01
Weeks 1–2 · Baseline
Read the terrain
Stakeholder map, a review of your first-30-day pressures, and a written baseline of where the role is actually being tested. We name the two or three things that move the needle.
Executive coaching · Saint Paul, MN
The promotion lands in a day.The capability takes ninety.
Cinder runs fixed-scope, 90-day one-on-one coaching engagements for newly promoted directors and VPs — weekly working sessions, one practitioner across the whole arc, and a defined finish. No open-ended retainer, no diagnostic that never ends.
Who we work with
Directors and VPs in their first twelve months of the title — operations, product, engineering, and finance teams stepping up to lead peers they used to sit beside.
The core engagement
One director. One coach. Ninety days from title to traction.
The flagship program is a structured one-on-one engagement built for the exact window where a new leader is most exposed — the first quarter in the seat.
90-Day Executive Coaching Engagement
Twelve scheduled sessions, a written session cadence, and a documented set of leadership targets reviewed against reality every two weeks.
- Format Weekly 60-min one-on-one, video or in person
- Length 12 sessions across 13 weeks
- Between Async notes & a mid-point recalibration
- Ends A written handoff you keep
$9,600 per program
How the ninety days run
A defined arc with a beginning, a load, and a finish.
The engagement is phased on purpose. Each block has a job; nothing drifts into a permanent standing meeting.
02
Weeks 3–10 · Load
Work the real cases
Weekly sessions built around live decisions — the tough delegation, the promotion you have to deny, the board update. We rehearse, run it, and debrief the following week against outcomes.
03
Weeks 11–13 · Consolidate
Make it stick without me
We convert the habits that worked into a written operating rhythm you own, close open threads, and set the checkpoints you'll run solo. The engagement ends — and that's the point.
The person on your first call runs every session
Cinder is a solo practice led by Dana Reike. There is no bench, no handoff to a junior associate, and no rotating roster — the coach who scopes the engagement is the coach who sits with you for all twelve sessions.
90
days per engagement — a fixed arc with a documented finish, not a standing monthly retainer that quietly renews.
Confidential by default
Nothing from your sessions is shared with your employer, your manager, or your report without your written consent — even when a company funds the program. What we discuss stays between us.
The work behind the title
What a first-quarter director actually gets stuck on.
Not vision statements. The concrete, unglamorous shifts that separate a strong individual contributor from a leader people follow.
- 01
Delegation without abdication
Handing off the work you're best at while staying accountable for the outcome — and resisting the pull to just fix it yourself at 11pm.
- 02
Leading your former peers
Re-setting relationships with people who were teammates last quarter, without over-correcting into distance or leaning on old friendships.
- 03
Running the room you now own
Facilitating decisions instead of just contributing to them — pacing a meeting, surfacing dissent, and closing with a real commitment.
- 04
The executive narrative
Communicating up and across at the altitude leadership expects — tight framing, defensible tradeoffs, no burying the point.
- 05
Prioritization under ambiguity
Making the call when the data is incomplete and the deadline isn't — and being able to explain why afterward.
- 06
Building a first leadership team
Hiring, sequencing, and setting the operating cadence for the group that now reports to you rather than sits beside you.
Before you scope a call
The questions serious buyers ask.
Is $9,600 worth it for a first-time director?
The engagement targets the single highest-leverage transition in a career — the first quarter in a leadership seat, where a bad pattern can take years to unwind. It is priced as a one-time program, not a recurring fee, and it ends in thirteen weeks. If it isn't clearly the right window for you, the scoping call will say so.
Who funds it — me or my company?
Both are common. When an employer sponsors the program, they receive confirmation the engagement is underway and that it has concluded — nothing about what was discussed. Individual clients pay directly; we can invoice net-15 or split across the program on request.
Do you coach whole leadership teams too?
Yes. Beyond the one-on-one engagement, Cinder facilitates full-day leadership offsites and runs 360° feedback assessments for a director and their reporting line. Those are scoped separately — see the three programs below.
In person or remote?
Your choice, session to session. Remote sessions run over video; in-person sessions happen in Saint Paul or at your office within the Twin Cities metro. Offsites are on-site wherever your team gathers.
What if it isn't working by the mid-point?
Week 6 includes a formal recalibration built into the arc. If the fit is wrong, we say so and part cleanly — you're only committed program-by-program, never to an auto-renewing retainer.
Three ways to engage
Pick the scope, then book the call.
Every program is billed once, per engagement — priced up front so there's nothing to renegotiate mid-way.
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01
90-Day Executive Coaching Engagement
Twelve one-on-one sessions across thirteen weeks for a newly promoted director or VP. The flagship program.
$9,600 Scope this → -
02
Leadership Team Offsite
A facilitated full day for a director and their reporting line — operating cadence, decision rights, and the hard conversations, set up to hold after everyone goes home.
From $14,500 Scope this → -
03
360° Feedback Assessment
Structured, confidential input from a director's manager, peers, and reports — synthesized into one written brief and a working debrief session.
$3,200 Scope this →
Twenty minutes decides whether the timing is right.
No pitch deck, no assessment to fill out first — a short call to check whether a 90-day engagement fits your first quarter in the seat.
Book a 20-minute scoping call Or call (331) 330-5971