Stop Grinding. Get Plugged In.
The hardest problems in your business aren't about strategy, execution, or efficiency.
They are problems of energy.
You and Your Company Should Thrive, But...
You are a CEO who knows your company is capable of more. You see the potential for greater results and higher value. But right now, you and your leadership team are running on batteries—relying on willpower, stress, and personal reserves to drive results.That is the Grind. And in today's world, batteries run out faster than ever.
The Context: Leading in an Alien World
The landscape has shifted. We are leading through an era of unprecedented Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA).From the disruption of AI and economic instability to political polarization and a disheartened workforce, the pressure is relentless. The old playbook—"push harder, grind it out"—might have worked in calmer times. But in this environment, attempting to lead a company on finite personal energy isn't just unsustainable; it’s a liability.You cannot navigate a crisis-filled world when your entire senior team is running on empty.
The Problem: A Team of Batteries
Most leaders—and the teams they lead—operate in a state of Disconnection. Deep down, they feel separate, limited, and threatened.When you and your team are Unplugged from your true resources, you default to Survival Mode:
You Force: You and your team try to control outcomes to feel safe, creating bottlenecks.
You Avoid: You and your team step back, protect turf, or wait for direction because the conflict feels too draining.
The Result is Collective Friction: Strategic Misalignment and Tactical Overwhelm. You feel the "Void" not just personally, but culturally.
You are trying to power a complex organization through a storm using a collection of finite batteries.
The Solution: The "Plugged In" Leader
"Plugging In" isn't just about recharging yourself. It is about inspiring the whole organization.The Plugged In Leader wins in two ways:
You Connect: You stop forcing and start accessing the wisdom, power, and drive within you.
You Transmit: You help your team do the same. They then plug in and help their teams to plug in, too.
When you do this, you unlock the Three Hidden Superpowers across your entire leadership bench:
Innate Wisdom: Your team stops over-analyzing and starts seeing. You navigate complexity with intuition and shared clarity.
Small "p" Power: You stop controlling people and start empowering them. You act with a grounded presence that evaporates resistance and inspires your team to take ownership.
Deep Drive: You stop chasing external validation. You are all pulled forward by a shared vision of a "better, broader, brighter" future—an Ideal that energizes the group regardless of the external environment.
The Equation:
Wisdom + Power + Drive = PLUGGED IN
| So you go from: | To: |
|---|---|
| Strategic Misalignment: Leaders with different priorities pulling the company in conflicting directions | Unified Direction: A senior team moving in lockstep toward clear, shared priorities |
| Outdated Leadership Models: Approaches that worked when your company was smaller now create bottlenecks | Modern Leadership Practices: Approaches calibrated to your teams’ needs as well as your company’s current size and market position |
| Role Confusion: Executives unclear about how their roles must evolve as the company grows | Role Clarity: Each leader confident in their evolving contribution to company success |
| Tactical Overwhelm: Senior leaders stuck in day-to-day operations instead of strategic direction | Strategic Focus: Executives working on the business, not just in it |
| Command-and-Control Mindset: Micromanagement that stifles innovation and slows execution | Empowerment Culture: Teams throughout the organization equipped to execute without constant senior oversight |
| Legacy Processes: Meeting cadences and decision processes that don’t match today’s pace of business | Adaptive Systems: Governance and communication cadences that scale with your growth |
| Lower Productivity and Resilience: It's hard to enroll and steer the rest of the company to innovate and improve | Innovative and Ready: Your team equips the rest of the company to innovate and adapt to opportunities and challenges |
| Limited Value: The value of your company is limited by future partners/investors belief in your senior team and next-level leaders | Highest Value: Future partners' and investors' faith in the company's leadership brings higher valuations |
How We Do It: The 3ive Model
We don't just talk about it. We install the operating system that keeps you and your team Plugged In.
Self Thriving: We move you from Fragmented to Coherent. You gain the Emotional Intelligence to manage triggers and lead with Presence and Trust.
Senior Team Thriving: You help them Plug In. We transform your team from a scattered group of unplugged individuals into a unified force that shares the load and moves in lockstep.
Company Thriving: Your organization shifts from Grinding to Flowing—wasting less time, executing with ease, and creating the highest value for all.
Your Guide
Michael Ehling Strategic Advisor & Leadership Consultant
I help CEOs connect to the superpowers already inside them and turn on those superpowers already within their teams. With unique strengths in connection and strategy, I see the patterns others miss. I don't fix you; I help you flip the switch.
