Leadership shouldn’t feel like exile.
Do you feel it too — the fire, the fog, the fear of holding it all together?
We help founders, owners, and executive-level leaders shift scattered strategy, unresolved conflict, and sideways energy into shared ownership and momentum.
You’ve Got Some Problems
1. The Heavy Load of Leadership
It feels like you’re dragging your team instead of being carried by them. Strong voices in the room pull in different directions, while quiet resistance stalls progress. Push too hard, and you risk burning people out. Hold back, and nothing moves forward.
2. Scattered Effort
Everyone’s working hard — but not on the same things. Instead of momentum, you feel friction. Your strategy sounds different depending on who you ask, and the harder your team pushes, the more it feels like you’re spinning in place.
3. Stalled Conversations & False Agreement
Conversations drag on, but agreement stays just out of reach. Meetings circle the same issues. Good ideas die because buy-in never materializes. People nod along in the room — but silence and half-hearted agreement come back to haunt you later.
4. The Hidden Cost of Delay
Waiting feels easier in the moment, but every month of fog costs you momentum, trust, and credibility. Misalignment you don’t address now always resurfaces later — and by then, it’s even more expensive to fix. The cost of not deciding is always higher than the cost of deciding.
5. DIY Doesn’t Work
Your team is smart — but when the same people run the same conversations, you end up circling instead of deciding. As the leader, you either dominate or step back too far. Either way, the breakthrough never comes. If you could have solved this internally, you already would have.
This doesn’t have to be the way it is. The weight you’re carrying can be shared. The energy that feels scattered can be aligned. The fog can lift. The joy of the journey can return.
What We Make Possible
1. Leadership That’s Carried, Not Dragged
You no longer feel like you’re dragging your team. The weight of leadership is shared. Strong voices are harnessed for good, and even the quietest voices have ownership. You leave the room with people walking with you, not behind or around you.
2. Unified Energy
Instead of scattered effort, your people are focused on the same priorities. The work doesn’t just feel busy — it feels connected, like every ounce of energy is pulling in the same direction.
3. Real Agreement That Sticks
Conversations stop circling and start landing. Everyone not only understands the decisions — they believe in them. Buy-in is genuine, which means execution is faster, cleaner, and stronger.
4. Momentum You Can Trust
Decisions are made, and things actually move forward. Instead of compounding confusion, progress compounds. You feel momentum building again — the kind that rebuilds trust, re-energizes people, and restores credibility.
5. Breakthroughs You Couldn’t Reach Alone
Because the right process is in place, the room works differently. Stuck patterns give way to fresh thinking. Everyone leaves owning the direction, because it came from them — surfaced, sharpened, and shared through trust.
What We Do
We facilitate, advise, author, and operate where it’s needed most.
Facilitate.
We create the space and process that surface the real issues, draw out every voice, and lead the room to decisions that stick.
Advise.
We bring outside perspective and hard-earned wisdom to help leaders see what they can’t from the inside — and guide them toward better choices with confidence.
Author.
We help put words to what matters most — co-crafting the language, story, and agreements that give the team clarity and direction.
Operate.
We roll up our sleeves and work alongside you and your team to ensure decisions turn into execution, and alignment turns into momentum.
Do these exasperations resonate?
“Everyone’s working hard — just not on the same things.”
“Instead of momentum, it feels like friction.”
“Strong voices in the room, but no shared voice leaving it.”
“Conversations circle for months without real progress.”
“Good ideas die because buy-in never lands.”
“When the boss facilitates, they either dominate or disappear.”
“The longer we wait, the harder alignment gets.”
“Indecision drains trust, morale, and momentum.”
“Our strategy looks different depending on who you ask.”
“If we could have solved this ourselves, we already would have.”
Use Cases
1. Leadership Transitions
When a founder steps back or a new leader steps in, uncertainty multiplies. We help organizations forge shared language and agreements so the transition strengthens, not fractures, the team.
2. Strategic Planning That Sticks
Annual retreats often produce binders that gather dust. We guide teams to clarify priorities, filter choices, and leave with decisions people own — not just notes on a white board.
3. Board + Staff Alignment
Boards and staff can quietly work against each other. We surface assumptions, resolve tension, and build a shared story that allows everyone to row in the same direction.
4. Growth Crossroads
When programs multiply but energy feels scattered, we help leaders discern what to stop, what to double down on, and how to rally their people around a clear direction.
