Executive Coaching in Toronto, On Foot

Executive coaching in Toronto with me happens on foot. We walk for about an hour in a ravine or through the middle of the city, you bring one decision that’s sitting on you, and a day or two later we talk again on video. Over ninety days that’s twelve walks and twelve calls.

An ordinary Tuesday

Tuesday at ten, you meet me at the trailhead. If you can’t get away from the office, we start downtown instead. You bring one thing: a hire, a restructure, a conversation you keep putting off. For the next hour you talk and I ask questions. There are no slides and no laptop, and your phone stays in your pocket.

A day or two later we have a thirty minute video call. By then you’ve slept on it, and that’s usually where the decision gets made. In January we move inside to the AGO, with your admission covered. If you’re in London or New York, you walk your own streets and we do it by phone.

Why I coach on foot

I never made a good decision across a desk. Across a desk you perform. You’re the CEO in the meeting, defending a position. Walking side by side, nobody is watching your face, and people get to the true thing faster.

There’s research behind it too. A Stanford study in 2014 found people came up with far more ideas walking than sitting. I’d seen it long before I read it. Years of breathwork and teaching yoga showed me how quickly a body that’s moving lets go of a problem it has been gripping.

Across a desk you perform. Side by side, people say the true thing.

What Godiva, Dove Spa and Sunnyside Grill taught me

I’ve had your job, and the bad weeks that come with it. At Godiva I ran international operations for a $300 million brand and took Canada from zero to $10 million. At Dove Spa I ran North America for Unilever Ventures. At Sunnyside Grill I built a franchise system from the ground up, where every decision shows up in the numbers by Friday.

So I’m not coaching from a model. When you tell me the board wants it by Q2 and your ops lead has quietly checked out, I know what that week feels like, and which part of it is the real problem.

Who gets the most out of ninety days

Leaders who are very good at execution and have run out of room to think. The calendar is full, there are one or two decisions they keep circling, and they know they’re running on reaction. They change the most, usually by the third walk.

It’s the wrong fit if you want a framework to hand to your team, or if what you really need is a therapist. I’ll say so on the first call. It won’t work either if you’ll cancel walks to take meetings. The walk is the meeting.

The walk I’ve had more times than I can count

It’s usually the third one, often in the Don Valley in late fall, when the leaves are down and you can see right through the trees. The leader arrives with the same decision they brought to the first walk. Somewhere around the second bridge they stop explaining why it’s complicated and say it out loud: “I already know what I have to do. I just don’t want to be the person who does it.”

Then it goes quiet for a while, and that’s fine. We keep walking.

The calendar changes first. That week they make the call they’ve been circling for months. The week after, an hour appears on Tuesdays that nobody else is allowed to book. Once they had enough room to hear themselves, the decision followed.

Start with one walk

If you want to try it before committing to ninety days, book a single Thinking Walk and bring the decision that keeps circling. If you already know, the 90-Day Engagement is twelve walks and twelve calls. Not sure how much room you have right now? The Headroom Check takes about two minutes.