Executive Team Coaching
Executive team coaching with Neil will get your most difficult—even toxic—teams working together again.
Neil Bierbaum | Master Certified Coach (MCC) | MPhil Leadership Coaching (cum laude) | 10,000+ Coaching Hours | Johannesburg, South Africa & Global
Executive Team Coaching
Executive team coaching with Neil will get your most difficult—even toxic—teams working together again.
Neil Bierbaum | Master Certified Coach (MCC) | MPhil Leadership Coaching (cum laude) | 10,000+ Coaching Hours | Johannesburg, South Africa & Global
Most executive team coaching produces better survey scores. This produces actual change.
HERE IS what the research on psychological safety consistently finds: most executive teams know what honest conversation looks like. They have also learned, often painfully, that having it is not safe. Training people in the behaviours of psychological safety while leaving the underlying relational contract unchanged produces the right language in workshops — and the same avoidance in meeting rooms.
The missing piece is not skills. It’s contracting. Executive teams need to explicitly agree to a different relational stance — what Peter Senge called colleagueship: seeing each other as fellow investigators of a shared challenge, not adversaries to manage or performances to endure. Without that contract, communication training is theatre.
I specialise in coaching executive teams — especially the difficult ones for whom all hope seems lost — to higher levels of performance by contracting for that shift first. The psychological safety follows. High performance is the result of that sequence, not the other way around.
This is not gentle work. Rooms go quiet. Things that have not been said get said. And then teams build on something real.
Most executive team coaching produces better survey scores. This produces actual change.
HERE IS what the research on psychological safety consistently finds: most executive teams know what honest conversation looks like. They have also learned, often painfully, that having it is not safe. Training people in the behaviours of psychological safety while leaving the underlying relational contract unchanged produces the right language in workshops — and the same avoidance in meeting rooms.
The missing piece is not skills. It’s contracting. Executive teams need to explicitly agree to a different relational stance — what Peter Senge called colleagueship: seeing each other as fellow investigators of a shared challenge, not adversaries to manage or performances to endure. Without that contract, communication training is theatre.
I specialise in coaching executive teams — especially the difficult ones for whom all hope seems lost — to higher levels of performance by contracting for that shift first. The psychological safety follows. High performance is the result of that sequence, not the other way around.
This is not gentle work. Rooms go quiet. Things that have not been said get said. And then teams build on something real.
Executive Team Coaching
Executive team coaching with Neil will get even toxic teams working together again.
Neil Bierbaum | Master Certified Coach (MCC) | MPhil Leadership Coaching (cum laude) | 10,000+ Coaching Hours | Johannesburg, South Africa & Global
Most executive team coaching produces better survey scores. This produces actual change.
HERE IS what the research on psychological safety consistently finds: most executive teams know what honest conversation looks like. They have also learned, often painfully, that having it is not safe. Training people in the behaviours of psychological safety while leaving the underlying relational contract unchanged produces the right language in workshops — and the same avoidance in meeting rooms.
The missing piece is not skills. It’s contracting. Executive teams need to explicitly agree to a different relational stance — what Peter Senge called colleagueship: seeing each other as fellow investigators of a shared challenge, not adversaries to manage or performances to endure. Without that contract, communication training is theatre.
I specialise in coaching executive teams — especially the difficult ones for whom all hope seems lost — to higher levels of performance by contracting for that shift first. The psychological safety follows. High performance is the result of that sequence, not the other way around.
This is not gentle work. Rooms go quiet. Things that have not been said get said. And then teams build on something real.
“You can’t train psychological safety. You have to contract for it.”
“You can’t train psychological safety. You have to contract for it.”
“You can’t train psychological safety. You have to contract for it.”