5. Conflict in the Leadership Team
When strong voices clash and quieter ones withdraw, progress stalls. We create space where the real issues are surfaced and resolved so decisions don’t die in silence.
6. New Initiative Launches
Big ideas can lose momentum without buy-in. We help teams shape the story, gain genuine agreement, and channel sideways energy into forward movement.
7. Mergers & Partnerships
When organizations join forces, competing cultures and language derail progress. We help leaders forge a shared identity and agreements that make collaboration possible.
8. Vision Casting That Connects
Leaders often feel alone trying to carry vision. We help translate vision into words and agreements that others can echo, believe in, and take ownership of.
9. Decision-Making Gridlock
When conversations circle endlessly, We bring a process that helps leaders and teams cut through, make the hard calls, and move forward without leaving trust behind.
10. Culture Reset After Drift
Left unchecked, misalignment erodes morale and trust. We help leaders re-ground the team in what matters most and re-ignite the sense of shared purpose.
11. Hiring & Onboarding
Adding new people often increases confusion. We help organizations hire and onboard around shared language and values so new energy builds momentum instead of friction.
12. Momentum After Crisis
In seasons of disruption, waiting feels safer than deciding. We help leaders and teams face choices together, rebuild trust, and turn fog into forward momentum.
Sectors We Thrive In
Growth companies hitting speed bumps
Start-ups post-launch
Non-profits stalled or stuck
Schools and universities
Social impact organizations
Boards, councils, committees
City/county governments
Churches
What Others Are Saying
“Your ability to help a newly-formed team come to complete consensus about our direction and vision. This is a very healthy process. The sense of excitement I experienced.”
“One of the best I’ve seen. It was just so darn fun. So much in such a short period of time. Outstanding facilitation. The collaborative process was amazing.”
“You did a fantastic job. I felt very much at ease and came away with a better understanding of what we are to do.”
“A really great process that allowed all to contribute.”
“You did a great job helping us with terminology but being careful to not overly lead our thinking or our descriptions. You had obviously done your homework on our group.”
“I really appreciate your hard work and insights shared. I enjoyed the process and think it will be very valuable if we follow up with action regarding alignment as you hinted at.”
“Great meeting! You were able to help us go much further and faster than we could on our own.”
“You were fantastic. The meeting was well facilitated, and the balance of listening to the team and providing suggestions was perfect.”
“A superb job facilitating. As good as I’ve seen.”
“You did an excellent job guiding us and giving examples and explanations on things that were not clear. You were very patient and encouraging as we hashed out some tough questions.”
Here Hear to help
Brad Abare helps leaders carry the weight they were never meant to shoulder alone. For more than 20 years, he has convened and guided diverse senior teams inside companies, government entities, and global nonprofits through the hard but necessary work of finding clarity, building common ground, and owning a shared purpose.
Brad has walked in the shoes of the leaders he now serves and advises. He’s been a founder, board chair, director, chief of staff, VP, and CEO. He knows firsthand the strain of scattered strategy, cultural drift, and stalled momentum — and how costly it becomes when alignment never comes.
Drawing on decades of multicultural listening, leadership, and training — including an Executive Masters in Change from INSEAD (Singapore) and a certification from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford — Brad brings hard-earned wisdom and a deeply empathetic approach. He is the co-founder of the Personality Profile™ framework and has helped hundreds of executive teams sharpen identity, shape culture, align strategy, strengthen communication, and move into the future with courage.
Shawn Stewart helps organizations align brand, culture, and leadership health so leaders don't have to choose between thriving people and thriving performance. With 20+ years in brand strategy, creative direction, and organizational consulting, he's built strategies for startups and national multibillion-dollar organizations, designed service cultures across diverse sectors including hospitality, healthcare, and transportation, and coached executives through pivotal moments of growth and change.
He blends experience as a strategist, culture consultant, and an executive coach (ICF) with a deep commitment to helping leaders flourish. With an eclectic educational background spanning design school to seminary, and specific training at Yale's AIGA Executive Management Program and Henley Business School (UK), Shawn brings a unique hybrid of brand strategy, design thinking, organizational psychology, and leadership coaching to every engagement.
He is the co-creator of the Personality Profile™ framework and serves as VP of Strategic Storytelling at Storyland Studios, where he partners with leaders and teams through Personality™ to achieve clarity, alignment, and breakthrough results.