Founders : Find the right problem before you fix the wrong one
The Leader’s Diagnostic works for digital, tech and agency founders who feel under commercial pressure, isolated or trapped, and wanting to regain direction and confidence.
It is a fast and incisive diagnostic that using your own words, your own situation, and the dynamics inside your business identifies and suggests remedies to the root causes that are blocking your business momentum in just a 2 day turnaround with nurture, respect, and equality.
Advisory support trusted by founders in digital, tech and marketing for over ten years.
“If you define your problem correctly, you’re already designing the solution.”
My work is to help you reach that point with confidence and speed.
David Peters
Founder of The Leader’s Diagnostic
The biggest and most costly mistake I see founders make that’s so powerful when fixed.
Put simply it’s working on the wrong problem when the real issues sit hidden underneath.
When progress slows, your instant reaction can typically pull your attention towards the visible symptoms. It gets very expensive very quickly when founders address symptoms such as….
More marketing. More sales activity. More operational fixes. More expensive people. More planning.
But the visible, presenting problem, perhaps sales are slow, is the symptom not the true causes that needs addressing.
Most business issues have several contributing factors working quietly in the background.
Individually they look small.
Together they explain everything.
The Leader’s Diagnostic isolates these hidden factors so you can act on the right problem, not the noisy symptoms.
You may recognise some of these symptoms.
- Momentum has slowed even though ambition is unchanged.
- You are expending more output for less commercial return.
- You feel spread across too many responsibilities.
- Your role doesn't reflect what you think you should be doing.
- Bottom line business performance needs to improve.
I work with tech, digital and agency founders more than 3 years in who know their business should be performing better than it is.
Using your unique perspective and the daily realities of your business, we identify the factors contributing to slowing your progress and establish your key priorities.
This is not for very early stage founders still testing an idea or those seeking long term day to day coaching.
It works for founders feeling commercial pressure, isolation or a loss of direction who want to quickly regain confidence, focus and control.
What changes once this becomes clear:
- You stop firefighting the wrong issues.
- You know where to direct your energy and resources.
- You gain a grounded plan you can share confidently with your team.
- You regain clarity, renew purpose and energise progress.
What The Leader’s Diagnostic delivers to you
We analyse your current situation through your own words combined with specific questions about how you feel around key issues.
Through our unique algorithms, we take your thoughts and inputs and identify and connect the contributing factors shaping your current situation.
The Diagnostic then reveals root causes, suggests the key priorities to address and provides guidance in their impact, feasibility and potential consequence.
Experience in working with many founders has taught me that it’s vital to capture both how you see your business performance and how you perceive your personal progress towards your own goals.
In most cases, it’s not business facts but your perception of your world that is the most powerful and revealing information.
Understand clearly
- The true contributing factors behind your current constraints.
- How these factors link to the symptoms you are experiencing.
- Up to three root causes and the priorities to fix them.
- A clear rationale and interpretation from a Senior Consultant.
- A practical and progressive action plan.
How it works
Step 1 - Express your view of where you stand
Your information is input through a confidential on-line service.
You will be guided as you answer a highly curated set of reflective questions.
Each question and answer plays a part in developing your unique personal and business scenario.
Your answers are used in the analytical process and are the key component of developing your Priority Report.
Step 2 - Processing and analysis of your thoughts
We take your thoughts and use highly-trained pattern identification techniques to build a picture of your world.
It’s where we make the connections between the contributing factors to your issues and understand the issues.
The analysis process is the engine that creates up to 3 key priorities that suggest a clear way forward.
All of this is interpreted by a senior consultant.
Step 3 - Your Priority Report
You receive a short, focused report that gives you three things.
1. Clarity on what is really going on
You gain an honest diagnosis of the core issues slowing progress. No general commentary or theory. Just the real problems surfaced clearly and in your own context.
2. Your three true priorities
From all possible improvement areas, I identify the three priorities that represent the greatest leverage for your business right now. These are the actions where effort converts into progress rather than more activity.
3. A practical way forward
Each priority is backed by plain language recommendations so you leave with a route back to control, confidence and forward motion rather than another list of disconnected ideas.
Step 4 - Your one-to-one debrief
Once you have received your Key Priority Report, we meet for a private conversation to walk through what it means for you and your business.
We explore each of your priorities in turn, stress testing them to clarify where needed.
The conversation typically delivers three outcomes.
1. Confidence in the diagnosis
You leave knowing you are working on the right issues, for the right reasons, at the right time rather than second guessing whether there is “something else” you should be fixing first.
2. Focused decisions
Together we consider immediate decisions about where to direct your attention, effort and leadership energy over the coming months.
3. A clear starting point
You finish the session having combined the review of your Key Priority Report built with your information and an independent view from a senior consultant.
