Skip to content
THE CONTROL ILLUSION

Speaking & Coaching

Work with Ken

Speaking and coaching engagements are arranged through Mission Edge.

Speaking

Ken speaks to the people carrying the mission: executive directors, senior teams, boards, and the managers in between. Expert-led, honest, and built around practices people use the next morning.

Keynote

"The Control Illusion"

Format:
45–60 minutes
For:
Conferences and leadership gatherings

Why caring hard is not the same as leading well, and what the Stoic dichotomy of control changes about funders, boards, and burnout.

Workshop

"Redirecting the Work"

Format:
2 hours, virtual or in person
For:
Leaders and teams

Burnout is rarely about working too hard. It's about working in the wrong direction. Participants leave with a named source of their own exhaustion and one concrete commitment.

Workshop

"Burnout Is Burn(ed) In"

Format:
2 hours
For:
Managers responsible for people and programs inside mission-driven organizations

How burnout gets built into the way work is organized, and what a manager can change about it.

Series

"The Practiced Leader"

Format:
Four 90-minute weekly sessions
For:
Executive directors and senior staff

Concept, discussion, and practice each session, with a light daily practice between.

Topics

  • The dichotomy of control for funders and boards
  • Burnout as a direction problem
  • Culture is downstream of what you've tolerated
  • The succession question nobody asks
  • Stoic leadership for veterans in transition
Inquire about speaking

CEO/ED Coaching

One-on-one coaching for nonprofit CEOs and executive directors from someone who has done the job since 2012. Not productivity tips: the interior work of leading under pressure: what's yours, what isn't, and how to stop spending yourself on the second list.

Who it's for

  • New executive directors in their first two years
  • Experienced CEOs in a hard season: a funding cliff, board conflict, burnout, a stay-or-go decision
  • Leaders preparing for succession

Format

{{COACHING_FORMAT}}

Coaching engagements are arranged through Mission Edge.

Inquire about coaching

Podcast & Media

Book Ken on your podcast

Ken joins podcasts for interviews and recorded conversations — on the dichotomy of control as it actually plays out with funders and boards, burnout as a direction problem, culture as what a leader has tolerated, and the succession question most boards never reach.

Hosts get someone who has run the same mission-driven organization since 2012 and talks about the interior side of the job, not just the strategy side. Tell us who listens, how long you run, and what you would like Ken to dig into.

Inquire about a podcast appearance

The form opens on Media / Podcast.

Recent appearances

All three are on YouTube and open in a new tab.