Strategy / Soul / Self

How, in a complex and ever-changing world, do we intentionally build meaningful lives and organisations?

My work helps leaders answer that question — for themselves, their organisations, and the world we live in.

Read the weekly letter See if this is for you

  • 250+

    professionals advised since 2019

  • 2,300+

    reflective letters written

  • 7,500+

    passages indexed for reference

  • 600

    hours a year of scholarship in human flourishing and organisational effectiveness

Who am I?

I am Karl Gostner, an executive adviser and coach. My practice works at the interface between leaders and the organisations they’re entrusted with. We work who you are, how you got here, the system you’re in and the adjustments that need to be made.

Since 2019, I have worked with 250+ professionals who are either at inflection points or are leading in substantial complexity. Most arrive at a moment of consequence — stepping into a new role, leading a transformation, scaling beyond the structures that got them here, or deciding what the next decade is for. Several stay for years.

Each coaching session is supported by a 2,000-4,000-word reflective letter. They integrate the world’s best thinking into your coaching journey. I have written more than 2,300 of them. My clients describe it as getting an eMBA tailored to their unique context.

In parallel, I invest 600 hours a year learning from the world’s best thinkers. I read strategy, biographies of game-changing leaders and thinkers, business histories and histories of consequential moments, developmental psychology, philosophy and a lot in between. My reading is systematically indexed into a database of 7,500+ passages, allowing me to connect my client’s context to the world’s best work on strategy, human flourishing, and leadership.

Since January 2020, I have explored these topics in my newsletter – Strategy, Soul & Self. You can access the full archive here (opens in a new tab).

Working with me you get more than a coach; you get access to a continuously evolving leadership learning ecosystem.

Working with me

You are likely facing one of two challenges.

An Inflection Point

You are at an inflection point in your leadership and life journey.

You want to create a vision for your next phase and a strategy that will support your success.

If what has brought you here is a moment of inflection and change, it often means you’re about to start a new role. You may be a few months into that role and are feeling that what got you here isn’t quite enough to have the impact you desire.

It may be that you’ve triggered the inflection point. You feel you could use your potential to greater effect or you’re wanting to define a vision and strategy for the next part of your life.

Clients in these moments are confronted with the same challenge – a current context that they want to change and the desire to create a better future through intentional action in ways authentic to themselves. Architecting the Future here addresses that ambition.

Recent examples include

  1. CEO Transition – Professional Services (>R650mn revenue; 500 employees).
  2. Senior Manager moving into Country Head role – Professional Services.
  3. CEO Support: New majority shareholder – Technology Infrastructure Business turnaround.
  4. CIO transition – Investment Bank.

Leading a Complex Organisation

You are leading a complex organisation or division.

You want a confidential place where you can think aloud, where you will be challenged and inspired to think through what confronts you and your business. You want a partner who won’t give easy answers, who can engage seriously with both the strategic substance of your organisational challenges and the personal dimensions of your life and leadership.

This work blends my executive experience, my ongoing strategy and leadership scholarship with the capability-creating orientation of a coach. I don’t draft strategy. I don’t do PowerPoints. I help you think systematically and strategically through your challenges and opportunities, so that you’re better able to take intentional and effective action. I have worked with clients through exits, acquisitions, restructuring and strategy formulation and transitions from one leadership role to another. You can learn more about my Strategic Partnership for Senior Executives here.

Recent examples include

  1. Founder – Financial Services Business (R500mn revenue; 300 employees): Strategy and Operational Excellence. Leading with Purpose. Establishing the levers for a legacy business.
  2. Founder – Venture Capital Business (R650mn funds under management): Strategy, Scaling and Governance. Rediscovery of joy in work. Building of habits to sustain resilience and deep work.
  3. COO – Large Public Sector Organisation (R30bn budget, 30000+ employees): Personal resilience. Strengthening Leadership Team. Building Engagement. Adaptive Strategy.

Strategy, Soul & Self

Strategy, Soul & Self are the pillars of my coaching practice. They form a framework that integrates strategic clarity, inner depth, contextual awareness and personal mastery.

  • Strategy

    because navigating today’s complexity requires clarity and intent; because we operate in and are shaped by our organisations and contexts.

  • Soul

    because meaning, care and connection give us purpose; because not everything can be measured.

  • Self

    because transformation starts with us, with how we are in the world; because all successful strategy results from intentional action.

This work is often separated: strategy goes to consultants, organisational dynamics to advisors, personal effectiveness to coaches. Our work holds the whole picture.

Systemic Impact

Whilst our work focuses on you, its impact does not end there. I support leaders to become authors of culture, not just actors within it.

As my clients gain clarity and confidence, the effects of our work ripple into strategy, organisational design and institutional cultures.

The leaders I work with reshape team dynamics, restructure governance, shift organisational tone, and clarify their institution’s strategic story and reimagine their own stories so that they’re able to live and lead sustainably and with joy.

If this sounds like the kind of work you want to do:

Karl Gostner

Who I am

I am Karl Gostner. I started this practice in 2019, after twenty-three years in business — most recently as chief operating officer of a R1.4bn revenue, 300-person company, and before that as group head of strategy, general manager and head of sales.

I am an ICF-accredited executive coach and a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and the African Leadership Initiative, with qualifications from the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Cape Town, IESE Business School and New Ventures West.

My LinkedIn profile (opens in a new tab) gives more biographical information.

Throughout this site, you will see references from my clients. If you’d like a comprehensive set of recommendations, please email me and I will share them.