The people side of growing a business is the hardest side.
Strategy has frameworks. Finance has numbers. Operations have systems. People are different.
Culture, capability, difficult conversations, leadership and change rarely have straightforward answers, yet they’re often the decisions that shape the future of a business.
This is the work Simone was made for.
Why founders choose this
A trusted partner, not another consultant.
People and Leadership Advisory is Simone’s most embedded way of working.
Think of it as having a trusted people and leadership expert in your corner. Someone who knows your business and your context, who you can think out loud with before you make a hard call, and who brings both the commercial understanding and the genuine care for people that most situations require.
It’s not coaching, though coaching is often part of it, and it’s not HR consulting in the traditional sense.
It sits in the space between. Strategic enough to help shape your business. Human enough to help shape your leaders.
Because in Simone’s experience, the presenting problem is rarely the real problem. The real one is usually one layer deeper.
In one week Simone might…
✔ Attend your leadership meeting and challenge assumptions
✔ Help prepare for a difficult performance conversation
✔ Review an employment contract before a new hire
✔ Coach a senior leader through a confidence issue
✔ Debrief a team using PRINT®
✔ Help think through a restructure
✔ Jump on a quick call before you make an important people decision
advisory in action
The situations Simone helps navigate.
No two businesses are the same, and no two advisory relationships look the same, but the situations that bring founders and leadership teams to this kind of work tend to cluster around a familiar set of challenges:
Leadership Capability
- You’re a founder stepping into a leadership role for the first time and want ongoing support as you find your feet
- A leader in your team has potential but needs guidance to reach it
- Your leadership team is capable individually but isn’t functioning as a team
- You want to think through how you’re leading, not just what you’re doing
People Decisions
- A key hire isn’t working and you’re not sure whether to invest more time or make a change
- You’re building your leadership team and want a trusted perspective on structure, fit and capability
- A performance issue has been sitting unresolved and it’s starting to cost you
- You’re about to have a difficult conversation and want to sound-board it first
Culture and Team Dynamics
- Something is off in the team but you can’t quite name what it is
- The culture hasn’t kept pace with the growth of the business
- Two people in the team aren’t working well together and it’s affecting everyone around them
- You want to be more deliberate about the kind of culture you’re building and how it can scale with you
Change and Transition
- The business is going through a significant period of growth or change and the people side needs active attention
- A restructure is on the horizon and you want to navigate it thoughtfully
- You’re bringing in new leaders and want support shaping how they integrate
- Something has shifted in the business and you’re working out what it means for your people
Ongoing People Strategy Support
- Be more intentional about people and culture as a strategic priority, not just an operational one
- Access senior people and leadership expertise without a full-time HR hire
- Have a trusted sounding board available across the year — for the things you can’t quite talk to anyone else about
How it works
Flexible by design.
Simone’s People & Leadership Advisory engagements are tailored to reflect what you and your business need, rather than a predetermined program, with the following options:
Ongoing Partnership
A set number of hours each month, available across whatever comes up. Strategy conversations, sound-boarding on people decisions, preparing for difficult conversations, reviewing a people process — the retainer gives you access to Simone’s thinking on an ongoing basis.
Project-based Advisory
For a specific challenge with a defined scope. A team assessment and alignment process, leadership capability review, or a difficult situation that needs careful navigation. Project engagements have a clear purpose and a natural conclusion, with the option to continue in a retainer capacity if the relationship feels right.
Leadership Advisory plus coaching
This is often where the deepest and most sustained change happens, because the internal shift and the external strategy are being addressed at the same time.
Every partnership is tailored to the business and the challenges in front of you. The starting point is always a conversation.
what simone brings
Experience on both sides of the table.
What makes this kind of advisory relationship valuable is more than just expertise, it’s the particular combination of experience, perspective and approach that the person brings.
Here’s what Simone brings to this work:
She has a sharp eye for the essence and is really good at bringing a lot of information back to its core. That allows for quickly zooming in on the issue and preparing a focused workplan.
— Peter, Oil & Gas Divisional Leader
Commercial Experience
Simone spent over a decade in corporate HR at the highest levels, with roles at KPMG, Woodside Energy and Chevron — large, complex organisations where people decisions carry significant commercial weight. She understands how leadership teams function under pressure, how culture forms (and deforms) at scale, and what genuinely effective people strategy looks like from the inside.
Founder Perspective
With over eight years as a founder and business owner, Simone has built and led her own businesses across multiple chapters. She understands the particular experience of being a founder — the identity entanglement, the weight of carrying it all, the loneliness of decisions that nobody else fully sees.
Leadership Expertise
As an ICF-trained coach, PRINT® Practitioner and REACH LX Accredited Partner, Simone brings validated frameworks to the advisory work. When a team dynamic needs understanding, PRINT® reveals the motivators underneath it. When communication is breaking down, REACH creates shared language.
A Framework for Sustainable Change
Simone’s own framework for understanding where leadership challenges actually come from. The Leadership Mandala maps the relationship between a leader’s inner world and their outer impact, and it shapes how Simone approaches every advisory conversation. Because in her experience, the presenting problem is rarely the real problem. The real one is usually one layer deeper.
Who is this for?
You might be the right fit if…
- You’re a founder or CEO who carries the people and culture questions largely alone, and is ready for a trusted thinking partner
- You lead a growing business where the people side is becoming more complex and you want proactive support, not just reactive problem-solving
- Your leadership team is strong individually but needs support functioning as a team
- You’re navigating a significant people decision, a culture challenge, or a period of organisational change and want experienced guidance
- You want senior people and leadership expertise without the cost or commitment of employing a full-time executive
- You’re already working with Simone on coaching and want to extend the relationship into broader organisational support
Why this works
Most people challenges aren’t solved by policies alone, and they’re not solved by coaching alone.
They require someone who can understand the commercial realities of running a business, while also recognising that every business challenge is ultimately a people challenge.
That’s why Simone works from the inside out, helping leaders think more clearly, make better decisions and create sustainable change across their teams and organisations.
Ready to dive in?
Book a connection call and let’s explore what support you need right now.