Craig Leach, MBA

Welcome to where transforming companies and careers with precision-tailored executive placements and progressive leadership coaching meets personalized solutions that align with your unique culture and strategic goals. If you're here, you're likely seeking to attract and retain top-tier talent in a competitive market, align leadership teams with corporate strategy and culture, navigate leadership transitions without disrupting operations, and ensure new hires are the right fit for long-term success.

With over 30 years of experience in leading teams, I guide executives from uncertainty and misalignment to building high-performing teams that drive results. Is reducing time spent on recruiting or mis-recruiting on your radar? Do you aspire to increase productivity and performance? If these aspirations resonate, you've found your path.

I blend my diverse skills in negotiation, business planning, operations management, sales, market development, and leadersip with my passion for talent development, crafting strategic solutions that truly represent your organization's needs. This strategy allows you to transform your leadership capital and achieve sustainable success.

My 21st Century technology-influenced approach uses personalized executive search and coaching to create long-term impact that delivers reduced commercial downtime, improved employee retention rates, and reduced overall costs to hire. I empower hiring managers to make confident decisions, so 96% of our placements are still in place after 12 months.

What you can expect:
• Minimized client commercial downtime
• Improved new employee retention rates
• Reduced overall costs to hire

Your outcomes:
• 96% of placements still in place after 12 months
• 94% of placements still in place after 24 months

Embrace a journey that transforms your organization through strategic leadership development and succession planning. Ready to start?

I offer different ways to work with me to suit your budget and needs:
• Retained Search: Exclusive tailored executive search and coaching solutions, best suited for senior leadership positions (C-Suite, VPs, Directors)
• Contingency Search: Exclusive search for technical, sales, and marketing roles
• Executive Coaching: Tailored, one-on-one partnerships to empower leaders and high-potential professionals to maximize performance and achieve personal and organizational goals

Who it's for:
• C-suite executives
• Senior managers
• Emerging leaders
• Professionals transitioning to higher leadership roles

Begin your journey: https://calendly.com/6202205911/30min

President

I Placed the Same Executive Three Times (Here's What His Ex-Bosses Never Understood)

Same guy. Three different companies. Three promotions after I placed him.

His ex-bosses? They all called me asking if I could find them "another Mike."

I couldn't help but laugh.

They had Mike. They lost Mike. And they still didn't understand why.

First placement: VP Operations at a logistics company. Mike turned their worst-performing region into their best in 18 months. Then his boss took credit for the turnaround at the board meeting. Mike called me that night.

Second placement: COO at a manufacturing firm. Mike reduced costs by 31% without cutting a single job. Found inefficiencies everyone else missed. Then they promoted someone's golf buddy over him. Mike called me that afternoon.

Third placement: President of a PE-backed distribution company. The CEO told me during reference checks: "I don't care about his resume. Tell me why he left his last two roles."

So I told him.

That CEO did something Mike's previous bosses never did:

He asked Mike what he needed to succeed.
Then actually delivered it.

Not promised it. Delivered it.

Mike wanted:
• Authority to match his responsibility
• Credit to flow where credit was due
• A boss who'd have his back when things got tough

Revolutionary concepts, apparently.

Two years later, Mike's still there. They've doubled revenue. The PE firm made him CEO last month.

His two previous bosses? Both called me this year.

"We need someone like Mike."
"What made Mike special?"
"Can you find us another Mike?"

I tell them the same thing:

You don't need another Mike. You need to become the leader Mike would stay for.

The brutal truth about executive retention:

Great executives don't leave companies. They leave bosses who take credit, make promises they don't keep, and treat talent like it's replaceable.

Mike wasn't exceptional because of his skills. Every executive at his level has skills.

He was exceptional because he'd learned what most executives learn too late:

When someone shows you who they are as a boss, believe them.

The fastest way to lose your best executive? Make them feel like they're just another employee.

The fastest way to keep them? Remember they have my number in their phone.

And they're one broken promise away from using it.

What's the real reason your best executive left?

I Work with Senior Leaders to Build Teams that Shape the Future | Executive Search | C-Suite | Top Voice 2024

The Reference Who Begged Me Not to Place Their Former Employee

"Please. Don't send him to our competitor."

First time in 200+ placements someone asked me to sabotage a candidate's job search.

I was doing reference checks for a VP Sales candidate. Strong track record. Multiple successful exits. The board was ready to make an offer.

Called his previous CEO for a reference.

"Craig, I'll give you a glowing reference. But I need a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"Don't place him at "ABC". They're our biggest competitor."

I waited for him to laugh. He didn't.

"You're serious."

"Dead serious. If he goes there with what he knows, we're finished."

Most executives treat departing talent like yesterday's news. Delete their access. Ship their belongings. Move on.

This CEO understood something different.

His former VP wasn't just leaving. He was taking a $50M competitive advantage with him.

The playbook he built.
The client relationships he nurtured.
The team culture he created.
The strategic roadmap he designed.

All walking out the door for a 40% salary bump.

"Why didn't you match their offer?" I asked.

"Board said we couldn't justify it. Now they're asking me to hire three people to replace him."

The math never works that way.

