The Thinking Sat Upstream
25 years of operating taught me that the biggest things I was solving rarely came down to strategy or talent. The pattern under all of it sat upstream. How the thinking itself was happening.
25 years at the sharp end of business.
Supply chains. Monetisation. Distribution networks. Marketplaces. Teams in the hundreds. P&Ls that kept me up at night.
I was good at it. And I still am.
But somewhere along the way I noticed something that wouldn't leave me alone.
What I kept solving for rarely came down to strategy. It rarely came down to talent. The missed targets, the failed launches, the teams that couldn't execute. The pattern under all of it sat upstream: how the thinking itself was happening.
Leaders who couldn't finish a sentence before someone interrupted with a solution. Rooms where the most junior person never spoke because the most senior one always had the answer ready. Cultures where speed was so prized that nobody stopped long enough to ask the right question.
I kept fixing the symptoms. The real work sat upstream.
That tension is what led me to add coaching to what I do.
Because the operator and the coach are doing the same work at different levels. The operator sharpens the system. The coach shifts the thinking that runs the system. Both matter. Both are needed.
Today I work with leaders at different stages. Some stepping into their first management role. Some navigating the shift from manager to director. Some running large businesses and wondering why the work keeps getting harder even as their experience grows.
The conversation is different each time. The question underneath is usually the same.
I am building this practice one conversation at a time. Paying clients and pro bono work side by side. Learning as much from each session as the people I sit across from.
If something here resonates, the discovery call is where it starts.
Deepak Narayan is an independent leadership coach and consultant at Rivi Consulting.
Rivi
Consulting
Coaching leaders in transition