A practical mentor for CEOs who need to scale themselves and their business
Being a CEO can be lonely. The role gets more complex just when the business needs you to become clearer, calmer and more disciplined. Dane works with CEOs and founders as a mentor, advisor and practical sounding board, helping them build trust and accountability, create a deliberate culture, manage boards, develop teams, lead through pressure and scale with confidence.
CEOs, founders and senior leaders who need to scale themselves as fast as the business
- Founder CEOs scaling past the point where the founder can be in every room.
- CEOs of significant businesses, from US$150m to US$3b in revenue, leading through complexity.
- Leaders navigating boards, investors, international expansion or a crisis.
- Executives stepping into a CEO role for the first time.
Being a CEO can be lonely. The role gets more complex just when the business needs you to become clearer, calmer and more disciplined. Dane works as a mentor, advisor and practical sounding board, drawing on 25 years as an international CEO and the Impactful Leadership framework: 1,000 pages of tools, checklists and templates that free you to concentrate on your own style and lead with impact.
Since January 2021 Dane has mentored more than 150 CEOs and founders across Australia, Asia and India. Nine in ten stay beyond twelve months.
The problems Dane helps CEOs solve
Every engagement starts from your Areas of Growth. These are the ones that come up most.
Understanding your role and priorities as CEO, your authentic leadership style and your leadership shadow. Building emotional intelligence and personal resilience.
Creating trust, safety and openness within your team; empowering and delegating with confidence; holding the team accountable and embedding a deliberate differentiated company culture.
Managing up to your chair, board and investors. Leveraging and leading them rather than being led by them.
Presenting and motivating, giving good and bad news, influencing, negotiating and persuading across teams, boards and stakeholders.
Leading in crisis, handling conflict and direct conversations, and staying grounded and in control when it matters most.
Leading across multiple countries and cultures, building your network and support team, and enlisting the mentors every leader needs.
A six-step methodology, refined with more than 150 CEOs
The steps are the same for every leader. The plan inside them is yours.
Step 1
Initial alignment meeting
An initial discussion to understand your leadership challenges, business context, growth ambitions and expectations for the mentoring relationship. It is also a test of mutual fit, trust and the willingness to work openly together.
Step 2
Define leadership and business growth objectives
In the first session we define and document your key Areas of Growth. Typically: personal leadership priorities, team mentoring, culture alignment, working with boards, international expansion, and dealing with crises and stress.
Step 3
Leadership Mirror review
Confidential discussions with up to six key stakeholders on your strengths, blind spots, communication style, trust and accountability levels, team dynamics and organisational impact. The aggregated themes sharpen the objectives.
Step 4
Impactful Leadership Plan
A tailored roadmap of leadership priorities, behavioural changes and organisational focus areas. It becomes the foundation of the relationship and stays flexible as the business and its challenges evolve.
Step 5
Ongoing mentoring and advisory support
An initial six-month engagement: three hours a month of one-on-one mentoring in flexible 60- or 90-minute sessions, face to face or virtual. The relationship extends beyond scheduled sessions, with availability for urgent situations, strategic decisions and crisis support.
Step 6
Leadership team development (optional)
Where it helps, mentoring extends to the broader leadership team through tailored workshops, team development sessions, trust and accountability programs and leadership capability scaling.
Clearer, calmer and more disciplined, with a team that can feel the difference
Your Impactful Leadership Plan: leadership priorities, behavioural changes and organisational focus areas, reviewed as the business moves.
The small behaviours that really matter: listening more carefully, speaking last, building stronger trust and feedback loops. Colleagues notice the shift.
Frameworks, checklists and templates from the 1,000-page framework, ready to use with your own team and board.
You gave me the confidence and clarity needed to lead effectively through this period of profound change.
He takes time to understand my goals and challenges, and his coaching is both insightful and practical.
My only regret is not to have started working with him earlier.