You don't replace one A-player with three B-players.
You replace them with your competitor's new weapon.

Six months later, "ABC" had captured 30% of his former company's enterprise accounts.

The CEO who begged me not to place him? He's now looking for a new job himself.

Board fired him for losing market share.

Here's what 200+ placements taught me about talent:

The cost of losing your best people isn't in the replacement search.

It's in watching them build your competitor's empire with your blueprints.

Companies will spend $2M on a non-compete lawsuit but won't spend $200K to keep the person worth suing over.

Your top performer isn't just an employee.
They're your competitive moat.

And moats don't come with a replacement guarantee.

What's the real cost of the last A-player you lost to a competitor?

I Send Every New CEO This Text on Day 1 (It's Saved 12 Placements)

"Your honeymoon period is a myth. Your team is updating their LinkedIn profiles right now."

Harsh? Maybe. But after 200+ placements, I've watched too many CEOs crash because they believed they had time.

The text continues:

"You have 72 hours to signal who you really are. Not 100 days. Not 90. Three days. After that, every opinion is cement."

Last year, I placed a CEO at a PE-backed manufacturing company. Smart guy. Came from Amazon. Had all the answers.

Day 1: Announced his open-door policy from his closed office.
Day 2: Scheduled "listening tours" for week 8.
Day 3: Sent a 47-slide deck about his vision.

By day 4, his head of sales had called me.

"Craig, got any other opportunities?"

That CEO lasted 11 months.

Compare that to Sarah, who I placed three months later at a similar company.

Day 1: Worked the warehouse floor at 5 AM. No announcement. Just showed up.
Day 2: Had lunch in the break room. Asked about people's kids by name.
Day 3: Fixed the coffee machine everyone complained about for two years.

Her head of sales called me too.

"Craig, where'd you find her?"

Sarah's been there 18 months. Revenue up 34%. Same team that was "unmanageable" under the last guy.

The difference wasn't their resumes. Both stellar.
The difference wasn't their strategies. Both solid.

The difference was those first 72 hours.

The CEOs who survive understand something the failures don't:

Your team doesn't care about your credentials.
They care about your character.

And they're deciding right now while you're still figuring out where the bathroom is. Whether you're worth following.

That text I send? It ends with this:

"You're not being hired. You're being tested. And the test started the second they heard your name."

12 CEOs have gotten that text.
12 are still in their roles.

Coincidence? Probably.

Your first three days aren't your warm-up.
They're your entire game.

What did your CEO do on day one that told you everything?

The Executive Who Failed Every Leadership Test (And Why I Placed Him Anyway)

Last Tuesday, I presented a candidate who bombed his interview.

Forgot the CFO's name. Mixed up the revenue numbers. Stumbled through the strategy questions.

The board was ready to pass. Then I asked them to wait 24 hours.

Here's what they didn't see:

He drove 6 hours after his father's funeral. His assistant had quit that morning. His biggest client was threatening to walk.

And he still showed up.

Most executives would have rescheduled. Blamed circumstances. Made excuses.

He didn't mention any of it. Not once.

I only knew because his reference called me. "Did he tell you what week he's having?"

The Executives Who Fail:

• Perfect interviews, perfect answers, perfect image
• Never let you see them sweat
• Treat vulnerability like weakness
• Hide every crack in the armor

The Executives Who Last:

• Show up when life falls apart
• Let their humanity show through
• Know perfection is a performance
• Build trust through transparency

That "failed" interview revealed more leadership than any polished presentation.

Real leaders don't wait for perfect conditions. They lead through chaos.

18 months later, he's transformed their company. Turned around three underperforming divisions. Built the strongest leadership team they've had in a decade.

The board member who wanted to pass? He told me last week: "Thank God you made us wait."

Here's what 200+ placements taught me:

The executives worth $3.2M aren't the ones who never stumble.

They're the ones who stumble and keep walking.

When's the last time you hired someone despite their worst day?

I Keep a 'Never Again' List of 7 Companies. Here's Why Each One Made the Cut

I've developed a simple rule: Some bridges are meant to burn.

My "Never Again" list isn't about grudges. It's about patterns.

1. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗶𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗲 𝗧𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗲
127 flights with them. System glitch double-charged my card $3,400. Their response? "Dispute it with your bank." Took 4 months to resolve. 

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: Loyalty without reciprocity is just exploitation.

2. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗠𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲
Paid $12k annually for their CRM. Tried to export my data when switching providers. "That'll be an additional $5,000 for data extraction." My own data. That I entered. That I paid to store.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: Always know your exit strategy before you enter.

3. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗠𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗜 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱
20-year customer. They froze my business account for "suspicious activity". 6 hours on hold. 7 departments. Had to physically appear at a branch with my birth certificate.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: Convenience dies the moment you actually need help.

4. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗹
Spent two weeks on a detailed search strategy for them. They passed. Three months later, saw my exact framework in their "proprietary methodology" deck. Word for word. Even kept my typo.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: If they'll steal from vendors, they'll steal from clients.

5. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Board meeting in Dallas booked three months ahead. Confirmed twice. Arrived at midnight to "We gave your room away at 6 PM." Their solution? A motel 40 minutes away. Full price.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: A confirmation that can't be trusted is worse than no confirmation.

6. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗵𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
Marketing agency. Disappeared for 3 months. No deliverables. No communication. Then sent a $15k invoice for "strategic planning." The strategy was hoping I'd just pay it.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: Silence is acceptance until it's accompanied by an invoice.

7. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝗠𝗶𝗱-𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
Two years into a three-year agreement. They "updated" their terms of service. Suddenly our grandfathered pricing disappeared. New cost? Triple. Their email: "Accept the new terms or lose access in 30 days."

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻: A contract is only as good as your leverage to enforce it.

Companies that disrespect your time will always disrespect your money.

The cost of switching is nothing compared to the cost of staying.

When someone shows you their values through their actions, believe them the first time.

My "Never Again" list isn't about being petty. It's about being profitable.

Every minute not spent fighting broken systems is a minute invested in relationships that matter.

Your standards aren't too high. Their service is too low.

I Now Use This 3-Second Test Before Hitting Send on Any Executive Communication

Last month, I deleted an email that took me 45 minutes to write.

The one I sent instead? Three sentences. No promises. No positioning.

It landed me a $50k search.

Here's what changed:

I stopped selling. Started solving.

Most recruiters lead with their credentials. Their track record. Their "proprietary process." Their AI-powered candidate matching. Their exclusive network.

I used to do the same thing. Pages of capabilities. Impressive client logos. Success metrics.

Then a CEO told me something that flipped my entire approach:

"I don't care how fast you are. I don't care about your network. I care about Tuesday's board meeting where I have to explain why our COO position is still empty after six months."

That's when I created my 3-second test.

Before hitting send, I ask myself: Am I trying to impress them or help them?

The Emails That Get Deleted:
• "We're the fastest growing executive search firm..."
• "Our unique 7-step process ensures..."
• "With years of experience, we..."
• "Let me tell you why we're different..."

The Emails That Get Responses:
• "If there's one problem I could take off your desk, what would it be?"
• "What's keeping you up at night about this role?"
• "What would success look like in 90 days?"
• "How can I be most helpful right now?"

Boring is better.

No promises I can't keep. No claims about being faster or better connected than every other recruiter calling them.

Just one simple question that cuts through the noise.

The irony? When you stop trying to prove you're valuable, you become invaluable.

That $50k search? The CEO's response was seven words: "Can you talk at 3pm today?"

Here's what 200+ placements taught me:

Executives don't want another vendor pitch. They want someone who understands that their problem isn't finding candidates.

It's finding the right one while everything else is on fire.

Your elaborate email is competing with 47 other "urgent" items in their inbox.

Make it easy to say yes by making it about them, not you.

What's the shortest email that's ever changed your business?

The CFO Who Cried During Our Interview (And Why That's Why She Got Hired)

She lost it right there in the boardroom.

Full breakdown. Tissues everywhere.

The other board members were uncomfortable. One started reaching for his phone to "check the time."

I leaned in.

"Tell me more about that."

She'd been describing her biggest failure. A $12M acquisition that tanked. 200 people lost their jobs. Her first time leading due diligence.

"I signed off on projections I knew were aggressive. I wanted to prove I could close deals like the guys. Those families trusted us."

Most CFO candidates give me polished failure stories.

"We learned valuable lessons."
"It was a growth opportunity."
"The market shifted unexpectedly."

She gave me the truth. Raw. Uncomfortable. Real.

The board wanted someone bulletproof. I believed that I saw someone who'd never make that mistake again.

CFOs Who Flame Out:

• Never admit real fault
• Hide behind market conditions
• Treat losses like line items
• Protect their image above all

CFOs Who Build Dynasties:

• Own their catastrophes completely
• Feel the weight of their decisions
• Remember the human cost
• Let their scars show

That breakdown told me everything.

She didn't just understand financial risk. She understood human cost.

Three years later:

She's caught four deals that would have buried the company. Saved 400 jobs by restructuring debt instead of cutting heads. Built the strongest finance team they've had in two decades.

The board member who reached for his phone? Told me last month: "Best hire we ever made. She sees around corners we didn't know existed."

Here's what 200+ placements taught me about tears in interviews:

The ones who never crack under pressure? They're usually the ones who crack when it counts.

The ones who crack in front of you? They've already been broken and rebuilt stronger.

Your next great executive isn't hiding their humanity.

They're leading with it.

When's the last time vulnerability in an interview changed your mind?

The Email That Made Me Fire a $75K Client (Template Inside for Spotting Red Flags)

"Craig, you work for me. Start acting like it."

That's the line that ended a $75K engagement in 17 seconds.

Not because I can't handle direct feedback. I've been in executive search long enough and have heard worse.

But because after 200+ placements, I've learned something most recruiters learn too late:

The way someone treats you when they're paying you tells you exactly how they'll treat the executive you place.

This client hired me to find their new COO. Big budget. Bigger ego.

Week 3: "Why haven't you delivered 10 candidates yet?"
Week 5: "These resumes are garbage. Are you even trying?"
Week 7: That email.

I called him immediately.

"I'm returning your retainer. Find another recruiter."

"You can't do that. We have a contract."