My Credentials
+ Master Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation)
+ MPhil Leadership Coaching (cum laude) (Top Student; Research Award) Stellenbosch Business School (2025)
+ BCom (Economics) (1988)
+ 10,000+ documented hours: 5,000+ individual coaching ; 5,000+ team coaching
+ Geography Senior leadership and C-suite teams across Africa, Middle East, Europe and Canada
+ Industries Pharma (AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Lundbeck); Financial Services (Absa, RMB, Investec, Nedbank); Mining & Energy (De Beers, Exxaro, Shell, Chevron)
+ Coach Training Professional Coaching Diploma from Creative Consciousness International (ICF ACTP) (2005); Professional Trainer (2007) — 2,500+ hours leading intensive personal transformation trainings
+ Team Process Experience Enneagram (Five Lens); Tuckman Team Stages; Senge (Learning Organization & Colleagueship); Neuroscience-based communication models; Ontological coaching; CBT-informed facilitation
+ Background Award-winning journalist and editor; early Internet pioneer; startup co-founder; 30+ years meditation practice
+ Publications The Conscious Leader: 52 Leadership Maxims (2017); Practical Mindfulness with Dr Colinda Linde (2018); Personal Effectiveness Series (2019)
What Situation Are You In?
What kind of engagement do you need?
Even a small personnel change can return a team to the forming stage. I contract for the new relational reality before tension becomes entrenched. The sooner that happens, the less energy is wasted on unspoken positioning.
Politeness at the cost of honesty is a structural problem, not a personality one. The relational contract needs to change first. The communication skills follow. I do not teach skills into a container that cannot hold them.
When individuals are more invested in their positioning than in the collective outcome, conflict becomes chronic. Usually the issue is not bad intent — it is an unresolved failure to work with genuine differences. I get teams unstuck from that pattern.
A team that has stopped challenging itself is going backwards, not standing still. Sustaining high performance requires knowing what practices got you there and deliberately building on them. That is the conversation I facilitate.
Executive Team Coaching Programs
One-Day Team Alignment Process
I use this executive team coaching format when a team is broadly functional but needs to embed a new leader or members, or when you want to inject energy and forward momentum with real substance behind it. It is more meaningful than a rope-climbing exercise — and considerably more useful.
I run the day using the Enneagram (individual personality reports, including confidential reports for each participant) and Tuckman’s Team Stages model (team questionnaire completed beforehand) to build a shared picture of how team members work, where the team currently sits on the high-performance spectrum, and what needs to shift. I introduce and practise a neuroscience-based communication model, and close the day with individual acknowledgements.
I can add elements from the longer Team Performance Process — individual Enneagram debriefs, follow-up individual coaching sessions, or follow-up half-day team sessions — to increase depth or sustain momentum.
Outcomes of the one-day process:
- A clear shared understanding of personality style differences and how to work with them
- Shared diagnosis of where the team sits relative to high performance
- Explicit individual and collective commitments to the shifts needed
- Initial practice in trust-invoking, honest collaborative conversations
Best suited for: team builds with purpose; embedding a new leader or team members quickly; project team alignment.
Two-Day Team Performance Process
This is the heavy-lifting version of executive team coaching. I use it for senior teams with significant issues to unpack, or for teams that are serious about achieving and sustaining high performance. You cannot leave out parts of it for the same reason you cannot leave out structural walls when building a house.
The process pivots around a two-day offsite, but what happens before and after the offsite is what transforms an event into a sustained shift. I have individual contact with each team member before the workshop — to build trust and surface the real issues in a safe context. I follow up approximately three weeks after the offsite to connect what was contracted for in the room with what is actually happening on the ground. Without those contact points, workshop value evaporates.
I can add follow-up half-day integration sessions to embed specific learnings through further real-play exercises.
Outcomes of the two-day process:
- Deep shared understanding of working style differences and how to leverage them
- Clear picture of what a high-performing team looks like, where the current team is, and what is required to close the gap
- Honest unpacking of current issues — the elephants in the room addressed, not diplomatically avoided
- A contracted container for trust and psychological safety
- Individual and team commitments to specific high-performance practices
- Strategic direction-setting (where relevant)
Best suited for: executive-level teams; teams with complex or strategic issues; high conflict or dysfunction; teams navigating major change.
What Clients Have Said
-
Barbara Nel, Country President, AstraZeneca (African Cluster)
"These sessions and Neil's coaching made all the difference to the SLT’s working together and our levels of openness with each other. It played a huge role for me to get clarity on team dynamics and gave us collectively a strong framework to improve those dynamics step-by-step."
