or how you come across in a board interview when the question is one you did not expect. They cannot tell the first-time candidate and the experienced director apart, and meet each exactly where they stand. That is not what most programs are built to do.
However, that is what this program is designed to do.
One-on-one means the guidance is calibrated to your experience, your gaps, your network, and your timeline, not to a curriculum designed for many people at once. It is the difference between learning what board service requires and being individually prepared to secure it.
If you have invested in the programs and the door still has not opened, the missing piece is rarely more information. It is direction specific enough to act on.
Two ways to work with me
Both are six-month, renewable engagements. Which fits depends on how much you want to carry yourself, and how much you want me alongside you.
Accountability Partnership
For the self-driven leader who wants expert checkpoints, not hand-holding.
You have decided to do things differently to get different results during your boardroom journey, and I will meet you where you are at each session. You set the agenda. Have a board interview coming up? We prepare for it. A mixer on the calendar? We plan your approach. Trying to decide which type of board is right for you, or sharpen your personal board value proposition? We dig in, with honest discussion and homework to match. These are up to 20 focused, thirty-minute working sessions that keep you executing, in whatever order your journey actually unfolds. You set the pace; I make sure you keep it, and keep it pointed in the right direction.
Is this you?
• You want to bring your most pressing boardroom journey challenge to each session and work it through with an expert.
• You want to move in the order your journey demands, not a fixed curriculum.
• You value efficiency, and short, high-impact sessions designed to help you hold yourself accountable to doing the right things at the right times to get the right results.
Individual Advisory
For the leader and learner who wants a curriculum with a dedicated strategist for the whole journey.
This is hands-on, end-to-end partnership. We begin with a deep-dive strategy session, then meet for one-hour, focused one-on-one advisory sessions, twice a month, to build and execute your board search strategy end to end: your positioning, your board bio, your networking, your interview readiness, and the specific moves that get the right people to know who you are and what you want. Where useful, we integrate Hogan or DISC assessments to sharpen your self-awareness and your edge.
Is this you?
• You want a personalized, end-to-end strategy, guided by a proven curriculum and a partner who has done this.
• You want hands-on help with positioning, your board bio, networking, and interviews.
• You want the step-by-step, individually guided path to develop and execute your boardroom journey.
Here is what you can stop, and start, doing
When you work with me:
STOP: Feeling overwhelmed by the uncertainty of how to secure your first or next board seat, unsure where to begin or what actually works.
START: Following a clear, proven roadmap that takes you from aspiration to the actions that lead to board service.
STOP: Struggling to tell your board story, wondering if your experience is compelling enough for today's boards.
START: Building a powerful narrative that positions you as a standout candidate ready to serve.
STOP: Relying on scattered advice or dated tactics that do not fit how boards are filled today.
START: Working from current, proven strategy built for today's board selection process.
STOP: Feeling like the best-kept secret in your industry while others get the opportunities you have earned.
START: Raising your visibility and credibility so the right boards discover and recruit you.
STOP: Networking aimlessly, unsure which relationships actually matter.
START: Building authentic relationships and reaching opportunities through targeted, high-value connections.
STOP: Second-guessing your readiness, wondering whether your certifications and education are enough.
START: Confidently closing the gap between preparation and impact, with coaching, accountability, and the tools to perform.
STOP: Waiting to be tapped, hoping the right board call simply arrives.
START: Proactively positioning yourself so the right people know who you are and what you want.
STOP: Chasing board opportunities with no clear direction or strategy.
START: Pursuing the right opportunities, aligned with your goals and your expertise.
Why work with me
If you are like many accomplished executives pursuing a board seat, you have done the right things, invested in the education and the certifications, and you still find the path unclear. You know you bring value. You are simply not sure how to position yourself to be seen, and selected, among other strong candidates.
I have been there, on every side of the table.
As a sitting independent director, a nominating and governance committee member, and a senior advisor in the CEO and board services practice of a global executive search firm, I have watched how directors are actually sourced, vetted, and chosen. As a researcher, I have formally and informally interviewed hundreds of independent directors who successfully made the transition from executive to non-executive director. That combination, the candidate’s seat, the boardroom seat, the committee seat, the search professional’s seat, and the researcher’s lens, is what lets me give you direction specific enough to act on.
My work is research-backed, not anecdotal. I wrote The Boardroom Journey (Wiley) to demystify a process that has long been a mystery to the very people most qualified to serve, and built the frameworks behind it, the Five Capitals of Board Directors, the Four Strategies to Secure a Corporate Board Seat, and Optimal Diversity, to give accomplished leaders a proven, repeatable path rather than scattered advice. (Read the Five Capitals framework.)
That work has been recognized where it counts. I am NACD Directorship Certified, a 2023 NACD Directorship 100 honoree, and a 2025 BoardProspects Top 100 board member, and my writing on board service and governance appears in Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Forbes, and Directors & Boards.
See the full record of my writing, speaking, and media
Many executives believe they are qualified and deserve a seat on a corporate board. Far fewer are willing to do the work it actually takes. The fact that you have read this far tells me you may be one of them. If that is you, let’s build the plan that gets you there.
The work begins with an application.
I take on a limited number of leaders at a time, so the conversation starts with a short application. It tells me where you are, what you are aiming for, and whether we are the right fit, and it means that when we talk, we are already moving.