You've stepped into the top seat. Now you need the business to run like it.
1:1 leadership coaching and advisory for MDs and founders of established creative, events, experiential, production and exhibition agencies after a merger, acquisition, restructure or new leadership appointment, and for the senior leaders they’re sponsoring.
NEXT COHORT STARTS MARCH 2026. FOR MORE INFORMATION
Are you ready to stop firefighting
and start leading.
PRIVATE 1:1 EXECUTIVE COACHING AND MENTORING TO HELP YOU LEAD WITH IMPACT IN THE MOMENTS THAT COUNT
NEXT COHORT STARTS MARCH 2026. FOR MORE INFORMATION
You've stepped into the top seat. Now you need the business to run like it.
1:1 leadership coaching and advisory for MDs and founders of established creative, events, experiential, production and exhibition agencies after a merger, acquisition, restructure or new leadership appointment, and for the senior leaders they’re sponsoring.
The gap between where you are and where the business needs you to be.
You’ve taken the top seat through a buyout, a promotion, a merger, an EOT or years of building. The role is yours. But the business was built around a different leadership configuration, and it doesn’t yet run the way you need it to.
Difficult conversations get avoided. Decisions come back up to you that should never reach your desk. The team beneath you isn’t performing the way it should, and you’re quietly covering ground that should be theirs to hold.
Usually the issue is how responsibility is held rather than how people perform, and nobody has addressed it directly.
In my experience, the first twelve months are when the way you lead gets set, by design or by default. After that, the habits harden.
Leadership Partnership is built for that window: Above the Line applied to your situation, with someone who has lived this from the inside for nearly 30 years.
One leader, working on what matters most, with the effect felt across the team below them..
A leadership adviser who knows what it costs.
I co-founded and ran 4D Design, an exhibition and events agency, for nearly 30 years. I know what it costs when a senior leader isn’t functioning at the level the business needs, because I felt it on both sides. I was that leader once, figuring it out as I went. And I was the founder watching the gap between where my team was leading from and where I needed them to be.
Nobody taught me how to make that shift. I learned it the hard way, through the difficult conversations avoided, the decisions that came back to my desk and the standards that drifted when I wasn’t watching.
I’m a qualified coach, and the Above the Line methodology is built on established coaching practice as well as experience. That combination is what keeps the work both practical and grounded.
Leadership Partnership brings the frameworks, language and capability I wish someone had given me to what you, or the leader you’re sponsoring, are dealing with right now.
I work with a small number of senior leaders at any one time. The work is specific, challenging and grounded in the reality of agency life.
If that sounds like what you need, book a conversation.
Your leadership adviser who knows what it costs.
I co-founded and ran 4D Design, an exhibition and events agency, for nearly 30 years. I know what it costs when a senior leader isn’t functioning at the level the business needs, because I felt it on both sides. I was that leader once, figuring it out as I went. And I was the founder watching the gap between where my team was leading from and where I needed them to be.
Nobody taught me how to make that shift. I learned it the hard way, through the difficult conversations avoided, the decisions that came back to my desk and the standards that drifted when I wasn’t watching.
I’m a qualified coach, and the Above the Line methodology is built on established coaching practice as well as experience. That combination is what keeps the work both practical and grounded.
Leadership Partnership brings the frameworks, language and capability I wish someone had given me to what you, or the leader you’re sponsoring, are dealing with right now.
I work with a small number of senior leaders at any one time. The work is specific, challenging and grounded in the reality of agency life.
If that sounds like what you need, book a conversation.
The experience
What a Leadership Partnership looks like in practice.
The Leadership Partnership has no fixed curriculum. It’s built around what you, or the leader you’re sponsoring, are dealing with now: the specific decisions, dynamics and pressure points that are limiting their effectiveness.
Every engagement starts with a diagnostic conversation across the five pillars of Above the Line. It looks at where the gaps are and what the business needs that isn’t yet happening consistently.
From there, each session works on what’s live. The difficult conversation that’s been avoided. The team dynamic that keeps undermining performance. The delegation that isn’t sticking. The commercial decision that keeps landing back on your desk.
Between sessions, the work is applied in the business rather than waiting for the next session.
Where a leader is sponsored, we agree at the start what the business wants to see change, and review it together at the end. The signs to watch are practical: how decisions flow, what still lands on your desk and how the team performs.
GOT QUESTIONS?
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from the Above the Line Programme?
The Above the Line programme is a group: a cohort of up to eight senior leaders working through nine leadership themes together over nine months. It’s structured and progressive, and the peer learning is a big part of its value.
Leadership Partnership is 1:1, private and built entirely around what you or your leader are dealing with now. The methodology is the same, but there’s no fixed curriculum, and the work is specific to the role, the team and the decisions on the desk.
If you want to develop a group of senior leaders together, the programme is the right route. If one person needs to shift significantly and quickly, Leadership Partnership is the more direct intervention.
How long does the Leadership Partnership Run?
The length, number of sessions and format are agreed at the start, based on what you or your leader need and what the business wants to see change. Some leaders continue beyond the first engagement. That’s a conversation for later, with no pressure to commit further.
What's included in the partnership?
Regular 1:1 sessions, with the number, frequency and format agreed at the start. Each session works on what’s live: the decisions, dynamics and situations being faced right now.
The content of sessions is confidential. That’s what makes the space safe and useful, because a leader needs to think clearly without filtering what they say.
Where the partnership is sponsored, the MD or founder receives an honest progress conversation at the close: an assessment of where their leader is now operating across the five pillars, and what has shifted.
Is this suitable for sponsored leaders?
Yes and it's often the most effective way to use it.
When an MD or founder sponsors a place, they're making a direct investment in the performance of someone critical to the business. The return isn't abstract. It shows up in fewer escalations, stronger team performance, and decisions being made at the right level without coming back up the chain.
The Leadership Partnership works well as part of succession planning, as a development investment for a high-potential senior leader, or as a targeted intervention when someone capable isn't yet operating at the level the business needs.
The engagement is structured so the MD is not required to be involved day-to-day. At the close of the six sessions, you receive an honest assessment of where your leader is now operating and what's shifted.
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Leadership coaching and advisory for creative, events, experiential, production and exhibition agencies
The Leadership Line works with founders, MDs and senior teams at the point when responsibility needs to move: a new MD, a period of growth, an acquisition, a founder stepping back or a new structure. We build the leadership layer behind the vision, so the business depends less on one person and its leaders have more choice about what comes next.
Founded by Suzy Malhotra, leadership coach and adviser, who co-founded and ran 4D Design, an exhibition and events agency, for nearly 30 years.
Read View from Above, Suzy’s fortnightly letter for MDs, founders and agency leaders.
Based in Henley-on-Thames | Working with agencies across the UK and internationally
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