-
Ntombi Maphisa, Logistics & Stock Controller, MultiChoice Africa
"There is a huge improvement in the team dynamics. We've learned that we need to approach each other differently as we are different people with different personalities, and every team member has strengths that can be valuable to the success of the team."
-
Susan Simpson, Director: Commercial Excellence, AstraZeneca
"The team process with Neil was highly valuable for us as a new team to get to know ourselves and each other better. It sped up the process of building trust and fostering colleagueship which has enabled us to very quickly work together and function effectively."
-
Stuart Scanlon, Managing Director, EpicERP
"In the time since we started working with Neil, the team has experienced work pressure beyond anything that they had seen before. They all remained calm, kept a sense of humour and were able to deliver. Neil has walked the walk; his experience and background make him a natural coach."
-
George Mwangangi, Distributor Relationship Manager, AstraZeneca (Sub-Saharan Africa)
"We are more open with each other and have better cross-functional collaboration. Personally, I benefited from better time management through the follow-up calls with Neil. The process offers great value, I would definitely recommend it."
-
Tim Keegan, Managing Director, Winder Controls
"Neil engaged our band of 15 project managers, department heads and directors in a short, sharp team coaching process. The effect has been noticeable in terms of our team interactions and has already begun to impact positively on the company’s performance."
My Credentials
+ Master Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation)
+ MPhil Leadership Coaching (cum laude) (Top Student; Research Award) Stellenbosch Business School (2025)
+ BCom (Economics) (1988)
+ 10,000+ documented hours: 5,000+ individual coaching ; 5,000+ team coaching
+ Geography Senior leadership and C-suite teams across Africa, Middle East, Europe and Canada
+ Industries Pharma (AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Lundbeck); Financial Services (Absa, RMB, Investec, Nedbank); Mining & Energy (De Beers, Exxaro, Shell, Chevron)
+ Coach Training Professional Coaching Diploma from Creative Consciousness International (ICF ACTP) (2005); Professional Trainer (2007) — 2,500+ hours leading intensive personal transformation trainings
+ Team Process Experience Enneagram (Five Lens); Tuckman Team Stages; Senge (Learning Organization & Colleagueship); Neuroscience-based communication models; Ontological coaching; CBT-informed facilitation
+ Background Award-winning journalist and editor; early Internet pioneer; startup co-founder; 30+ years meditation practice
+ Publications The Conscious Leader: 52 Leadership Maxims (2017); Practical Mindfulness with Dr Colinda Linde (2018); Personal Effectiveness Series (2019)
What Situation Are You In?
What kind of engagement do you need?
Even a small personnel change can return a team to the forming stage. I contract for the new relational reality before tension becomes entrenched. The sooner that happens, the less energy is wasted on unspoken positioning.
Politeness at the cost of honesty is a structural problem, not a personality one. The relational contract needs to change first. The communication skills follow. I do not teach skills into a container that cannot hold them.
When individuals are more invested in their positioning than in the collective outcome, conflict becomes chronic. Usually the issue is not bad intent — it is an unresolved failure to work with genuine differences. I get teams unstuck from that pattern.
A team that has stopped challenging itself is going backwards, not standing still. Sustaining high performance requires knowing what practices got you there and deliberately building on them. That is the conversation I facilitate.
Executive Team Coaching Programs
One-Day Team Alignment Process
I use this executive team coaching format when a team is broadly functional but needs to embed a new leader or members, or when you want to inject energy and forward momentum with real substance behind it. It is more meaningful than a rope-climbing exercise — and considerably more useful.
I run the day using the Enneagram (individual personality reports, including confidential reports for each participant) and Tuckman’s Team Stages model (team questionnaire completed beforehand) to build a shared picture of how team members work, where the team currently sits on the high-performance spectrum, and what needs to shift. I introduce and practise a neuroscience-based communication model, and close the day with individual acknowledgements.
I can add elements from the longer Team Performance Process — individual Enneagram debriefs, follow-up individual coaching sessions, or follow-up half-day team sessions — to increase depth or sustain momentum.
Outcomes of the one-day process:
- A clear shared understanding of personality style differences and how to work with them
- Shared diagnosis of where the team sits relative to high performance
- Explicit individual and collective commitments to the shifts needed
- Initial practice in trust-invoking, honest collaborative conversations
Best suited for: team builds with purpose; embedding a new leader or team members quickly; project team alignment.