“We have worked with Mike since we started the company over 15 years ago. Along the way, he provided the insight and guidance to us on the senior team so that we could take the company further than any of us thought possible. Of course, we put in all the sweat, sleepless nights, and investments. But without Mike, we would not have gotten here.” — Shameiz Hemani, CEO of Greenlight Consulting
Services
For you, your senior team, and whole organization:
Thriving You
Thriving is backwards from what we're used to: instead of action-first leading, it's mindset first—it's an inside-out game. You shift from reacting to tapping more of your wisdom and power (that is, 'power to affect,' not 'power over people and things'). From here, you act and inspire others. You are more grounded, so the right things get done more effectively. Thus, you end with the success you've dreamed of but without the burnout. And it's probably way easier than you think. More...
Thriving Senior Team
You and your senior team are more powerful than you imagine. And your thriving as a team is more critical to the success of the company than you know. So set aside time to build a modern, thriving senior team. The first move is often giving your team a boost with Ready Team One. See all my senior team services here.
Thriving Company
You are becoming a better and better leader. And so are the members your senior team. But sometimes it's better for people throughout your company to work with expert outsider. More...
Book Your Leadership Team Assessment or Chat
You and your company should thrive. But how to start? A 60-minute Senior Team Assessment--or a simple chat--is a great first step. Select a convenient time here:
Download my Leadership Team Health Check
Is Your Senior Team Ready for Tomorrow’s Challenges?
Not every leadership team needs immediate intervention, but most show warning signs of misalignment or outdated approaches. Download this complimentary workbook to uncover:
The 5 Critical Dimensions of senior team health that determine your company’s future
A Self-Assessment Tool to quickly evaluate where your leadership team stands today
Impacts Inside Your Company of a senior team operating with yesterday’s playbook
Immediate Action Steps you can take to begin strengthening your senior team
This practical guide helps you identify whether your leadership team is aligned in purpose and equipped with modern leadership approaches—or if they’re holding your company back from its full potential.
In addition to the Leadership Health Check, you'll receive 4 short emails over the next few weeks containing leadership team transformation tips, modern leadership tools, and practical insights that you can immediately apply. After that, you'll continue to receive occasional brief, practical emails with the latest tools and insights to transform your team into a unified force and steer your company to its full potential. Unsubscribe anytime.
Why This Workbook Matters
As your company grows and evolves, the leadership approaches that worked yesterday often become limiting factors today. This workbook helps you spot the subtle signs that your senior team needs to transform—before they become major obstacles to your growth.
In Your Corner: Leadership Blog
Read it here on Substack.
© 1999-2025 by Michael Ehling. All rights reserved.
How I Help
My Story
My journey began when I witnessed in companies--ones I cared deeply about--how some leaders could transform an organization, while others bring even promising companies to a standstill.For over 35 years, I've been obsessed with one question: Why do talented leaders and the companies they run so often fail to reach their potential? Inspired by people like Stephen Covey, I wanted to know and work on the root cause.The answer became clear through my work with dozens of CEOs and their senior teams: Even the most brilliant individuals can't drive exceptional results when they're operating on fumes.My ApproachI focus exclusively on helping leaders and their teams plug into their superpowers to create more value for all.My clients are CEOs who know their companies could achieve more - leaders who feel frustrated that their vision isn't being fully realized despite having talented individuals on their team.Through a proven three-step process, I help CEOs:Self Thriving: We move you from Fragmented to Coherent. You gain the Emotional Intelligence to manage triggers and lead with Presence and Trust.Senior Team Thriving: You help them Plug In. We transform your team from a scattered group of unplugged individuals into a unified force that shares the load and moves in lockstep.Company Thriving: Your organization shifts from Grinding to Flowing—wasting less time, executing with ease, and creating the highest value for all.The TransformationThe result? A cohesive, forward-thinking leadership team that steers confidently no matter what the world throws at them. And an entire company inspired to do the same.No more misalignment. No more exhaustion. No more grinding.Ready to Plug In?Book Your Leadership Team Assessment to pinpoint exactly where to start.
Thank You!
Thank you for the time to complete the surveys. That's everything from my end. If you have any questions, please contact me (see the email I sent you) or the recruiter or hiring manager you've been working with.In your corner,Michael--
Michael Ehling
strategic advisor & senior-team coach
balance coaching & consulting
Thank You!
Thank you for the time you spent to complete the surveys. If you have any questions about them, please contact me (see the email I sent you).In your corner,Michael--
Michael Ehling
strategic advisor & senior-team coach
balance coaching & consulting
Thank You!
Thank you for completing your surveys, the first part of your Leadership Loop program.You will find copy of your report and a debriefing workbook in your inbox.Next steps:
Book a 1-1 debrief: select a convenient time here to review your report with me.
Please use the workbook to prepare for our 1-1 meeting.