What’s the cost in time to you?
Around 30 minutes to complete your answers
and a one hour debrief with a senior consultant
gives you a completely fresh perspective
and renewed purpose.
A note from me
Founders are the bravest of people in business. They take the chance, face the risks and put themselves out there to create when they see an opportunity that can make a difference. A better service or idea. A better life for their families. The ability to generate wealth.
I know firsthand how once situations turn against us or times get difficult, having a resource to turn to can make all the difference. But there is a problem. When you are at your lowest, the support you need is often out of reach, too expensive or too time consuming to engage with.
And the one thing you need in middle of the whirlwind is clarity.
Why? Because Clarity Restores Progress.
The Leader’s Diagnostic exists to deliver that clarity quickly and affordably.
It brings the best of human judgement and new technology together to make expert support accessible throughout the life cycle of a founder.
My work is focused on founders who have built something solid but find the business harder work than it should be.
Revenue may be flat or under pressure. The team is still delivering in parts yet tensions and strain begin to show. The actions that once moved things forward no longer have the same effect and it becomes difficult to see where the real problem sits.
It’s here where The Leader’s Diagnostic excels.
We use your own words, your own situation and the dynamics inside your business to identify the real contributing factors behind the symptoms. The process is simple and structured. It helps you step back, see what is really going on and decide where to apply your time, energy and investment next.
I only work directly with the most senior person in the business because that is where the decisions and the responsibility sit. The work is one to one and completely confidential. It gives you space to speak openly, test your thinking and work through decisions that sit with you alone.
Across my career I have:
- founded four service businesses in training, IT, digital and marketing services
- achieved a success as well as living through failures and hard lessons
- coached several service business owners through exits totalling many millions
- worked across sectors including IT, mobile tech, business services, digital marketing, biotech and international brand development
- held senior board roles in global agency and global IT groups
- worked extensively in the United Kingdom, Europe and the US
Over more than thirty years of building, running and advising businesses I have seen how easy it is for good companies to lose momentum. Not for lack of effort but because the real issue has not yet been clearly understood.
If that is where you are, The Leader’s Diagnostic is designed to help you regain clarity and move forward with more confidence.
Clarity Restores Progress
What founders say
Matt Howarth
Co-Founder and CEO Reason Digital
As a founder, there is no-one to hold ‘the boss’ accountable.
And in fact, because founders build businesses, there has to be real value in the advice they are being given or they probably don’t listen and dismiss the input.
But being held to account by a hugely experienced professional with gravitas who’s been there and done it is very different and valuable.
Nicola Weedall
Founder and CEO Hydr
In this role there are so many issues competing for attention at any one time.
That’s where clarity is so important to make sure that time and resource are spent on dealing with the right issues.
I always see things more clearly after each session we have together.
Louis Georgiou
Co-Founder Code Computerlove
As 15 year founders we needed fresh direction, and wanted an exit for our web platform studio.
The process and consistency of the service created fresh clarity, identifying the specific changes that we need to make.
Working together, we fixed some key business challenges and achieved our exit expectations on schedule.
A selection of real-world results
- Profitability improvement from 2% to 25%
- Top-line billing increase from £6m to £14m.
- Business strategy development leading to 7 figure exits.
- CEO succession planning and successful execution.
- Upscaled market positioning fixing poor service differentiation.
Pricing
The Leader’s Diagnostic
The full diagnostic engagement includes:
Online reflection and information input across leadership, operations, people and commercial performance.
Independent analysis of your responses using the Leader’s Diagnostic framework.
Your personalised Key Priority Report identifying the three priorities that matter most right now.
Your private One to One debrief with a senior consultant to discuss decisions and next steps.
This engagement is designed as a serious intervention for founders who want clarity before committing significant time, money or organisational energy to change.
£1,950 + VAT
What you receive
A structured diagnostic across all core areas of the business
A professionally written Key Priority Report
A confidential 60 minute One to One Debrief
A clear set of suggested leadership priorities
There is no obligation to continue beyond the Diagnostic.
Ongoing Advisory Support
For founders who want continued high level support once priorities are clear.
Rather than just coaching it is ongoing advisory alignment across strategy, leadership and commercial decision making, with access when real decisions need to be made rather than scheduled sessions.
Support includes:
Monthly advisory engagement
Ongoing access for strategic conversations as issues arise
Decision review and priority refinement as the business evolves
Independent challenge and perspective as your business scales
£3,250 + VAT per month
Engagement is flexible after an initial 3 month term.
Is this right for you?
This work is for founders who:
Are running established service or digital businesses
Want serious clarity rather than surface level tactics
Are ready to invest at the level their leadership responsibility requires
It is not a fit for early stage founders or those looking for templates, frameworks or motivational coaching.
Start here