"Read clause 7. I can and I am."

He threatened to sue. To ruin my reputation. 

That was 18 months ago.

The COO they eventually hired? Gone in 6 months.
The one after that? 4 months.
They're on their third search firm now.

Here's my template for spotting client red flags before it costs you:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁:
• Do they ask about your process or just your speed?
• Do they mention their team's growth or just headcount?
• Do they say "we need" or "I want"?

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀:
• Demands without context = future micromanager
• CC'ing unnecessary people = political nightmare
• "ASAP" in every message = unrealistic forever
• Questioning your expertise week 1 = will undermine the hire too

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹:
• Negotiating standard terms aggressively
• "Proving yourself first" before paying
• Changing deal terms mid-engagement
• Using money as a weapon, not a tool

The math is simple:

A $75K client who treats you like dirt will cost you more than $75K in reputation, stress, and failed placements.

A $50K client who respects the process will bring you $500K in referrals.

I keep a list of clients I won't work with.
It's shorter than my client list.
But it's more valuable.

Because every client you fire makes room for one who gets it.

Here's the truth about professional services:

You're not just selling your expertise.
You're choosing who deserves it.

And some money is too expensive.

What red flag made you walk away from easy money?

The Executive Who Saved His Career by Breaking His Own Email Rule

For 15 years, my rule was simple: No long emails. Ever.

Three bullets max. One clear ask. Get to the point or get deleted.

Then I watched a $60k deal die because I followed my own rule.

The client needed context. Background. The why behind the numbers. But I sent my usual three-bullet update.

"We need to pivot the strategy."
"Timeline shifts 6 months."
"ROI still intact."

His response? "This feels rushed. Let's revisit next quarter."

Translation: You just lost $60k because you couldn't explain yourself.

That night, I broke my rule. Wrote a 2-page email. Detailed every assumption. Mapped out three scenarios. Explained why waiting would cost them $15k more.

Took me 3 hours to write. He read it in 10 minutes.

Called me immediately. "Now I get it. Let's move."

Here's what 200+ placements taught me about executive communication:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀:
• Always be brief
• Never over-explain
• Stick to bullet points
• Keep it simple

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗺:
• Match the moment, not the rule
• Some decisions need stories, not bullets
• Context beats brevity when stakes are high
• Your communication style is a tool, not an identity

That "too long" email saved the deal. Saved my reputation. Taught me that rigid rules make fragile leaders.

The best executives know when to break their own rules.

Your greatest strength becomes your greatest weakness the moment you stop questioning it.

What rule have you broken that changed everything?

5 Ways to Land Clients

NexusPoint Project Management L.L.C.

We help service-driven organisations strengthen leadership pipelines and improve operational consistency through Strategy Days, leadership development and practical coaching.

We partner with HR and L&D leaders across MENA and Asia, with deep experience in hospitality.

Focus areas:
✅ Leadership presence under pressure
✅ Delegation without losing control
✅ Accountability and feedback in multicultural teams
✅  Communication that builds trust and clarity

Learning is designed to fit busy operations: practical, applied and sustainable. We also facilitate Executive Team Strategy Days to agree must-win priorities, align leaders across functions and set a 90-day execution plan.

Co-Founder & Principal

Jeff Ross GmbH

Workshops and coaching for service-driven SMEs across Switzerland and Europe.

Our focus:
✅ ‘Starting up successfully’ workshops for aspiring wellness, beauty, spa and hospitality founders: clarify your offer, build a business plan and map your first 90 days.

✅ Leadership workshops and coaching for owners and founders
Designed for the scale-up stage: hiring first employees, onboarding a team and learning to lead.
Practical modules include:
• From founder to people leader
• Onboarding playbooks and first-90-days plans
• Delegation without losing control
• Feedback, accountability and simple performance rhythms
• Communication across levels and cultures

✅ Succession planning and mid-level development
Identify successors, prepare supervisors for promotion and stabilise day-to-day performance.

Our approach:
Short, practical sessions with follow-on coaching so progress sticks.
Our primary market is Switzerland and Europe. For MENA & Asia programmes, see NexusPoint (Dubai).

Owner

Tetr College of Business

Sharing leadership and team development insights with business students and early-career professionals preparing for entrepreneurship & management roles.

Ambassador & visiting Expert

Batgroup

Led the integration of a well-established service brand into a new group structure while maintaining client trust and team culture.

Key outcomes:
✅ Aligned legacy operations with new systems and metrics
✅ Guided branch leaders through structural and role changes
✅ Strengthened sales performance through clearer accountability

This experience deepened my ability to balance people, systems, and results during transition.

General Manager PFA (Putzfrauenagentur)

Finnish Chamber for Impact Partnerships (FC4IP)

Advised leadership teams in mission-driven organisations on leading growth without losing cultural alignment.

Facilitated strategic planning, leadership identity work, and cross-border collaboration.

Primary Consultant

InnoPark Suisse SA

Selected for a leadership development program focused on entrepreneurship and project execution in evolving markets.

Completed certifications and applied learning in:
✅ Project Management (IPMA Level D)
✅ Communication, agile leadership, and digital business models
✅ Clean tech market expansion strategy for EU entry

This experience broadened my strategic toolkit and strengthened my ability to coach across industries and roles.

