My clients and I believe in ethical leadership and organizational integrity.
I partner with leaders and organizations to grow agency and impact. If you’re on a mission, and seeking greater alignment, let’s work together.
When doing what was right cost me what seemed, at that time, like my whole career, I got a huge dose of reality. You may have been there, too. When you are doing the right thing, communicating the right messages, and managing a complex change process, the forces that want to keep things the same are working against you. Without alignment, you may not see that you are pushing a massive rock up a hill alone. No matter how many people are cheering from the sidelines, it is easy to get smooshed.
You don’t need to accept that. Don’t drive change alone. Don’t trust that others have your back just because you have theirs. I learned my lesson. (If the universe wants you to change enough, it will find a way!)
I make good people more powerful. With honest feedback and insight, deep rigor, and a proven approach, I deliver results and needed change to leaders who are as commited as I am. My clients are inspirational; determined, successful people who are making a difference in their lives and in the organizations they lead. I don’t work with people who are not all in, and neither should you.
Leaders call me when they need a partner with credibility.
Here’s what I’ve learned about organizations…
Organizations are opaque when things aren’t working. Often employees are not able to be candid, even when they are trying to be. Slef-deception is a powerful thing.
But you need information that is reliable, quickly, not just data, but human information.
If your business is being disrupted - it is urgent that you identify what needs to change and how best to do that quickly.
Most leaders see the problem as external and hunker down. That is truly a recipe for disaster. Don’t wait for the world to change. Especially if technology and preferences are a part of the issue. The change will likely get bigger.
Assume it’s a people problem. And an alignment of executive with strategy problem. And a resource problem.
I know. This feels overwhelming. But these issues all come down to one thing.
Its often a values problem.
Once you address it at the level of values— it is like having a key that unlocks value.
And until you can address it at that level, nothing works.
That’s what I do. I help leaders who are stuck despite their own capability find out how to unravel problems that are fundamentally values alignment problems to change everything else — human resource problems, team achievement problems, strategic execution problems, value proposition problems, and all the rest.
Why Values?
Every organization has stated values. Most also have unstated ones—and also team values and individual values — all shadow values operating beneath the surface, often in direct conflict with the official story.
The guy who runs marketing and tells his team not to cooperate with others. You didn’t know he said it, but you can tell something is happening. He’s acting on his own values. He feels there are too many priorities. He has hunkered down. It gets down to that level almost instantly.
When values are misaligned, something predictable happens: what should be a straight path to your goals becomes an impossible tangle. Strategy stalls at execution. Good people work at cross-purposes. Bad people run more than they should. Even when everyone is doing their best, progress breaks down. Silos develop. You have the same conversations in meeting after meeting.
I used to literally say to myself — we talk about this every time and still no one seems to get it. They walk out of the meeting and something very different takes over.
No straight lines to outcomes. The picture is confusing.
This isn’t a motivation problem. It isn’t a talent problem. It’s a clarity problem—and it has a solution.
Does This Sound Like You?
• You’re a capable leader who keeps hitting the same wall, and you’re not sure why
• You thought everyone was aligned, but forward movement keeps stalling, or gets interupted
• The gap between strategy and execution feels impossible to close
• Conflict in your organization is underground—hard to name, harder to address
• You’re building something new and you need to do it right this time
• You’re navigating a board, stakeholders, or a leadership team that isn’t fully with you
You don’t need motivation. You need values alignment.
You don’t need cheerleading. You need someone who can see what you can’t—and name it.
A Structured Approach to Organizational Assessment and Executive Coaching
I bring to clients a structure process developed over 15 years of working inside organizations—first as a senior executive at Georgetown University, then at the Urban Land Institute and as CEO of the Appraisal Institute. I have refined it as a consultant and executive coach. It streamlines the process and begins with values because that’s where the answers actually are.
Many advisors talk about culture and values but they don’t know how to do anything about it. This is not about writing words on a board and printing cards with values.
Yes, I have seen that. It doesn’t work.
Here’s what works:
• I begin with a diagnostic to surface big picture issues—no, people don’t “tell the truth” in the diagnostic, but the point is to read between the lines to what is not being said, or perhaps, even understand.
• One-on-one conversations with you and your key leaders. i’ve been doing this for a long time. Experience, insight and being an outsider make a big difference.
• Review of business systems, communications, and relevant documents. What you say you do matters and it is a critically imporant part of your managment.
• A custom strategy session to work through findings together. I am not going to give you a report. You are part of the system, the most imporant part, because people are trying to follow your lead.
• An actionable realignment plan with continued accountability that we agree to. Once you feel confident we have a godd enough understanding, knowing that perfect knowledge is not available, we agree on a go forward plan.
• Follow-up benchmarking so progress is visible and measurable. If you will benefit from an implementation partner, you can invest in that added support.
You made need a lot of support, or just a little.
Not for the Faint of Heart
Investing in change is costly and difficult, but nothing compared to not doing the work.
My clients get an established process that works, not guesswork. Honest feedback without judgment. And immediate movement—specific, measurable progress: decisions made, conversations had, actions taken.
Be forewarned — if you are not ready to do hard things, there is not a point in making this type of investment, and it will weaken your organization by raising expectations that things can finally change. (I have been there, too, and it is terrible.) Commit to change or don’t begin.
I give you accuracy in terms of what is actually happening. You’ll have much more information and insight once we get started.
You will understand the landscape much more clearlty to be able to see what immediate action is needed, and then track progress, all the while building the insight to sustain the work of continuous change long after our work together ends.
Here’s a values diagnostic for you as a starting point.
Who I work with
• Nonprofit and association executives navigating board dysfunction, mission drift, or stakeholder misalignment
• Founders and senior leaders in “agreeable” environments where conflict is underground and progress is mysteriously slow
• CEOs and leadership teams whose business model has been disrupted and need to regroup.
• Leaders who have built something and are deciding on their next step.
This is for people who are serious about investment in a solution—and who are ready to do the work.
What Clients Say
“Cindy helped me see patterns I’d been missing for years. Within two months, we’d restructured our leadership team and our board finally understood our strategy.”
— Nonprofit Executive Director
“I came in thinking I had a people problem. Turns out I had a values problem. Cindy helped me get clear on what I actually stood for, and everything else followed.”
— Professional Services Partner
About Cindy Chance
I’m a PhD ethicist, I spent more than 15 years as a leader in Higher Education, and was CEO and EVP of two professional real estate related associations. In addition to working with clients, I am a leadership educator at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.
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