Two-Day Team Performance Process
This is the heavy-lifting version of executive team coaching. I use it for senior teams with significant issues to unpack, or for teams that are serious about achieving and sustaining high performance. You cannot leave out parts of it for the same reason you cannot leave out structural walls when building a house.
The process pivots around a two-day offsite, but what happens before and after the offsite is what transforms an event into a sustained shift. I have individual contact with each team member before the workshop — to build trust and surface the real issues in a safe context. I follow up approximately three weeks after the offsite to connect what was contracted for in the room with what is actually happening on the ground. Without those contact points, workshop value evaporates.
I can add follow-up half-day integration sessions to embed specific learnings through further real-play exercises.
Outcomes of the two-day process:
- Deep shared understanding of working style differences and how to leverage them
- Clear picture of what a high-performing team looks like, where the current team is, and what is required to close the gap
- Honest unpacking of current issues — the elephants in the room addressed, not diplomatically avoided
- A contracted container for trust and psychological safety
- Individual and team commitments to specific high-performance practices
- Strategic direction-setting (where relevant)
Best suited for: executive-level teams; teams with complex or strategic issues; high conflict or dysfunction; teams navigating major change.
What Clients Have Said
-
Barbara Nel, Country President, AstraZeneca (African Cluster)
"These sessions and Neil's coaching made all the difference to the SLT’s working together and our levels of openness with each other. It played a huge role for me to get clarity on team dynamics and gave us collectively a strong framework to improve those dynamics step-by-step."
-
Ntombi Maphisa, Logistics & Stock Controller, MultiChoice Africa
"There is a huge improvement in the team dynamics. We've learned that we need to approach each other differently as we are different people with different personalities, and every team member has strengths that can be valuable to the success of the team."
-
Susan Simpson, Director: Commercial Excellence, AstraZeneca
"The team process with Neil was highly valuable for us as a new team to get to know ourselves and each other better. It sped up the process of building trust and fostering colleagueship which has enabled us to very quickly work together and function effectively."
-
Stuart Scanlon, Managing Director, EpicERP
"In the time since we started working with Neil, the team has experienced work pressure beyond anything that they had seen before. They all remained calm, kept a sense of humour and were able to deliver. Neil has walked the walk; his experience and background make him a natural coach."
-
George Mwangangi, Distributor Relationship Manager, AstraZeneca (Sub-Saharan Africa)
"We are more open with each other and have better cross-functional collaboration. Personally, I benefited from better time management through the follow-up calls with Neil. The process offers great value, I would definitely recommend it."
-
Tim Keegan, Managing Director, Winder Controls
"Neil engaged our band of 15 project managers, department heads and directors in a short, sharp team coaching process. The effect has been noticeable in terms of our team interactions and has already begun to impact positively on the company’s performance."
My Credentials
+ Master Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation)
+ MPhil Leadership Coaching (cum laude) (Top Student; Research Award) Stellenbosch Business School (2025)
+ BCom (Economics) (1988)
+ 10,000+ documented hours: 5,000+ individual coaching ; 5,000+ team coaching
+ Geography Senior leadership and C-suite teams across Africa, Middle East, Europe and Canada
+ Industries Pharma (AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Lundbeck); Financial Services (Absa, RMB, Investec, Nedbank); Mining & Energy (De Beers, Exxaro, Shell, Chevron)
+ Coach Training Professional Coaching Diploma from Creative Consciousness International (ICF ACTP) (2005); Professional Trainer (2007) — 2,500+ hours leading intensive personal transformation trainings
+ Team Process Experience Enneagram (Five Lens); Tuckman Team Stages; Senge (Learning Organization & Colleagueship); Neuroscience-based communication models; Ontological coaching; CBT-informed facilitation
+ Background Award-winning journalist and editor; early Internet pioneer; startup co-founder; 30+ years meditation practice
+ Publications The Conscious Leader: 52 Leadership Maxims (2017); Practical Mindfulness with Dr Colinda Linde (2018); Personal Effectiveness Series (2019)
What Situation Are You In?
What kind of engagement do you need?
