Helping senior teams in growing businesses to work better
As a business evolves, the way it is led has to grow with it.
The approaches that worked when you were smaller can become obstacles as the business becomes more complex. Decisions take longer, the owner/MD becomes a bottleneck, accountability becomes blurred, communications become less clear or the senior team finds it difficult to challenge one another constructively.
Aspire helps owners, MDs and senior teams improve leadership, decision-making, accountability and execution.
Every business and team, is different, so we start by understanding what is actually happening in your business - then we focus on the changes that will make the biggest difference.
The principle is simple:
Understand → Focus → Act → Embed → Review
Insight is useful - but action changes the business.
Four Ways Aspire Can Help
1. Senior Team Health Check
Ideal if...
"I know something isn't working in my senior team, but I need an objective view of what it is and what we should do about it."
"Ian's gravitas, coupled with an engaging delivery style, helped us to get to the core of complex issues quickly and to identify and address underlying factors. I very highly recommend his services to any business."
Glynn White, Engineering Manager, Sitek Engineering Ltd
Find out what is really happening in your senior team
Sometimes you know that your senior team isn't working as well as it should, but you're not quite sure why.
The Senior Team Health Check provides an independent, confidential assessment of how your team is working and identifies the practical changes that could have the greatest impact.
We explore:
- Strategic alignment and priorities
- Roles and responsibilities
- Decision-making
- Accountability
- Communication and relationships
- Trust and constructive challenge
- Meetings
- Leadership behaviours
- Execution and follow-through
- Working relationships
Typical duration: 3–5 weeks
Two levels of support:
1. Senior Team Health Check — From £2,200 depending on numbers, complexity and whether meeting observation is required.
2, Senior Team Health Check Plus — From £2,900.
Includes all the above plus an online assessment such as SDI, DiSC, 5 Behaviours, Belbin, Ideal Team Player and 6 Types of Working Genius.
The emphasis is not on producing profiles: It is on understanding the team and deciding what to do next.
Turn insight into better leadership-team performance
A good senior team does more than get along.
It:
Aligns → Challenges → Decides → Acts → Holds itself accountable → Delivers
The Senior Team Performance Programme helps leadership teams develop the behaviours and disciplines needed to work effectively together.
The programme is tailored around the issues identified through the Health Check or initial diagnostic work.
It can address:
- Slow or unclear decisions
- Avoidance of difficult conversations
- Lack of accountability
- Dysfunctional meetings
- Silos and competing priorities
- Poor communication
- Over-dependence on the owner/MD
- Lack of strategic alignment
- Weak execution
- A newly formed or substantially changed leadership team
What we may work on:
- Purpose, priorities, responsibilities and expectations.
- Behaviour and relationships
- Behavioural differences, communication and potential sources of friction.
- Team effectiveness
- Trust, challenge, commitment, accountability and collective results.
- How work gets done
- Boosting innovation and moving from ideas to action.
- Decision-making
- Difficult conversations
- Building the confidence and skills to challenge constructively and address issues early.
- Embedding change
- Creating practical team agreements, meeting disciplines and accountability mechanisms.
Typical duration: 4-6 months
Note: Extended programmes are available where deeper behavioural challenges or significant organisational change are involved.
Investment from £7,500 depending on numbers, complexity and depth of support required
Typical programme: £9,500
Typical extended programme: £12,000–£20,000 (commonly 10-12 months)
2. Senior Team Performance
Ideal if...
"Our senior people are individually capable, but we're not getting enough collective performance from the team."
"It has been a pleasure to work with Ian in the 'High Performing Teams Programs' that we ran within our finance leadership. He has been an outstanding coach and has guided us smoothly while we thrived as a team. His insightful approach to each team member during our program has been remarkable. I look forward to working with Ian in other programs.”
Ebru Can Temucin, Executive Director (Finance), MSD Pharmaceuticals
3. MD/Executive Advisory
Ideal if...
"I need a proven senior leader who will challenge my thinking, help me see what I'm missing and give me a confidential space to work through important issues."
“Ian supported me as career coach at a time of significant change in my organisation, and proved a really useful sounding board as I looked to navigate this change.
