What It's Like To Work With Me And A Few Spots Are Open Right Now

I don't talk about the nitty gritty aspects of my coaching practice very often. Many of my clients find me through word of mouth; a former client refers a colleague, a board member passes along my name, or someone reads something I've written and reaches out. That quiet approach has always felt right to me.

But every so often, I have a small number of openings, and when I do, I think it's worth being direct about it. So this is me being direct about it! I'm currently accepting a limited number of new coaching clients, and I'd love for the right person to find their way here.

This post is my attempt to pull back the curtain, to share what working together looks like, who it's for, and what you can realistically expect on the other side. 

With my clients Susan Solinsky, who’s on the board of TeleMedU and Mini Timmaraju is the President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All. 

You're good at your job. So why does leadership still feel this hard?

The executives I work with are not struggling because they lack talent or commitment. They're struggling because the skills that got them to a senior level are no longer sufficient for the complexity they're navigating now.

They're dealing with a board that isn't quite giving them the confidence they've earned. A direct report who's underperforming and the conversation keeps getting delayed. A team that looks aligned in meetings but isn't moving forward. An inner critic that gets louder under pressure, even after decades of success.

What coaching with me looks like

I work with senior executives who are typically in their mid-40s to 60s; who have intentional careers and complex decisions to make. They are CEOs, C-suite leaders, or board-facing executives. Occasionally, I work with someone who doesn't fit the mold at all but brings the same drive and self-awareness.

Before our first session, I invest significant time learning your world. I review your strategic plan, org charts, past performance reviews, and personality assessments. I research your organization. We align with your coaching sponsor on expectations and goals.  

I administer the Hogan Assessment to go deep on your values, motivations, and how others perceive you - at your best and under pressure. Then, I conduct confidential 360 stakeholder interviews with your boss, peers, direct reports, and key colleagues. By the time we begin setting goals together, we're working from a rich, multi-dimensional picture of you and your context.

We meet twice a month via Zoom and in person whenever possible, as I travel regularly to major cities. Between sessions, I send curated resources (articles, podcasts, books) tailored to what's most alive for you. You'll often have a small experiment to try in the real world and reflect on before we reconvene.

Engagements run a minimum of six months, with a year being ideal for the most transformative change. The investment is a flat, all-inclusive fee. There is no hourly billing and no surprise add-ons.

Amii is an outstanding executive coach who takes an organized approach to coaching and helped me set clear but simple behavioral goals. My experience with Amii enabled me to accentuate strengths, while recognizing blind spots and opportunities for improvement. - Mike Boland, COO at Triumph Group

With my clients Dave Armstrong, CEO of Sakata Seed Corporation and Tyler Conklin with the $5,000,000 cash prize at season 2 of Beast Games. Yes, that's real money!!

The breakthroughs I see most often

Three patterns show up again and again in clients who do this work well.

The first is a shift in self-awareness. Clients move from "This is just how I am" to "this is a pattern I've been running, and I can choose a different response." That shift typically happens within the first eight to twelve weeks.

The second is a shift in relational impact. Instead of asking "Why won't they just..." clients begin asking "What do they need from me to move forward?" That reorientation changes everything - difficult peers, skeptical board members, struggling direct reports. Others often notice the shift by the midpoint of a six-month engagement.

The third is a shift in how leaders hold their own power. They’re less reactive, more grounded, and more intentional. They’re more likely to lead from values instead of from fear or urgency. This shift tends to solidify between months six and twelve, often when we're moving through a second wave of change together.

Learn more about working with me here

An example (anonymized, of course)

One client stepped into a CEO role at a large, complex organization after years as a highly respected operator. She was smart, decisive, deeply committed. The feedback that came in: She’s too tough, too fast, occasionally intimidating. Her board was supportive but worried that key leaders might burn out or leave.

She came to me saying she needed to be "more influential." Through our intake, the Hogan, and 360 interviews, we surfaced the pattern: under pressure, she defaulted to control, intensity, and perfectionism. It had served her well earlier in her career. At CEO level, it was constraining the very people she needed to empower.

We built awareness first. She tracked triggering situations between sessions. We debriefed them together - what she felt, what story she told herself, how she reacted. Then we worked on specific behaviors: asking more questions before giving direction, slowing the tempo in key meetings, naming her own learning edges with her team.

By midyear, her direct reports were reporting a visible shift. They had more space to speak, more acknowledgment of their contributions, and less fear of "getting it wrong." By the end of the engagement, she had restructured parts of her leadership team, built a stronger relationship with her board, and described the role as less lonely, less exhausting, and more aligned with the leader she wanted to be.

The work I do connects to the research

I've always grounded my practice in evidence. A few threads that show up regularly in my client work:

Boards and CEOs lose confidence in executives not because of mistakes, but because of opacity. Fewer than 40% of directors say management communicates emerging risks clearly and early, according to the 2024 PwC Annual Corporate Directors Survey. I work with leaders on exactly this: how to build board confidence through honest, strategic communication.

Psychological safety is a performance strategy. Amy Edmondson's research shows that teams with psychological safety surface problems earlier and adapt more effectively under pressure. Many of my clients are working to create that environment, often after years of unintentionally suppressing it.

The way leaders communicate to boards matters more than most executives realize. I wrote about the three questions every board update should answer and the shift from reporting to communicating is one of the most common and high-leverage things we work on together.

This work is not for everyone

At the risk of being blunt, I'm not interested in coaching someone who wants to stay comfortable. My coaching is for professionals who have a fire in their belly about maximizing their leadership and aren’t content with the status quo.

The clients who get the most from this work are the ones who are willing to take the watch apart, look at the mechanisms, and put it back together a little differently.

They bring equal parts courage and vulnerability. They show up honest. They follow through.

If that's you - if you're an executive who has done well and still senses there's a level of leadership you haven't fully reached yet - I'd love to talk.

A few openings are available right now

I keep my practice intentionally small so every client gets my full attention and preparation. At the moment, I have a limited number of spots available for new engagements beginning this quarter.

If you've been thinking about executive coaching, this is a good moment to reach out. We'll have a conversation to explore whether we're a fit. There’s no pressure or pitch, we’ll just have an honest conversation. 

You can learn more about my approach here or reach out directly at amii@barnardbahn.com, I'm also happy to answer questions in the comments below.

The most common thing I hear at the end of an engagement is some version of: "I didn't realize how much of this I actually had the power to change."

That realization is available to you too.