In your corner,Michael--
Michael Ehling
strategic advisor & senior-team coach
balance coaching & consulting
Ready Team One
Prepare Your Senior Team to Grow and Thrive
You are growing your business. And the rewards will be huge. But it’s exhausting because there is already too much to do, distractions and threats abound, and it’s hard as heck to get people–especially your senior team–to do the right things. So level up your company to grow by leveling up your senior team.
I will help you build and deliver a Ready Team One transformation plan. You will get:
Suite of planning and coaching sessions with me to identify key issues and build a custom plan
Team surveys and interviews with senior team members to build trust and robustness of the plan
Detailed analysis and recommendations to anchor the plan; though custom to you, common recommendations include steps and tools for clarifying roles, improving alignment, building trust, using modern tools for leading your team, focusing on “hell yes” work and parking the rest, and replacing bad meetings and emails with super-effective senior team cadence
Facilitated off-site strategy session with your senior team to learn, build trust, refine the plan, and launch it
Follow-up coaching session to help you monitor and adjust
I'd be delighted to chat with you about your team and how you can prepare them to lead and thrive despite distractions, threats, and busyness. You can book a convenient time to chat using the button below.
For You (and Other Leaders)
Thriving Leader's (re)Launch - "Begin with the end in mind." - S. Covey. You have been successful and you see the opportunity to level up, do more, make a bigger impact. But at what cost? It took a lot to get here, there are lots of obstacles still in the way, and you wonder if you're up for it (tip: every leader feels this, whether they admit it or not). Therefore, do some reflection and relaunch your leadership so that you can not only take on the next challenges, you thrive as you do it. Delivered with a suite of professional assessments and 3-5 one-one coaching sessions.
Thriving Leader's Journey - You see what's possible and it's exciting. But it's frustrating (sometimes even frightening!) because day-to-day fire fighting and old habits keep getting in the way. Therefore, see it as a journey: you are transforming into the leader you can and want to be. Invest time to regularly reflect, reconnect, recharge, reorient, and learn. Delivered with regular one-one coaching sessions over a period (typically a year at a time).
Thriving Leader's Shot in the Arm - You are mostly doing well and even thriving. But sometimes--especially when things are turbulent--you feel off or under water. That's when it's nice to have someone In Your Corner: private, committed, sounding board, thinking coach, and accountability partner. Delivered as ad hoc one-one coaching sessions.
Thriving Leader's Peer Learning - Looking around, you have an army of colleagues, friends, and family who care and want to help. But, somehow, it's still lonely at the top. Though they are well-meaning, your crew mates don't really know--or it's not appropriate to share--the things that you as leader have to contend with. That's why regular, confidential meetings with a group of like-minded, non-competing senior leaders (CxOs, other execs) is a game changer for Thriving Leaders. Delivered as membership in a MacKay CEO Forums group. Meeting 6 days (roughly every other month) and one 2-day retreat each year, you get and give experience, learning, and wisdom.
For Your Senior Team
Ready Team One - Start here. It's the long lever that generates the most initial momentum and wins. More here.
On-going Support - In support of your Ready Team One plan or as needed:
Thriving Senior Team Journey - Quarterly Focus, Strategy, and Team Building
Thriving in a Turbulent World - Purpose, strategy, and relevance
Build to Sell - Add value and solidify confidence for future buyers by preparing leadership teams and next-gen leaders
Senior Team Roles Refresh - Clarify each others' roles and priorities, balance commitment to the company and their departments, know how you deliver, together
Strategy Refresh - Refocus, restate, reinvigorate, and/or re-imagine the organization's purpose and strategy: re-ignites the teams care for and commitment to the mission.
For You, Team, and Company
Workshops + Coaching:
Coaching on Call - As your team grows, it can helpful to have a neutral-but-up-to-speed sounding board on an as-needed basis
Leadership Loop - Simple, repeatable 1-1 model for generating alignment, ownership, accountability, and growth
SweetSpot Career Planning - Know where you are going and how to get there in your career.
Thriving Mindset - Thriving comes from within each of us and it's simple to do. But we've inherited poor, non-thriving thinking habits. Therefore, we can--with some focus--apply modern thinking tools to anchor a thriving mindset.
Natural Business Development for Consultants and Other Service Pros - Simple, repeatable model for generating a flow of business from new and existing clients.
Meetings that Work - Set and run the right type of meeting every time
Hiring that Works - Bad hires cost too much. Get super clear on the role, what's needed for success in the role, and use assessments to see the unseen and match candidates to the role.
And you may want to work with trusted partners for:
Fractional CFO Support
Career Development of your Team as your Secret Weapon
Employment law help
Mergers, sales, acquisitions
and more