Leadership & Career Development Program Participant

Apple

Led large, diverse teams in a high-performance, customer-focused environment.
Coached new managers through their leadership transitions and built teams grounded in trust and accountability.

Key achievements:
✅ Developed internal talent into senior leadership roles
✅ Maintained operational consistency through major transitions
✅ Built engaged, reliable teams under high pressure

Apple taught me how to build leadership capacity while delivering results — a lesson I now share with my clients.

Retail Leader

Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts

Directed resort and city operations with multinational teams, balancing owner expectations with service excellence.

Highlights:

✅ Built leadership depth within operational teams
✅ Improved team engagement and guest satisfaction
✅ Led organizational change with clarity and care

Hotel Manager & General Manager

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

Held multiple management roles leading to opening Hotel Manager at a flagship St. Regis property.
Learned to lead through complexity, scale, and cultural diversity — the foundation of my current coaching approach.

Highlights:
✅ Opened a luxury resort in Bali and led full post-launch operations.
✅ Led the operational integration of a Le Royal Méridien property in the UAE after the brand's aquisition.
✅ Drove Six Sigma initiatives to improve service flow and guest satisfaction at 2 luxury properties in Spain.

Progressive Leadership Roles

Various Hospitality companies

Built hands-on leadership experience in luxury hospitality across, Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia.
Learned how service excellence and people development connect — a principle that drives all my coaching today.

Earlier roles

Change Leadership, General Manager PFA @ Batgroup & Member of the Board @ Putzfrauenagentur

Leadership isn’t about volume.
It’s about clarity, confidence and direction when the pressure is on.

I partner with HR leaders, GMs and Executive Teams across MENA & Asia to strengthen leadership capability from the ground up. My work sits where strategy, people and day-to-day execution meet in service-driven organisations.

Most performance issues in hospitality, retail and education aren’t about effort.
They come from three gaps:

❌ Leaders promoted before they’re ready to lead
❌ Executive Teams pulling in different directions
❌ No clear pipeline or succession to stabilise performance

So my work covers both sides of the leadership equation:

Strategy & alignment for senior teams
Facilitated Strategy Days that help GMs and Executive Teams:
✅ Agree a small set of must-win priorities
✅ Translate those into a 90-day execution plan
✅ Build the clarity and focus teams need to perform
✅ Name the leadership behaviours that sustain results

Leadership development for emerging & mid-level managers
Practical, human-centred programmes that build the skills to lead through others, communicate with clarity and coach across cultures.

Coaching & capability building
1:1 and group coaching, Train-the-Trainer, and tailored L&D that strengthen the pipeline and reduce turnover.

Across 25+ years with Apple Retail, Swissôtel, St. Regis and service organisations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, one truth holds: engagement and commercial performance rise when leaders at every level know where they’re going and how to bring their people with them.

If you’re building your leadership pipeline or want stronger alignment at the top, I’m happy to explore how we can work together.

📞 Book a call: https://jeffross.as.me/

Jeff Ross

Top sellers stall when asked to lead.
Coach ICs now with lean prompts.

❌ Over-index on product expertise.
✅ Balance with coaching, listening, inclusive leadership.

❌ Feedback as annual event.
✅ Weekly 10–15 minute coaching conversations using SBI+.

❌ “Be more proactive.”
✅ Decision logs that capture judgment under pressure.

Fallout → Brilliant sellers, poor team leaders.
Fix → Clear thresholds: delegate during a peak, lead a small recovery.

Because inclusion drives voice, we hard-wire “invite the quieter voice” into stand-ups and handovers.
Outcome: candidates who already lift others.

To see the manager-as-coach prompts we use, message me and I’ll send the guide.

Helping hospitality and service brands align strategy, strengthen pipelines and deliver consistent performance | Strategy Days, L&D and coaching | MENA and Asia

Top sellers stall when asked to lead

Your manager gap began two promotions ago.
Build a leadership pipeline with this 90-day path.

❌ Cut layers, expect senior leaders to plug the gap.
✅ Grow capable first-line leaders who stabilise shifts.

❌ Promote on technical mastery alone.
✅ Promote on observed coaching, safety, and service recovery.

❌ Hope people “figure it out”.
✅ Give ICs a 90-day roadmap with on-shift experiments.

Fallout → Directionless teams, inconsistent standards, supervisor burnout.
Fix → Skill sprints: trust, influence, feedback, delegation, conflict, recovery.

Because development must fit rota reality, each rep is 2–15 minutes and logged. Managers coach, not carry.

Outcome: a bench of calm coordinators who can run briefings tomorrow.

If you want the playbook that underpins this, comment “Playbook” and I’ll send it.

Your 'missing managers' problem

If complaints spike, you’re too late.
Preload micro-leadership with this plan.

❌ Wait for complaints to spike, then book workshops.
✅ Build micro-leadership before the badge.

❌ Abstract competencies no one can see.
✅ Observable thresholds: run a 10-minute huddle, deliver SBI+ feedback.

