Your leaders agreed in the room. The hallway didn’t.
When a big change has to land, I hear in confidence what your people won’t say out loud, name the real decision, and give you the words to carry it.
Strategic advisor on leadership alignment for growing organizations in a moment of change.
Serranova helps organizations close the gap between what leadership intends, what people understand, and what actually happens.
Does this sound like where you are?
- Something big changed, and your people heard about it before they heard from you.
- A leader left, or arrived, and the team is waiting to see what sticks.
- Your leaders are each telling a different version of the same decision.
- The rollout is on schedule on paper and stalling in practice.
- Decisions you thought were made keep coming back.
They look like communication problems. In my experience, they’re usually decision problems: a decision nobody closed, an agreement nobody bought into, or a team that has learned it’s safer to stay quiet.
None of this means you got it wrong.
Not sure where your team is? Take the Leadership Alignment Check: sixteen questions on where intent and reality split.
What I do differently
I start by understanding the problem, not by writing the message.
Most offsites start in the room, so they hear only what people will say in front of each other. Most change programs start with the message. But having a message isn’t the same as shared understanding.
I start by interviewing your leaders in confidence, then design the decision and the words around what I heard. You get the real disagreements on paper, one decision record, and one message every leader will defend. Not a 75-slide deck nobody implements.
Leadership teams decide things in the room. I go to the hallway, where people are actually making sense of it. I find out what they’re hearing, bring it back, and help leaders fix the message before it hardens.
Why it matters
When the message drifts, you pay for it.
When the room and the hallway tell different stories, it costs you in four places:
- Speed. Work slows while people wait to see what’s real.
- People. Your best people leave first, because they have options.
- Credibility. Each new version makes the next announcement harder to believe.
- Your time. Leaders spend weeks explaining a decision they thought was made.
Keeping the message intact protects what sits underneath: results on schedule, the turnover you avoid, a board that sees progress, and your own reputation. So the change you’re betting on pays off, and you’re the leader who pulled it off.
How I work
Hear the team first. Then decide. Then say it once — clearly.
Every engagement has a fixed scope, a fixed fee and a firm end. All of them rest on the same method: confidential interviews, a scored Gap Map of where intent and reality split, and a written readout.
It often starts with a simple test. I ask each leader, separately, to state the decision in one sentence. Five leaders, five versions? You don’t have alignment yet.
01
The Alignment Engagement
Leadership alignment for teams in a moment of change.
Every leader tells the same story, and your team believes it.
Six weeks to implement, with check-ins at 30 and 60 days.
From $32,000
02
The Substance Audit
A confidential leadership team assessment, on its own.
You see on paper where your team’s understanding splits from yours, and why.
From $11,000
03
The Leadership Message Sprint
Change communication for one decision: the words that carry it.
One decision, said the same way by everyone who has to say it.
$8,500
04
The Side Table
One decision you’re stuck on, and a clear read on what’s underneath it.
You leave with the real decision named and your next move clear.
$1,200
Start here: a free 30-minute conversation about what’s changing and where it’s sticking. Book a call →
In their words
What leaders say about working with me.
“Kelly has an uncanny ability to quickly assess complex situations, cut through ambiguity, and develop practical solutions that move organizations forward. … What stands out most about Kelly is her ability to lead through change. She understands that successful communications is as much about listening and building trust as it is about delivering messages.”
Chief Growth Officer, nationally recognized non-profit
“From day one, she brought clarity, confidence, and calm to a very full plate. … Kelly is thoughtful under pressure, strategic in her execution, and brings a human-centered approach to every challenge.”
Federal Advocacy and Communications Leader, nationally recognized non-profit
“Kelly is unique in her ability to get to the core of a message, wading her way through information overload and always hitting the nail on the head.”
Senior Manager, Executive Programs, global software company
About Kelly
I listen first.
For most of my career, I’ve been the person who tells leadership how people actually feel. My work starts with the people around a leader. I hear from many of them in confidence, notice the pattern nobody has named yet, and put it in order: what’s decided, what isn’t, and what has to happen next. Then I find the exact words, the ones a leader can say and a team can believe.
I care about work done carefully and about the people inside it, including the ones who told me the hard thing. That takes judgment and discernment more than volume: knowing which disagreement matters, and what to say, to whom and when.
I’ve done this for 25 years, in almost every kind of organization: as a partner in a growing B2B marketing firm, beside founders positioning tech companies for growth and acquisition, inside Fortune 500 transformations, in higher education and nonprofits, and with public leaders in moments that couldn’t go wrong. In every one of them, the problem was the same: leaders meant one thing, and their people heard another.
Frequently Asked Questions
Coaching works with one leader. I work with what the team knows: I interview the people around the leader in confidence, so the decision and the message are built on what they won’t say in the room. You’re paying for judgment and discernment, not time. Every engagement ends in something you can use: a written readout, a decision record and the message itself.
A facilitator runs the session, and the work usually ends when the session does. A change program tends to begin with a plan and a message. I begin with private interviews, before anyone is in the room, and I stay until the message has landed.
Founders and leadership teams of growing organizations of roughly 200 to 5,000 people, when the business is moving faster than the agreement behind it. Most of my work has been with B2B technology and SaaS companies, professional services, real estate and higher education, with some in the public sector and defense. I also work with owners of privately held firms of 10 to 75 people.
If your leadership team is in the middle of a change, book a 30-minute conversation about what’s shifting and where it’s sticking. If you have one decision you’re stuck on, book a Side Table.
Questions about confidentiality, travel and the kinds of change I’ve worked through are answered on the Services page.
Did something just change?
A 30-minute conversation about what you’re trying to land and where it’s sticking. If I’m not the right help, I’ll say so.