Operator Coaching
The Trellis Leadership Diagnostic
A scored map of how you actually lead, both the operating decisions you make and the internal patterns driving them, converted into one concrete 90-day development focus. $2,500, fully creditable against your first month of coaching.
Mutual NDA before the debrief · Not sure yet? Take the free two-minute pulse check →
Most founder assessments measure you, then leave you to guess what Monday looks like
Inner-work firms measure your psychology and leave you to figure out what it means for Monday morning. Framework operators score you against their playbook and prescribe the same fixes to everyone. The Trellis Leadership Diagnostic sits between them: it maps how you actually lead, both the operating decisions you make and the internal patterns driving them, then converts that map into a concrete 90-day development focus.
It is built and delivered by an operator, not a career coach. The person reading your results has run product at acquired startups, managed a $150M P&L at Microsoft Research, and made the specific mistakes this instrument is designed to catch.
Who it is for
Startup founders and founding executives, typically pre-seed through Series B, who are past the point where raw effort covers for leadership gaps. The common trigger moments: a first management layer forming under you, a board relationship getting harder, revenue plateauing while activity increases, or the quiet recognition that the company's biggest bottleneck might be you.
What you get
- A scored leadership profile across six dimensions, showing where structure is holding and where growth is outrunning it.
- A written report, 4 to 6 pages, interpreting the profile in the context of your company stage and situation, with a single recommended 90-day development priority. One priority, deliberately. Founders do not need another list.
- A 90-minute debrief with Erick to pressure-test the findings, challenge or confirm the priority, and decide what, if anything, comes next.
How it works
- Intake (10 minutes). Company stage, team size, funding status, and the one leadership question keeping you up at night. This calibrates interpretation; a "3" on delegation means something different at 4 people versus 40.
- Questionnaire (25 to 30 minutes). 24 scored items and 6 open-response prompts across the six dimensions. Self-report, written to resist flattering answers: items describe behaviors from the last 30 days, not aspirations.
- Perspective check (included). Two or three of your direct reports or co-founders answer a short version about you. The gap between your self-view and their view is often the single most valuable data point in the whole exercise.
- Report and debrief. Written report delivered within five business days of questionnaire completion, followed by the 90-minute debrief call.
The six dimensions
Every scored item is anchored to observable behavior in a bounded window, because "I delegate well" invites aspiration while "I redid a report's work this month" invites the truth. Two sample items per dimension below.
1. Focus
Whether you have a defensibly narrow definition of who you serve, and whether your calendar reflects it.
"In the last 30 days I have said no to a real revenue opportunity because it was outside our ICP." · "I can state, in one sentence, who we do not sell to."
2. Decision architecture
How decisions get made, how reversible ones are distinguished from irreversible ones, and whether the company knows which decisions are yours.
"My team can name which decision types require me and which do not." · "In the last 30 days, a significant decision stalled for more than a week because it was waiting on me."
3. Team leverage
Delegation, hiring bar, and whether you are the bottleneck.
"There is at least one full function I have handed off completely, including accountability for its outcomes." · "In the last 30 days I have redone a report's work myself rather than coaching them through it."
4. Commercial ownership
Your relationship to revenue: pipeline rhythm, pricing courage, and willingness to sell personally.
"I know our current pipeline coverage ratio without looking it up." · "We have raised prices, or defended them under direct pressure, within the last two quarters."
5. Self-regulation
Energy, stress response, and the degree to which your identity is fused with the company's performance.
"A bad week for the company is automatically a bad week for me personally." · "I have a recovery practice, and I actually kept it over the last 30 days."
6. Feedback metabolism
How you take in hard information from your board, customers, and team, and what you do with it.
"In the last 30 days, someone on my team told me something I did not want to hear." · "I changed a position in the last quarter because of evidence, and my team saw me do it."
How scoring works
Each dimension contains four items scored 1 to 5, giving a dimension score of 4 to 20. Scores map to three bands:
- Anchored (16 to 20): structure is holding; this dimension can support more weight.
- Climbing (10 to 15): functional but strained; likely to crack at the next stage of scale.
- Exposed (4 to 9): actively costing the company now.
There is no overall composite score. The output is a profile shape, and the debrief focuses on the interaction between your lowest dimension and your company's current stage, because an Exposed score in Commercial Ownership means something very different pre-revenue than after a Series A.
The recommendation is honest
Sometimes the recommendation is a coaching engagement. Sometimes it is a fractional executive, a key hire, or a single hard conversation you have been putting off. If you do not need a coach, the report will say so in writing. The 90-day priority is scoped so you can pursue it alone, and the debrief closes with one low-pressure question about whether you want structured support on it.
$2,500, one time
Includes the perspective check. Fully credited toward your first month of coaching if you continue within 30 days. Mutual NDA signed before the debrief.