❌ Annual talent reviews with thin evidence.
✅ Decision logs, peer feedback, capstone stories you can trust.

Fallout → Firefighting culture.
Fix → 70% on-the-job stretch with manager-as-coach prompts.

Because psychological safety predicts team effectiveness, we teach “Thank, Ask, Normalise” on live shifts.
Result: steadier service, earlier escalations, fewer near-misses.

If you’d like our L&D framework that powers this, send a note and we’ll walk you through it.

Stop training managers after the damage shows up

Strategy won’t save a shaky front line.
Six shift sprints make service dependable.

❌ Promotion-first, training-later creates “accidental managers”.
✅ Prepare high-potentials on shift before the title.

❌ One-off workshops.
✅ 70-20-10, with bite-size reps inside real service windows.

❌ Theory-first decks no one opens.
✅ Micro scripts, logs, and stand-ups people actually use.

Fallout → Missed standards, erratic guest recovery, churn.
Fix → Six 1–2 week sprints that build trust, coaching, delegation.

Because first-line leaders shape up to 70% of engagement, the cost of waiting is visible in your NPS and absence line.

Results you can expect: ready-now candidates who already run huddles, coach peers, and surface issues early.

If you’re building a 2025 pipeline in customer-centric operations, message me to discuss your sites’ needs.

JSESSIONID

li_at

Front-line managers have more impact than strategy has.

On paper, many service organisations look stable: good brand, decent demand, solid product.

Underneath, everything depends on a tiny group of managers holding the whole thing together.

When one leaves, the cost is bigger than a vacancy:
❌ Productivity dips while others “cover”
❌ Standards slip just enough for guests to feel it
❌ Confidence drops and people start looking elsewhere
❌ Recruitment turns reactive and costly
❌ Revenue opportunities are missed as priorities keep changing hands

That isn’t just a people risk. It’s a financial risk.
Gallup’s lesson is consistent: people don’t leave in the abstract. They leave environments where managers are overwhelmed and under-supported.

If you have no pipeline, then:
❌ Every promotion is a gamble
❌ Every resignation is a small crisis
❌ Every strategy is more fragile than it looks

Succession planning isn’t a corporate luxury.

It’s basic risk management for any hotel, school, clinic, or service business that runs on human performance.

Prepare people before you desperately need them.

Middle managers stuck between messages.
Give them crisp, consistent signals.

Executive teams in hotels and service businesses work hard.
The problem is not the effort you put in.
It is direction.

When the senior team is misaligned, you see it everywhere:
 ❌ Leaders pulling in different directions
 ❌ Conflicting signals about this quarter’s priorities
 ❌ Departments optimising for their own metrics
 ❌ Middle managers stuck between messages
 ❌ Frontline teams guessing where to put their energy

Engagement drops not because people don’t care, but because they stop trusting the signals.
 Then the financial impact lands fast:
 ❌ Turnover in key roles
 ❌ Slower response to market moves
 ❌ Lost revenue through inconsistency
 ❌ More firefighting, less improvement

Across hotels, retail, and services, one thing has been consistent:
 When the top team aligns on a handful of must-win priorities, everything beneath has a chance to stabilise.
 
Clarity at the top creates confidence in the middle.
 Confidence in the middle unlocks energy on the front line.
 That’s where guests, customers, students, and patients feel the difference.

Engagement is about seeing the direction clearly, and leaders walking it together.

If your top team’s priorities aren’t aligned, let’s pressure-test them together. Book a complimentary 30-minute call and I’ll outline a focused alignment sprint you can run immediately.

Those weekly updates feel busy, not better.
Swap noise for direction in one day.

Hospitality, retail, service teams: you’ll recognise this pattern.

❌ Operational updates, staffing gaps, guest feedback, budget variances, firefighting.
Important. Necessary.
But not the work that aligns a leadership team.

✅ The work that does:
What are the 3–5 priorities for the next 90 days?
Where are we misaligned without noticing?
What do our people need us to clarify?
Which capabilities are missing to execute consistently?

When leaders make room for this, everything steadies:
Engagement holds. Turnover eases.
Middle managers stop guessing.
The frontline gets a clearer signal.
Customer experience becomes consistent.
Financial performance gets less erratic.

Boundary → Because: alignment doesn’t happen between agenda items, it happens when leaders pause, sit together, and focus on direction, not just today’s noise.

The most underrated tool isn’t coaching or training.
It’s one uninterrupted day to think, decide, and commit together.

Give your team that day. Twice a year. Then hold the line.

Training often dies at the lunch rush.
Use on-shift cues that stick at peak.

❌ E-learning that dies at peak.
✅ Two-line prompts managers can use at 12:30.

❌ One-size modules.
✅ Sector examples: queue flow, top-10 stockouts, tour-bus arrivals.

❌ “Forever” changes.
✅ Bounded experiments: next 30 minutes, this service period.

Fallout → Skills don’t transfer to the floor.
Fix → On-shift practice with buddy circles and manager check-ins.

Because we measure behaviour, not attendance, leading indicators move first: briefings run, feedback given, conflicts de-escalated.

If you want a copy of the 90-day Emerging Leader Sprint, reply “90 days” and I’ll share it.

