A diagnostic for the partnerships that hold an organization together.
CEO and COO. CEO and CTO. Executive and Chief of Staff. Co-leads of a business unit. When these partnerships work, the people who report into them get clarity. When they break, the company pays the cost long before anyone names it.
Every organization runs on a small number of high-stakes leadership partnerships.
Harvard Business School professor Noam Wasserman, drawing on a study of 10,000 founders for The Founder's Dilemmas, found that 65 percent of startup failures stem from problems within the management team rather than product, market, or funding. While Wasserman's research focused on founders, the same dynamics surface in leadership partnerships at every stage: overlapping authority, divergent decision tempos, unresolved interpersonal conflict.
Most organizations notice these failures only after they cost a hire, a quarter, or a key program. Sāntis diagnoses the partnership while it is still functional and surfaces the gaps quietly draining its effectiveness.
Each partnership completes a structured self-assessment across all six dimensions, then compares scores within the partnership. The Gap Impact Model, a tiered scoring framework, translates gap severity into quantified business cost: leadership time absorbed by friction, decision velocity loss, team productivity drag, partnership stability risk.
Six dimensions of partnership.
Conflict Processing
Decision Tempo
Feedback Tolerance
Emotional Regulation
Role Clarity
Communication Style
- A diagnostic across all six dimensions with each partner's scores and behavioral evidence
- A Gap Impact Score with quantified estimates of current cost
- Three behavioral protocols committed to for 30-day implementation
- A 30-day and 90-day re-assessment schedule built in
- An early indicator for the partnerships at greatest risk
- Reduction in leadership attrition driven by unresolved partnership friction
- A repeatable assessment protocol your People function can revisit for new leader pairings
- A natural pathway to targeted follow-on coaching
- Standalone workshop. 60 to 90 minutes as part of leadership development or executive offsite.
- Extended engagement. 60-minute diagnostic plus 30-day check-in plus 90-day re-assessment.
- Pilot before series. Engage a single partnership to assess fit before committing to the full series.
- Coaching follow-on. Diagnostic identifies partnerships ready for focused work; coaching on monthly retainer.
- Technical EQ series. Second workshop in the series. Series bundle $20,000.
Simone Harvey
PCC-credentialed executive coach (ICF, Georgetown) with 12+ years coaching executives, founders, and senior leaders through high-stakes transitions. At Airbnb and Wells Fargo, designed and ran leadership development programs across thousands of people, including the Black@ Emerging Leaders Sponsorship Program at Airbnb (five 18-month cohorts, 60 percent promotion rate). Twice sponsored for Airbnb's Critical Talent Award.
She has coached leadership partnerships through founder splits, executive transitions, and the friction that lives between roles where decision authority overlaps.
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