Even a small personnel change can return a team to the forming stage. I contract for the new relational reality before tension becomes entrenched. The sooner that happens, the less energy is wasted on unspoken positioning.
Politeness at the cost of honesty is a structural problem, not a personality one. The relational contract needs to change first. The communication skills follow. I do not teach skills into a container that cannot hold them.
When individuals are more invested in their positioning than in the collective outcome, conflict becomes chronic. Usually the issue is not bad intent — it is an unresolved failure to work with genuine differences. I get teams unstuck from that pattern.
A team that has stopped challenging itself is going backwards, not standing still. Sustaining high performance requires knowing what practices got you there and deliberately building on them. That is the conversation I facilitate.
Executive Team Coaching Programs
One-Day Team Alignment Process
I use this executive team coaching format when a team is broadly functional but needs to embed a new leader or members, or when you want to inject energy and forward momentum with real substance behind it. It is more meaningful than a rope-climbing exercise — and considerably more useful.
I run the day using the Enneagram (individual personality reports, including confidential reports for each participant) and Tuckman’s Team Stages model (team questionnaire completed beforehand) to build a shared picture of how team members work, where the team currently sits on the high-performance spectrum, and what needs to shift. I introduce and practise a neuroscience-based communication model, and close the day with individual acknowledgements.
I can add elements from the longer Team Performance Process — individual Enneagram debriefs, follow-up individual coaching sessions, or follow-up half-day team sessions — to increase depth or sustain momentum.
Outcomes of the one-day process:
- A clear shared understanding of personality style differences and how to work with them
- Shared diagnosis of where the team sits relative to high performance
- Explicit individual and collective commitments to the shifts needed
- Initial practice in trust-invoking, honest collaborative conversations
Best suited for: team builds with purpose; embedding a new leader or team members quickly; project team alignment.
Two-Day Team Performance Process
This is the heavy-lifting version of executive team coaching. I use it for senior teams with significant issues to unpack, or for teams that are serious about achieving and sustaining high performance. You cannot leave out parts of it for the same reason you cannot leave out structural walls when building a house.
The process pivots around a two-day offsite, but what happens before and after the offsite is what transforms an event into a sustained shift. I have individual contact with each team member before the workshop — to build trust and surface the real issues in a safe context. I follow up approximately three weeks after the offsite to connect what was contracted for in the room with what is actually happening on the ground. Without those contact points, workshop value evaporates.
I can add follow-up half-day integration sessions to embed specific learnings through further real-play exercises.
Outcomes of the two-day process:
- Deep shared understanding of working style differences and how to leverage them
- Clear picture of what a high-performing team looks like, where the current team is, and what is required to close the gap
- Honest unpacking of current issues — the elephants in the room addressed, not diplomatically avoided
- A contracted container for trust and psychological safety
- Individual and team commitments to specific high-performance practices
- Strategic direction-setting (where relevant)
Best suited for: executive-level teams; teams with complex or strategic issues; high conflict or dysfunction; teams navigating major change.
What Clients Have Said
-
Barbara Nel, Country President, AstraZeneca (African Cluster)
"These sessions and Neil's coaching made all the difference to the SLT’s working together and our levels of openness with each other. It played a huge role for me to get clarity on team dynamics and gave us collectively a strong framework to improve those dynamics step-by-step."
-
Ntombi Maphisa, Logistics & Stock Controller, MultiChoice Africa
"There is a huge improvement in the team dynamics. We've learned that we need to approach each other differently as we are different people with different personalities, and every team member has strengths that can be valuable to the success of the team."
-
Susan Simpson, Director: Commercial Excellence, AstraZeneca
"The team process with Neil was highly valuable for us as a new team to get to know ourselves and each other better. It sped up the process of building trust and fostering colleagueship which has enabled us to very quickly work together and function effectively."
-
Stuart Scanlon, Managing Director, EpicERP
"In the time since we started working with Neil, the team has experienced work pressure beyond anything that they had seen before. They all remained calm, kept a sense of humour and were able to deliver. Neil has walked the walk; his experience and background make him a natural coach."
