Melbourne · working across Australia
Coaching for the senior leader who becomes someone else under pressure
One-to-one work with leaders, and days with leadership teams carrying sustained load. The method is body-based, so it changes what someone does in the moment rather than what they understand about themselves afterwards.
Book a scoping callThree ways organisations buy this
Format, price and first step, before you have to ask
Each of these is sold to a budget holder rather than to an individual, and every price excludes GST.
Leadership engagement, sponsored by the employer
For a senior leader whose reactions under pressure are starting to cost the organisation people, usually after a piece of feedback or a step up. What changes is range: more ways to be in a hard meeting than the one that fires automatically.
- Format
- Twelve fortnightly sessions of ninety minutes over six months
- Included
- A 360 or Leadership Circle Profile, plus a sponsor conversation at the start, midpoint and end
- Price
- $9,000 + GST, assessment at cost
- First step
- Thirty minutes with the leader, then fifteen with the sponsor
Leading under pressure, a facilitated day
For a leadership team of six to fourteen where meetings have got sharper or quieter under load. The team leaves with a shared language for what happens to a group under pressure, and a few practices they actually use afterwards. Culture transformation is not on offer.
- Format
- One day in person, plus a ninety-minute online follow-up at six weeks
- Bought by
- An HR director, an L&D lead, or the team's own leader
- Price
- From $5,000 + GST per day, settled on the outline
- First step
- A scoping call, then a one-page outline within 24 hours
The Capacity Program, run for one employer
For a cohort of eight to ten senior individual contributors or new managers running hot, where the employer wants something more substantial than a wellbeing webinar. The same instrument runs at the start and the end, so the sponsor has something to look at.
- Format
- Eight weeks, four live sessions, eight to ten people from one organisation
- Measure
- A validated psychosocial safety instrument, reported to the sponsor
- Price
- $12,000 to $18,000 + GST per cohort
- First step
- A free sample session with the team, then a proposal
Why this is landing on desks now
Victoria's psychological health duty reaches how work is designed and how people treat each other
Since 1 December 2025, Victorian employers have had to identify psychosocial hazards in work design, systems of work, management and workplace interactions, then eliminate or reduce the risk. Manager behaviour under load sits inside that duty, and it is the part an insurer cannot underwrite and a policy cannot fix.
Source: Safe Work Australia, Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025. The 2023–24 figures are preliminary and typically revise upward.
In their own words
Three leaders on what actually changed
All three came out of one-to-one coaching engagements. Longer accounts have been shortened, and nothing else has been altered.
I was struggling to define my leadership style and how I wanted to be perceived by others as a leader. With Rudi's guidance, I was able to refine and come to terms with my own leadership style, one that was underpinned by my own personal values and also able to deliver results. He doesn't tell you what is the 'correct' answer, but instead gently guides you to arrive at the right answer for yourself.
As for external world, sessions helped me to look at my peers with more empathy. As a result it helped me to understand my team dynamics and build better alignment with my peers. As for my internal world, the sessions helped me to improve my self confidence.
I felt the working model had a 3 step approach. Firstly, we focused on finding the 'why' of the different personal and professional issues, the 'why' of the different behaviours. Secondly, I needed the time to process the self-discovery. Finally, we moved to action, thinking on what steps could be follow[ed] in order to keep developing leadership.
A practice, not a firm
The person at the scoping call is the person in the room
Nobody gets substituted in once the contract is signed, and no account manager sits between the sponsor and the work. A change to scope or dates takes one email rather than an internal approval chain.
From first email to signed outline
Five steps, most of them finished inside a fortnight
You send the shape of it
A few lines about who the work is for and what has already been tried.
Scoping call, thirty minutes
No charge and no pitch deck. The useful question is what a good outcome looks like to the person paying.
A one-page outline within a day
Scope, dates, price and exclusions, on a single page you can forward to whoever signs.
Sponsor conversation
We agree in advance what gets reported back and what stays between coach and leader. Getting this wrong late damages trust in the whole engagement.
Signed outline, then the work starts
Invoicing runs from the same page. There is no separate proposal document.
Who does the work
Rudi Doku
Fifteen years in management consulting, then a decade coaching leaders across five continents, with a body-based method underneath the second half. The commercial background is why a story about a board paper does not need explaining first.
- Executive Master in Change, INSEAD
- Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
- Fifteen years in management consulting, including time at Accenture and Deloitte
- Trained in Gestalt group dynamics and Adaptive Leadership, with a group relations background
- Founder and Principal, Vertical Development Consulting Pty Ltd, ABN 15 628 060 015
Leaders coached at
Questions a buyer usually asks
The five that come up before anyone signs
Is this coaching or therapy?
Coaching. The subject is how someone leads under pressure and the contract is with the organisation. The method borrows from body-based training, which is why it often shifts patterns that talking about them has not. Nothing here treats a diagnosis. When something belongs with a psychologist, we say so early and refer.
What does the organisation actually get for the money?
A defined format, an assessment at the start, and a sponsor conversation three times across the six months, so the person paying is not left guessing. What we will not do is promise a behaviour change on a date.
Why not use a leadership consultancy?
Continuity. A firm gives you a bench, case studies and the ability to scale, along with associate substitution. If the work needs to reach two hundred managers, a firm is the better buy and we will say so on the call.
We already have an EAP. How is this different?
An EAP responds to an individual who has already reached the point of asking for help, and it is confidential by design, so it tells the employer nothing about the conditions producing the calls. This work is preventive and collective, aimed at the team and the manager behaviour inside it. Most organisations want both.
Can you prove it works?
The Capacity Program measures with a validated psychosocial safety instrument at the start and the end, and you see the design before you buy. A pre and post measure on one cohort with no control group shows movement and rules out very little, which is worth knowing before anyone puts it in a board pack. Alongside the numbers we collect accounts of specific moments in real meetings.
Next step
Send the shape of it and get an outline back within a day
A few lines about the leader or the team, what has been tried, and roughly when. If it turns out to be the wrong kind of help, the reply will say so and point somewhere better.