Clarity over volume.
Leading isn't shouting or controlling. It's making sure people know what matters, what's expected and why, and then trusting them with it.
The Next Chair
Someone will sit here next. It could be you.
Leadership is getting harder to learn and more important to get right. We are experienced executives giving our time back to people at the start of it: students, first-time managers and first-time founders. One person, one mentor, real problems. Usually pro bono.
Apply for a placeThe honest part
Your version of the game is harder. We won't pretend otherwise.
We started our careers in a different world. Some of what worked for us won't work for you, and some of it still will. Here is what we see.
You compete with the whole world.
Your peers are no longer only the people in your city or your year. Anyone with a laptop and the same ambition is in the same race.
AI is taking the work that used to teach us.
A lot of us learned to lead by doing the routine work first and watching how decisions got made above us. More of that routine work is now automated, so the path up is less obvious.
You want a life as well as a title.
Health, people you care about, time for things that aren't work. That isn't a lack of ambition. The best leaders we know built careers that include a life.
You think differently than we did.
You question hierarchy faster, you expect reasons, and you leave places that don't respect you. Good. Those are leadership instincts, if someone helps you use them.
And someone still has to decide.
Tools change. Markets change. What doesn't change is that a team needs a person who sets direction, says the uncomfortable thing early and owns the result. That person is rarely the loudest one in the room. It's the one who was ready.
Not from us
Things you won't hear from us
- Work 14 hours a day or you're not serious.
- Sacrifice everything now, live later.
- Leaders are born, not made.
- Wait your turn.
What we'll tell you instead is less exciting and more useful: leadership is a skill, it's built through real situations, and it grows fastest when someone who has done it is honest with you about what they see.
What we mean
What we mean by leadership
Owning the result.
Titles can be given. Responsibility has to be taken. People follow the person who stays when things get hard.
The hard conversation, sooner.
Most problems in teams are conversations nobody wanted to have. Learning to have them early, and kindly, puts you ahead of most managers you'll ever meet.
Two ways in
Two ways in. One goal.
After a first conversation, we decide together who you work with.
With us directly
Vlado Houba or Martin Fabry
Some people we mentor ourselves. Between us we have led sales, operations and whole companies, in startups, scale-ups and corporates, across dozens of markets.
With a leader from our community
A matched Chairborn leader
Chairborn brings together experienced executives across functions and industries. If someone in the community fits your situation better than we do, we introduce you.
Either way, the aim is the same: that in a year you can lead something you couldn't lead today.
How it works
How it works
Apply
Tell us where you are and one situation you're facing right now. Five minutes, no CV needed.
Talk
A short conversation with one of us. We want to understand you.
Get matched
You work with Vlado, Martin or a leader from the community, whoever fits you best.
Work on real things
Regular sessions on your actual situations. Each one ends with a decision you'll act on.
In return
What we ask in return
It's free, but it isn't passive. Our mentors give real time, so we look for people who will use it.
- Show up. Keep the sessions you agree to, and say early if you can't.
- Bring something real. A team, a project, a decision, a conflict. Real situations teach more than hypotheticals.
- Do what you said you'd do. Then tell us honestly how it went, especially when it didn't.
- Pass it on. One day, sit with someone who is where you are now.
We both had people who made time for us when they didn't have to. A manager who explained why. Someone who told us the truth about our first leadership mistakes before they became expensive.
We can't give everyone that. But we can give it to some of you, properly, and connect others with people in our community who want to do the same.
We take a small number of people at a time, so that each one gets real attention. If you're not sure you're "leadership material", apply anyway. Most good leaders weren't sure either.
Vlado Houba and Martin Fabry
Co-founders, Chairborn Leadership Group
Apply
Apply for a place
We read every application ourselves and reply either way.
Application sent.
Thank you. One of us will read it and get back to you by email.