-
George Mwangangi, Distributor Relationship Manager, AstraZeneca (Sub-Saharan Africa)
"We are more open with each other and have better cross-functional collaboration. Personally, I benefited from better time management through the follow-up calls with Neil. The process offers great value, I would definitely recommend it."
-
Tim Keegan, Managing Director, Winder Controls
"Neil engaged our band of 15 project managers, department heads and directors in a short, sharp team coaching process. The effect has been noticeable in terms of our team interactions and has already begun to impact positively on the company’s performance."
How safe is it to speak up in your team?
How safe is it to speak up in your team?
How safe is it to speak up in your team?
FAQ Section
A team build is an event. Executive team coaching is a structured process with a before, a during, and an after — designed to produce lasting change in how an executive team operates, not a temporary lift in morale. The fundamental difference is contracting: I explicitly create a new relational agreement between team members rather than hoping that a shared activity will generate one by osmosis. Events produce memories. Coaching produces change.
Most psychological safety training teaches the behaviours associated with safe teams — speaking up, active listening, constructive feedback — to a band of unrelated people who have nothing at stake together. Most of the learning gets lost when those people return to their teams; what remains is performative and therefore experienced as inauthentic. I prioritise coaching executive teams to contract for colleagueship — a relational stance defined by Peter Senge out of which trust (psychological safety) arises organically. This takes the form of an explicit, agreed shift in the team’s relational stance, achieved in parallel with skill-building. The mutual transformation is witnessed by team members, which results in behavioural tools being used, appreciated and understood — there is a real foundation for applying them honestly and authentically.
The Enneagram is a model of nine core personality types and their associated patterns of perception, motivation, and reactivity. I use the Five Lens assessment — a validated, professionally delivered version — because it gives teams a specific, shared language for understanding why different people respond differently to the same situation. This reduces the attribution of intent (assuming someone behaves a certain way because of character flaws) and increases the capacity to work skilfully with genuine differences. I spent three years as EMEA Head of Sales and Delivery for Ennea International and have delivered 500+ individual Enneagram debriefs.
The one-day Team Alignment Process requires pre-work (online questionnaires) and the workshop day. The two-day Team Performance Process includes individual pre-workshop conversations, the two-day offsite, and follow-up contact approximately three weeks later. Follow-up half-day integration sessions can be added. My position is firm on this: the contact points before and after the offsite are not optional extras. They are what makes the offsite work.
I have delivered executive coaching programs for senior management and C-suite individuals and teams across pharma (AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Lundbeck), financial services (Absa, RMB, FNB, Investec, Nedbank, Wesbank), and mining and energy (De Beers, Exxaro, Shell, Chevron). My experience spans South Africa, the rest of Africa, and European markets — with newly formed teams, established high-performing teams, and teams in significant dysfunction.
Yes — this is where I specialise and have the most impact. I’ve often surprised people by what can be achieved and how quickly, and is why I specifically seek out those teams that everyone has given up on. The Two-Day Team Performance Process is designed for situations involving significant dysfunction, unresolved conflict, or structural trust breakdown. It can handle the stresses and strains. The pre-workshop individual contact is particularly important here: it creates a safe channel for issues to surface before the group is in the room together, which means the group work can build rather than implode.
FAQ Section
A team build is an event. Executive team coaching is a structured process with a before, a during, and an after — designed to produce lasting change in how an executive team operates, not a temporary lift in morale. The fundamental difference is contracting: I explicitly create a new relational agreement between team members rather than hoping that a shared activity will generate one by osmosis. Events produce memories. Coaching produces change.
Most psychological safety training teaches the behaviours associated with safe teams — speaking up, active listening, constructive feedback — to a band of unrelated people who have nothing at stake together. Most of the learning gets lost when those people return to their teams; what remains is performative and therefore experienced as inauthentic. I prioritise coaching executive teams to contract for colleagueship — a relational stance defined by Peter Senge out of which trust (psychological safety) arises organically. This takes the form of an explicit, agreed shift in the team’s relational stance, achieved in parallel with skill-building. The mutual transformation is witnessed by team members, which results in behavioural tools being used, appreciated and understood — there is a real foundation for applying them honestly and authentically.