Training that survives the lunch rush

🇦🇪 On UAE National Day, we celebrate vision.
But it is our leaders who will decide whether we reach it.

The UAE Vision 2030 and the Fifty Economic Plan are bold:
a highly productive, talent-rich, service-driven economy that can compete with the best in the world.

That future runs through our workplaces - especially hospitality, retail, tourism and service businesses.

But the latest Gallup data for MENA tells a different story:
• Only 14% of employees are engaged
• 24% are actively disengaged
• 46% are looking for another job
• Daily stress is at 48% - among the highest globally

No country can deliver its full economic vision with a workforce that is exhausted and unstable.

And yet, this is not a vision problem.
It is a leadership problem - particularly in the middle management layer:

The managers who open and close the stores.
Who run the shifts.
Who approve the holidays.
Who coach (or do not coach) their people.
Who turn strategy slides into daily reality.

If that layer is overwhelmed, untrained or purely task-focused, we will not get the engagement, service quality and retention that Vision 2030 assumes.

The good news?
This is fixable - and the ROI is significant.

When we:

✅ Help strong individual contributors transition into people-centred leaders
✅ Build psychologically safe, engaged teams
✅ Create a feedback and learning culture instead of fear and firefighting

…everything else starts to move:
guest experience, team stability, internal promotion, and ultimately financial performance.

That is the Leadership Value Chain™ - and it is where I am focusing my work here in the UAE.

On this National Day, instead of more slogans, I invite you to a simple reflection:

👉 If you lead people in the UAE, what is one small behaviour you could strengthen in 2026 to make your team a place where talent wants to stay, grow and contribute?

Because every time a manager chooses to listen, coach, give fair feedback, or protect their people from unnecessary chaos, we take a small but real step towards the future this country is aiming for.

Here is to a vision that lives not just in strategy documents, but in the daily leadership our teams experience.

Happy UAE National Day 🇦🇪


Photo by Milan Kiro on pexels.

Your best future leads aren’t practicing.
Weekly pressure reps surface them fast.

❌ Talent spotting in annual reviews only.
✅ Weekly reps where ICs run moments that matter.

❌ “Shadow when it’s quiet.”
✅ Shadow at pressure points, harvest three copy-worthy behaviours.

❌ Vague “step up more”.
✅ Mini-campaigns with a metric, stakeholder map, and short retro.

Fallout → Quiet high-potentials stay unseen.
Fix → Simple artefacts that show the work and de-risk first promotions.

Because consistency beats heroics, we build habits: Focus 3, check-clarify-close, micro-recoveries with guests.
You’ll see who is already leading, not just hoping.

If you’re building a middle-management pipeline for 2026, DM me and let’s scope it for your context.

Leadership potential isn’t invisible, it’s unpractised

South Asia is 26% engaged, yet anger runs high.
People care, but many feel unheard.

Passion without psychological safety becomes burnout.
You won’t fix that with perks or posters.

EQ turns it around:
empathy → recognition that lands, not generic praise
self-awareness → fewer reactive decisions
coaching conversations → belonging over busywork

❌ “We’re engaged, so we’re fine.”
✅ “We’re engaged, so we must protect it.”

Boundary → Because: recognition is weekly and specific, because effort seen becomes effort repeated.

Make it practical: manager office hours, structured 1:1s, and a simple “recognise-then-redirect” script for tough moments.
Healthy engagement is the goal, not just high engagement.
It starts with emotionally intelligent managers who make safety a habit.

South Asia's Paradox

Promotions without support drain teams.
Start support before numbers slip.

We all know the pattern:
Strong individual contributor gets promoted.
Same expectations, bigger scope, little support.
They try to carry the team by working harder.
Communication wobbles.
The team quietly disengages.
Performance and guest experience follow.

On a spreadsheet, it looks like:
❌ Rising turnover and sick days
❌ Inconsistent guest/client feedback
❌ Lumpy sales and service metrics

In real life, it’s a human who was never taught how to:
✅ Have difficult conversations
✅ Give clear, fair feedback
✅ Delegate without guilt
✅ Set boundaries and protect their energy

Invest early, before they burn out or burn bridges.
The results are predictable:
✅ Teams stabilise
✅ Engagement stops swinging
✅ Financials get less lumpy and more reliable

Emerging leaders aren’t a “nice” group to develop.
They’re the infrastructure of future performance.

If this pattern is biting in your teams, book a complimentary 25-minute advisory call and we’ll map the first three fixes for your emerging leaders.

Only 14% engaged in MENA, the lowest worldwide.
Stress 48% and anger 31% tell the story.

This isn’t about “lazy employees.”
It’s about managers under pressure, hierarchy, and cross-cultural demands without human-centred tools.

❌ More control, tighter rules, tougher talk.
✅ More connection, clearer expectations, consistent follow-through.

EQ is clarity when the heat rises.
Cultural agility is respect in motion.

Fallout → Fix: when managers default to command, people hide problems; when managers default to curiosity, problems surface early.

If engagement starts with managers, prepare them to lead people, not just processes.
Start with 1:1s that build trust, not status reports.
Close the loop on recognition and feedback, every week.
Hold standards while holding humanity.

