Adaptive leadership for growing businesses in the North of Scotland
The business works, and now it’s bigger than any one person can hold.
I help owners, MDs and leadership teams across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, the Highlands and Islands build the capacity to lead through growth and change, and keep going long after I’ve left the room.
Why adaptive
Grass on a hillside bends with every gale and keeps its roots.
That's the kind of leadership I help build.
Some problems have a known fix like hire new staff, buy new software, or write a process. But others don't, like a team that has doubled in size, a business owner who is stuck, or a community of business owners feeling isolated. Those need people to change how they think and work, and no expert can do that for them.
Adaptive leadership, developed at Harvard Kennedy School by professors Dr. Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky, gives leaders a way to tell the two apart and to hold their teams steady while they learn. I bring that thinking, and frameworks usually reserved for big corporates and business schools, to established businesses in the North of Scotland that rarely get access to them.
Sound familiar?
These are the questions I hear most. Short answers here, the full thinking on each page.
It's often something you'd never say out loud... like an unconscious, unspoken belief. In my practice, I draw inspiration from the Immunity to Change model, developed by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey at Harvard. Together, we map out the unconscious belief holding your leadership back.
Read more, and what you can try this weekIt's rarely about confidence. More often it's a competing commitment, like wanting to stay liked versus making changes that may disappoint others. We name it, then test small, safe changes in real conversations.
Read more, and what you can try this weekIt often starts with letting go of the search for a plan that will hold. Adaptive leadership helps you separate the problems an expert can fix from the ones your people need to learn their way through, and lead each differently.
Read more, and what you can try this weekYour business may have outgrown how decisions get made and it is usually not a staffing problem. Often the team has quietly been saying yes to more than it can carry, for very understandable reasons. Small, gentle shifts can make a big difference.
Read more, and what you can try this weekSelection is half the work. Getting the mix of people right and building content that taps into collective wisdom is why cohorts I've built still meet years later.
Read more, and what you can try this weekResilience grows when business leaders stop carrying everything alone. Peers matter as much as skills. I've trained more than 300 business leaders on publicly funded programmes in a single year, and 700 more in Southeast Asia.
Read more, and what you can try this weekIn their words
Her exceptional ability to identify and unite individuals with diverse talents and backgrounds was instrumental in fostering a dynamic and impactful cohort. Oga’s facilitation skills are unparalleled; she creates environments where open dialogue and mutual respect thrive, enabling participants to collaboratively discover shared purposes and drive collective growth.
A huge thank you Oga for all the energy, thought and care you put into the programme, it really made such a difference throughout.
It was a privilege to be part of the course. Great to meet such fabulous people. Well done for all the organising.
Working with Oga was an absolute pleasure. She is highly professional, diligent and delivered exactly what we needed in our flagship programme.
She was able to guide us all on a deep journey of self improvement through a firm but empathetic approach.
Oga was able to pivot into a virtual program in a matter of weeks (during the pandemic), and it was still one of the most immersive and powerful experiences I’ve had. Our cohort is still in close contact today, and many of us have gone on to collaborate on various projects.
Oga is highly competent at a professional level. What made her time so successful was her ability to build relationships with fellows. I have also witnessed her strong organizational skills and focused calm under pressure. When Oga commits to something, it gets completed and done well.
Work with me
Most projects run one to three months, shaped around your business.
Who I work with. Owners, MDs and leadership teams of profitable businesses, from a team of 3 to around 250, who are ready to invest in their leaders as well as their business. I also design and deliver leadership programmes for enterprise agencies, funders and business networks.
For owners, MDs and senior leaders
A private space to work on the thing you can't say in the staff room. Practical, challenging and kind executive coaching.
A 5-session breakthrough package because growth takes time.
Price: £2,500
Additional sessions: £450 each
For owners of growing businesses with 3 to 250 staff
Your team learns to lead by doing it on live work, with me alongside you. By the end, decisions move more without waiting for you.
Up to 5 workshops integrated into your live work over 1–3 months. Building trust and new muscles take time and live practice.
Individual acceleration: 2 x 1 hour coaching sessions per team member.
Price: £7,500 for teams up to 6
Price: £15,000 for teams up to 20
For enterprise agencies, funders and business networks
I design, recruit for and run leadership cohorts from start to finish, for enterprise agencies, funders and business networks. Anything from a single day retreat to a programme running over several months.
Price on application. A minimum project size applies.
Prefer to ask a question first? Email [email protected]
Leadership in practice
A few of the leaders and organisations I worked with before founding North Adaptive.
Where they wereProjects were growing and the team felt like it was bursting at its seams. "I don't need more projects, I need my team to not burn out."
What we didWe explored trust-building, coached managers and built group learning frameworks. Along with that, built systems and processes to support growth.
What changedThe director now trusts the right people to step up, staff stay on long-term and are growing.
Where they wereSenior leaders running established businesses across remote communities, away from busy cities.
What we didI designed and led a ten-session programme, bringing in senior business leaders as contributors. Each participant brought a real challenge from her own business. Together we diagnosed what was really going on, the group acted as peer advisers, and each leader tested a small change before the next session.
What changedThe group became a close circle of peer advisers who still turn to each other with hard leadership questions after the programme. A few stepped into promotions. Others let go of habits that no longer served them. Some gained skills to include their team in maintaining team culture and more.
Where they wereOne year in-person programming for the country's most influential social leaders, building values-based leadership.
What we didI set up the Malaysian programme and pivoted to virtual delivery within weeks during COVID, keeping the depth that made people sign up in the first place. After the pandemic, I grew the programme over three cohorts across the country.
What changedBy 2021 it had the highest participant satisfaction score of any region in the global network. Fellows still work together on leadership questions and projects today.
About
I’m the Founder and Director of North Adaptive. For fourteen years I’ve been developing leaders, around 1,500 of them, across Scotland, Ireland and Southeast Asia. I’ve built a national leadership academy, designed and delivered more than 20 cohort‑based business and leadership programmes, and coached more than 100 executives. In the past year I trained more than 300 business leaders on publicly funded programmes. I believe in sustainable leadership: leadership that works for profit, people and planet.
I started North Adaptive because I kept meeting brilliant business leaders in Aberdeenshire, the Highlands and the Islands who were carrying their businesses alone, amidst rapid changes. The best leadership thinking in the world is usually locked inside business schools and big corporates. I want it working here, in the businesses that keep the North going.
The North of Scotland is my home. Its high-growth businesses create the food and energy we rely on, the science and technology that solve real problems, and the places where memories are made. Yet many do it all far from the business support concentrated in the Central Belt. I want to play my part in building business resilience through adaptive leadership in the North of Scotland, so the region’s businesses can adapt to rapid change and leave lasting legacies.
Obama Foundation Leader. MSc Energy, Society and Sustainability, University of Edinburgh.
Project Management Professional and Certified Change Management Professional.
Get in touch
The first conversation is free and lasts 30 minutes. No pitch. You'll leave with at least one thing worth trying, whether or not we work together.