The Enneagram is a model of nine core personality types and their associated patterns of perception, motivation, and reactivity. I use the Five Lens assessment — a validated, professionally delivered version — because it gives teams a specific, shared language for understanding why different people respond differently to the same situation. This reduces the attribution of intent (assuming someone behaves a certain way because of character flaws) and increases the capacity to work skilfully with genuine differences. I spent three years as EMEA Head of Sales and Delivery for Ennea International and have delivered 500+ individual Enneagram debriefs.
The one-day Team Alignment Process requires pre-work (online questionnaires) and the workshop day. The two-day Team Performance Process includes individual pre-workshop conversations, the two-day offsite, and follow-up contact approximately three weeks later. Follow-up half-day integration sessions can be added. My position is firm on this: the contact points before and after the offsite are not optional extras. They are what makes the offsite work.
I have delivered executive coaching programs for senior management and C-suite individuals and teams across pharma (AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Lundbeck), financial services (Absa, RMB, FNB, Investec, Nedbank, Wesbank), and mining and energy (De Beers, Exxaro, Shell, Chevron). My experience spans South Africa, the rest of Africa, and European markets — with newly formed teams, established high-performing teams, and teams in significant dysfunction.
Yes — this is where I specialise and have the most impact. I’ve often surprised people by what can be achieved and how quickly, and is why I specifically seek out those teams that everyone has given up on. The Two-Day Team Performance Process is designed for situations involving significant dysfunction, unresolved conflict, or structural trust breakdown. It can handle the stresses and strains. The pre-workshop individual contact is particularly important here: it creates a safe channel for issues to surface before the group is in the room together, which means the group work can build rather than implode.
FAQ Section
A team build is an event. Executive team coaching is a structured process with a before, a during, and an after — designed to produce lasting change in how an executive team operates, not a temporary lift in morale. The fundamental difference is contracting: I explicitly create a new relational agreement between team members rather than hoping that a shared activity will generate one by osmosis. Events produce memories. Coaching produces change.
Most psychological safety training teaches the behaviours associated with safe teams — speaking up, active listening, constructive feedback — to a band of unrelated people who have nothing at stake together. Most of the learning gets lost when those people return to their teams; what remains is performative and therefore experienced as inauthentic. I prioritise coaching executive teams to contract for colleagueship — a relational stance defined by Peter Senge out of which trust (psychological safety) arises organically. This takes the form of an explicit, agreed shift in the team’s relational stance, achieved in parallel with skill-building. The mutual transformation is witnessed by team members, which results in behavioural tools being used, appreciated and understood — there is a real foundation for applying them honestly and authentically.
The Enneagram is a model of nine core personality types and their associated patterns of perception, motivation, and reactivity. I use the Five Lens assessment — a validated, professionally delivered version — because it gives teams a specific, shared language for understanding why different people respond differently to the same situation. This reduces the attribution of intent (assuming someone behaves a certain way because of character flaws) and increases the capacity to work skilfully with genuine differences. I spent three years as EMEA Head of Sales and Delivery for Ennea International and have delivered 500+ individual Enneagram debriefs.
The one-day Team Alignment Process requires pre-work (online questionnaires) and the workshop day. The two-day Team Performance Process includes individual pre-workshop conversations, the two-day offsite, and follow-up contact approximately three weeks later. Follow-up half-day integration sessions can be added. My position is firm on this: the contact points before and after the offsite are not optional extras. They are what makes the offsite work.
I have delivered executive coaching programs for senior management and C-suite individuals and teams across pharma (AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Lundbeck), financial services (Absa, RMB, FNB, Investec, Nedbank, Wesbank), and mining and energy (De Beers, Exxaro, Shell, Chevron). My experience spans South Africa, the rest of Africa, and European markets — with newly formed teams, established high-performing teams, and teams in significant dysfunction.
Yes — this is where I specialise and have the most impact. I’ve often surprised people by what can be achieved and how quickly, and is why I specifically seek out those teams that everyone has given up on. The Two-Day Team Performance Process is designed for situations involving significant dysfunction, unresolved conflict, or structural trust breakdown. It can handle the stresses and strains. The pre-workshop individual contact is particularly important here: it creates a safe channel for issues to surface before the group is in the room together, which means the group work can build rather than implode.