Preparation beats pressure. Train for it.

The MENA reality check

Where manager EQ is thin, engagement drops fastest.
We still promote for technical mastery, then hope for people skills.

When self-regulation is low, stress spikes; when empathy is missing, turnover follows.
Flattened layers haven’t helped. Many firms cut managers, then wonder why teams feel directionless.

Fallout → Fix: fewer managers → confusion and reactivity; equip remaining managers with EQ, coaching and feedback skills, then rebuild clarity.

Teach managers to:
give hard feedback without breaking trust
adapt tone across cultures and contexts
stay steady when pressure bites

❌ Treat EQ as “soft.”
✅ Treat EQ as the system upgrade that keeps teams steady.

Start inside, then roll out the skills.

The EQ gap that sinks engagement

The Gallup report has been stuck in my head for weeks.
We keep talking about engagement like it lives in HR.
It doesn’t.
It lives in the P&L.

In service businesses, low engagement shows up as:
❌ Turnover in the teams you can’t afford to lose
❌ Basics slipping, complaints rising
❌ Supervisors firefighting instead of coaching
❌ Sales and ops pulling against each other
❌ Mid-level leaders burning out quietly

None of that is “soft.”
All of it is expensive.

In hotels and other service organisations, you feel disengagement in:
❌ Overtime and replacement costs
❌ Guest scores and online reviews
❌ Missed up-/cross-sell and retention
❌ Managers checking out months before they resign

✅ Here’s the truth we skip: engagement is a leadership issue long before it’s an HR metric.

When leaders at every level know what matters, why it matters, and how to bring people along, engagement becomes a commercial advantage, not a slide in a report.

Treat it as a financial lever, not an annual survey.

Curiosity outperforms command across every culture I’ve worked in.
This is human leadership, translated locally.

I hear it a lot: “Hierarchy here is different.”
True. Context always matters.

But the basics travel.
Mutual respect. Tolerance. Support. Collaboration.

❌ “Tough talk” as a badge of leadership.
Fallout: teams play hide-and-seek, learning stalls, risk rises.
✅ Curiosity with clarity.
Fix: issues surface early, standards hold, progress compounds.

I’ve led teams across Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
What changed: language, rituals, power distance.
What didn’t: people respond to being seen, heard and guided.

Boundary → Because: adapt delivery to the culture, because dignity and fairness are non-negotiable everywhere.

Leaders don’t have to choose between results and humanity.
Apply the same human principles, translate the wrapper, and performance follows.

Curiosity beats command every single time, anywhere.

Southeast Asia is 26% engaged, 8% actively disengaged.
Lowest global stress at 25%.

That doesn’t happen by luck.
Relationships precede results. Harmony, respect and recognition show up daily.

Add managerial clarity and you get trust that compounds:
clear expectations before tasks start
micro-feedback during the work
recognition tied to behaviours, not personalities

❌ Care without clarity drifts.
✅ Clarity without care hardens.
The win is care + clarity, every week.

Cultural agility in action means blending relational norms with modern performance systems.

Leaders elsewhere don’t need to copy culture; they can copy the cadence:
set expectations Monday, check progress midweek, recognise and reset Friday.
Borrow the rhythm. Improve your results.

Why South East Asia leads

Low engagement tracks messy first-line rhythm.
Lock a cadence with ready agendas and scripts.

❌ Inconsistent huddles, unclear roles, shifting priorities mid-shift.
✅ Standard stand-up agenda and visible task allocation.

❌ Silence around small errors.
✅ Normalise learning: one error shared, one fix each week.

❌ Escalate every friction.
✅ Peer scripts for simple performance and tone issues.

Fallout → Rumour, rework, repeat complaints.
Fix → Six sprints that turn “nice ICs” into dependable coordinators.

Because managers can’t design from scratch, we include templates, scripts, and a promotion-readiness rubric mapped to competencies.

If you want help to implement this across sites, let’s talk about your pipeline goals and constraints.

Low engagement tracks messy first-line rhythm

Not a talent crisis, but a connection crisis at work.
When managers disengage, teams follow.

The fix isn’t another dashboard.
It’s a leadership reset built on three habits:

1. Listen before you lead. Diagnose, then decide.
2. Clarify meaning before direction. Why anchors the what.
3. Recognise effort before judging outcomes. Fuel the behaviour you want.

Boundary → Because: no recognition inflation, just specific, timely acknowledgements tied to standards.

Managers sit at the crossroads of cultural, generational and digital shifts.
Equip them to hold both care and accountability.

Human-centred leadership isn’t a philosophy. It’s the engagement strategy for multicultural teams.

Re-humanising management

Flattening your org chart didn't remove work.
It crushed your managers.

Korn Ferry's data: 20–40% more direct reports. Same resources. Two-thirds overwhelmed.

❌ Shorter communication. Reactive coaching. Micromanagement disguised as "follow-up."
✅ Clarity on priorities. Aligned expectations. Actual time to lead.

The middle layer holds your business together. When they break, everything downstream breaks with them.

If your managers are stretched past capacity, the problem isn't their resilience. It's the system around them.

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The Battle

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