Leadership Mentoring  ·  Nimble Brands

Leading people is the skill nobody teaches you.

A mentoring programme for ambitious leaders who want to get it right the first time — not after the damage is done.

Book an Intro Call

30 minutes. I'll tell you honestly whether I can help.

70%

of the variance in employee engagement is explained by the quality of their manager — not the company, the product, or the pay.

— Gallup, State of the Global Workplace

The Challenge

The skills that got you here won't automatically make you a great manager.

Most people step into leadership because they were brilliant at the work. Then they discover that brilliant-at-the-work and good-with-people require entirely different muscles. Nobody warned you. And nobody's teaching you now.

“

My 1:1s keep turning into project updates. I'm not sure I'm actually managing.

The shift from doing to leading
“

I know my style can rub people up the wrong way. What I don't know is when it's happening.

The blind spot
“

I want people to take initiative. Instead I feel like I'm hand-holding.

The delegation gap
“

I can hold the pace when things move fast. I struggle to keep calm when they don't.

The frustration trap
These aren't character flaws. They're the predictable growing pains of high-performing people navigating a new leadership identity — without a map.
Who This Is For

Ambitious leaders at the point where the work gets personal.

01

First-time people managers

You've always delivered. Now you're responsible for others delivering — and the feedback loops are slower, messier, and harder to read.

02

Senior leaders scaling their teams

The team is growing faster than your management system. You need to delegate more, develop more, and intervene less — without losing quality.

03

Founders and MDs wearing both hats

You're running the business and managing people who are very different from you. The leadership tax is eating into your strategic thinking time.

This isn't group coaching (where your challenge gets lost in other people's), executive coaching (expensive and often detached from your actual team), or a one-off workshop (forgotten by week two). If the gap between your instincts and your impact is real — this programme was built for you.

The Approach

CALM. CLEAR. COMPOUND.

Three interconnected stages — each building on the last. Not a framework to follow, but a shift in how you think, communicate, and lead.

CALM

Build the internal steadiness that makes good leadership possible — especially under pressure, ambiguity, and pace.

CLEAR

Develop the communication and expectation-setting that makes your team's job easier and your own decisions faster.

COMPOUND

Embed habits and systems that keep working after the programme ends — so progress doesn't rely on being reminded.

The Engagement

Six sessions. A genuine shift in how you lead.

Each session combines reflection, challenge, and practical application. The work happens between sessions — not just during them.

01
Foundation

Where you are, where you want to be — and what's actually getting in the way.

02
Managing Self

Your leadership identity, defaults under pressure, and how to build genuine steadiness.

03
Setting the Tone

How you communicate expectations, give feedback, and create clarity without micromanaging.

04
Managing Individuals

How to lead the people in front of you — not the version of them you expected.

05
Managing Upward & Outward

Your relationship with your boss, your peers, and the political dynamics you can't ignore.

06
The Long Game

Embedding what's changed. Building the habits that compound beyond the programme.

Each session is supported by practical tools and frameworks — designed to be used immediately, not filed away.
How Ready Are You?

Manager Readiness Score™

Rate yourself honestly across five dimensions of leadership effectiveness. Most people are surprised by where the gaps actually are.

Clarity — how precisely you communicate expectations 10
Consistency — how reliably your team can predict you 10
Confidence — how secure you feel in the leadership role 10
Credibility — how much your team trusts your judgment 10
Coaching Capability — how well you develop the people around you 10
Your Manager Readiness Score™ 50
DEVELOPING

You have instincts but gaps are showing. The challenge is making good leadership consistent — not just good on your best days.

Talk to Mark about your score →
What Changes

The shift is personal. The impact is commercial.

For you
Your 1:1s change
By session four, they stop feeling like project updates. You're having leadership conversations — not chasing status.
Difficult conversations don't get postponed
The feedback that needs giving gets given. The expectations that need resetting get reset — before resentment builds.
You know how you're landing
Not just how you intend to come across — but how you actually do. The blind spots shrink. The confidence is real.
Your energy goes further
Less time absorbed by problems that should have been prevented. More left for the work only you can do.
For the organisation
Retention that pays for itself
Replacing a mid-senior hire costs 6–9 months of salary. One better-led manager who retains two people who would otherwise leave covers the cost of this programme several times over.
Less escalation tax
When leaders set clear expectations and handle conflict early, founders and MDs stop absorbing problems that shouldn't reach them.
Faster delivery
Clarity at the manager level translates directly into faster decisions, fewer reworks, and teams that don't stall waiting for direction.
Stronger stakeholder relationships
Leaders who communicate well upward and outward build the political capital that gets things done — and protects the people around them.

Progress is tracked using the Manager Readiness Score™ — a structured assessment of Clarity, Consistency, Confidence, Credibility, and Coaching Capability, revisited at the start, midpoint, and close.

Investment

Two ways to begin.

One better-led manager who retains two people who would otherwise leave covers the cost of this programme several times over. The real question isn't whether you can afford it — it's whether you can afford not to.

Foundation
£3,000

A six-session programme delivering a complete leadership development arc, from self-awareness through to embedded habits. The Manager Readiness Score™ tracks your progress throughout.

Compounding Partnership
£1,200 / month

Some leaders choose to continue beyond the six sessions — using the ongoing partnership as a strategic sounding board as the challenge evolves and the stakes increase. A natural extension, not an add-on.

Book your intro call
Why Mark

Mentoring built on real experience — not theory.

Mark Elderkin

Mark Elderkin has spent two decades at the intersection of brand, culture, and commercial leadership — working with founders, CMOs, and senior leaders inside challenger businesses.

He brings genuine understanding of what it means to lead under pressure, in fast-moving environments, with high expectations and limited runway for error. Not as a coach who's read about it — as an operator who's lived it.

Every mentoring relationship he takes on is personal. He works with a limited number of leaders at any one time — and only where he believes genuine progress is possible.

20+ years

Building and advising challenger brand teams at every stage of growth.

Founder & Operator

Built his own business from zero — not just advised from the outside.

Commercial focus

Every conversation connects back to what actually moves the business forward.

The intro call is 30 minutes.
It might change more than that.

Tell me what's happening. I'll tell you honestly whether I can help — and whether this is the right moment for it.

Book the intro call

I work with a limited number of leaders at any one time. The intro call confirms mutual fit.