Either side of this, Ian worked hard with me on understanding leadership concepts such as organisational health, ensuring strategic thinking, etc.
He provided me with tangible examples, experience and tools for working in uncertain environments where relationship dynamics can be far from straightforward...Sometimes, just a calm voice can help clear the mind.
Would recommend to anyone looking for a coach to enhance their leadership skills and potential."
Simon Caton, Partner at AlixPartners, and NED Appointee
A confidential sounding board for important decisions and personal growth
Leading a growing business can be demanding and surprisingly lonely.
You may have people around you, but you don't necessarily have someone who can provide an independent, experienced perspective on the difficult decisions you're facing.
MD/Executive Advisory provides a confidential, senior-level sounding board combining challenge, reflection, leadership insight and practical advice.
It is deliberately broader than conventional executive coaching.
Typical issues include:
- Becoming less of an operational bottleneck
- Delegation and accountability
- Difficult people decisions
- Senior-team/stakeholder relationships
- Strategic priorities
- Growth and organisational change
- Succession
- Senior recruitment and promotion
- Underperformance
- Board and executive-team effectiveness
- Moving from technical expert to organisational leader
- Difficult conversations
- Leadership transition
How it works:
Typically, we meet for 60-90 minutes each month.
We start by focusing on the issues that matter most to you at that point in time:
- What is happening?
- What really matters?
- What are the options?
- What are you missing?
- What needs to happen next?
Then, we look at developing future skills that will be required.
Where appropriate, behavioural tools such as DiSC, SDI, 6 Types of Working Genius or 360 feedback can provide additional insight.
Typical commitment: 3-month minimum.
Two levels of support:
1. MD/Executive Advisory — £900/month
A structured monthly advisory relationship with reasonable contact between sessions.
1. MD/Executive Advisory Plus — £1,250/month
For those facing greater complexity or significant change. This option includes greater availability, additional short calls, more regular reviews and more intensive support around important decisions.
Develop the people who will lead your business
Growing businesses need more than good managers: They need people who are ready to take greater responsibility, make difficult decisions, lead others and empower the wider business.
The Leadership & Succession Programme develops future directors, partners, heads of function and senior managers — while helping the business build a stronger succession pipeline.
Who is it for?
Typically up to 5 people, including:
- Future directors
- Emerging senior managers
- Potential partners
- Second-generation family members
- High-potential employees
- Newly promoted managers
- Technical specialists moving into leadership
- Current leaders who need help to unlock their potential
What we develop includes:
- Leadership confidence
- Delegation
- Accountability
- Communication
- Managing former peers
- Feedback and difficult conversations
- Influencing
- Commercial awareness
- Strategic thinking
- Decision-making
- Developing others
- Moving from technical expert to leader
How it works:
The programme combines individual assessments, practical workshops, personal development and real leadership challenges.
Where useful, we use tools like DiSC, SDI The 5 Behaviours of a Team and 6 Types of Working Genius to explore how people contribute to getting work done.
Participants are tasked to work on real situations from their business, rather than relying solely on classroom exercises.
An optional Succession Mapping Session can identify critical roles, potential successors, readiness, capability gaps and development priorities.
Typical duration: 6-18 months
Note: An intense six-month programme can be employed where near-term succession is a significant business priority.
Team size: Up to 5 participants
Larger groups can be accommodated through additional cohorts or facilitation.
Investment: From £6,500
Typical enhanced six-month programme: £7,500–£9,500
Typical 12-month programme: £12,000-£20,000
4. Leadership & Succession
Ideal if...
"We have good people, but we need to equip them to take on more responsibility."
"Really detailed and well delivered coaching sessions on strategic management techniques delivered by Ian...thoroughly enjoyed our sessions together and would recommend his services."
Matthew Burton, Commercial Manager, RACE (UKAEA)
Not sure which service?
Or perhaps you are thinking of something different?
You don't have to work that out before getting in touch.
A confidential initial conversation will help establish what is happening, what you want to change and whether Aspire can help.
Often, the best starting points are the Senior Team Health Check or elements of Leadership & Succession, particularly when the problems are clear but the underlying causes aren't.
Start with a conversation: Let's talk about what's happening in your business.