Ulrika Gustafson Advisory
The higher you go, the more you answer for things you don't directly control. That's not a broken org. That's the job.
So you're making calls with partial information, competing interests, and people whose support you need but can't instruct. Reading that accurately is most of the job at this level. It's also the part nobody trains you for.
I help senior leaders and founders see what's actually driving the decisions around them, and work out what to do about it. Not the version in the org chart. The one that's actually deciding what happens.
THE COST
One senior leader says keep me posted. Another asks why they weren't consulted. Neither of them has told you who decides. You're the most prepared person on the call and the conversation still happens slightly to the side of you. You get asked to send the follow-up. A decision you already made comes back open, reopened by someone who wasn't there. Nobody is being rude about it. That's what makes it hard to name.
THE LOOP
When it gets tense you reach for what's always worked. You go back with more evidence. You put it in writing so there's a record. You review the deck at ten at night because you know exactly where it's going to fail. Every one of those is the right call on its own. Together they tell the room you're the one who gets it done rather than the one who decides. You pay for it twice, once in the hours and again in how you get read.
THE ROOM
The promotion conversation that keeps getting moved, until you finally have to name the cycle yourself because nobody else is going to. The target you own where your manager calls it modest and your skip-level expects double. The leadership work that only happens in whatever's left after the meetings and the email. And the part nobody counts, which is how many hours a week go on work that stopped being yours years ago.
AS FEATURED IN
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Hello, I am Ulrika!
I'm a former attorney, City Manager, one of Europe's youngest female ones, and interim C-suite executive in places where something had already broken at the top. I've founded three companies, lived and worked in five countries on three continents, and led organizations from one person to 11,000.
I've made decisions under public scrutiny. I've negotiated under political pressure. I've run turnarounds where the margin for error was thin and the cost of getting it wrong was public.
That's what I bring into the room with you. Not theory. Not frameworks. Judgment, built from having been in the seat. So when you tell me what's going on, I'm not guessing at it. I tell you what I think is actually driving it, including when I think you've read it wrong.
Everyone else you could ask has a stake in the answer. Your boss. HR. Your peers. The person who gets your job if this goes badly. I don't.
I help accomplished leaders stop proving their competence and start leading. Not by making them louder or more polished, and not by teaching them to present better. By making sure they can see what's actually in the room before they decide what to do about it.
I'VE COACHED LEADERS INSIDE
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Free For Subscribers
WHEN THE PLAYBOOK STOPS WORKING
For leaders and founders who are doing everything they've always done and quietly wondering why it isn't landing the same way.
You're not stuck because something is wrong with you. You're stuck because the rules changed and nobody told you.
This isn't a checklist. It's a real look at what happens when the way you've always worked stops matching the level you're operating at, and what to do once you can see it.
My Services
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
1:1 EXECUTIVE COACHING
For senior leaders and founders navigating high-stakes decisions, political exposure, or a moment where reputation, power and timing all matter at once.
Private work. Six months, bi-weekly, with direct access between sessions when something can't wait. Engagements begin at $18,000.
CORPORATE ADVISORY
For an executive whose year keeps producing decisions that can't be got wrong. Board friction, a restructure, an integration, a mandate that arrived without the authority to deliver it.
Twelve months, with reserved capacity and priority access before the rooms that matter. Where an organization funds it, the sponsor sets the outcome and you keep a confidential relationship. Annual retainers begin at $45,000.
LEADERSHIP TEAM ADVISORY
For a leadership team that looks aligned on paper and still can't make a decision. Too polite, too careful, decisions deferred and nobody naming it.
The work starts with a read of what's actually happening underneath, not with a day in a room.
Testimonials
WHAT MY CLIENTS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH ME
“I was referred to Ulrika by someone I trust - another woman in a senior leadership group I’ve been part of for years. She said, ‘If you’re ready to really grow, and not just be encouraged, talk to her.’ From our first session, I knew it was different. Ulrika doesn’t circle around things. She goes straight to what no one else is naming and she does it with zero ego. I wasn’t looking for someone to cheerlead. I was looking for someone who could actually challenge how I show up in high-stakes rooms, and help me lead at the level I know I’m capable of. After six months, I was leading with more clarity, presence, and authority than I ever have. And it wasn’t just me who felt it - my team delivered some of our best creative work to date, and we ended up winning a major international award. Ulrika doesn’t coach for comfort. She coaches for impact. And it works."
Executive Creative Director, Global Advertising Agency, USA
"I was honestly exhausted. I could see exactly why certain people were getting ahead, and it felt draining. They weren't better at the job. They were better at playing the game. And I didn't want to be that person. Working with Ulrika helped me realize I didn't need to change who I am. I just needed to understand what was really happening in the room, and how I was showing up inside it. I'm still direct, still myself, and still not into politics for politics' sake. But now I'm not sidelined and don't get overlooked. I finally feel like I'm moving forward without selling out."
Director, Operations & Strategy, Financial Services
"What pushed me to join wasn't self-doubt about my capabilities. My skills were the sole reason I volunteered to take on a complicated and very sensitive project. But I was watching leadership say one thing and do another. I stopped waiting for alignment that wasn't coming and started moving with strategic clarity. I didn't become tougher or change my ways to fit the norm. I became clearer. And that changed how people saw and responded to me almost immediately. The biggest relief comes from trusting my instincts again."
Managing Director, Global Asset Management
How The Work Actually Happens
A PARTNERSHIP,
NOT A PRESET PROGRAM
1.
THE CONVERSATION
A direct conversation, thirty minutes. An honest read on what's actually going on. I'll tell you whether the work fits what you're dealing with, and if it doesn't, I'll tell you that too.
2.
BUILT AROUND THE SITUATION
The work is shaped around what's actually in front of you, not a stock framework. The meeting next week. The decision that's stalled. The person you can't read. The mandate that arrived without the authority to deliver it.
3.
IN THE ROOM
This is where the work happens. Direct, grounded in real situations and real questions. No performance. Truth over comfort.
4.
AFTERWARDS
I stay close after the initial work. Clients stay connected, sometimes for years, for when the pressure returns and a clean read of the room matters again.
Get All The Details
FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Senior leaders and founders who are already doing the job and get treated as the reliable person who gets things done rather than the leader whose judgment shapes what happens next. Managing directors, general counsels, COOs, chiefs of staff, CEOs, senior leaders on the VP track, and founders running companies they built.
Most coaching helps you process, reflect and build skills. Useful work. Not what I do. I bring an outside read on the system you're inside, and that read comes from having run those systems. City manager, twice. C-suite. Turnarounds across five countries. Not studied them. Run them. You do develop through the work, but that comes out of seeing clearly rather than the other way round.
Executive coaching engagements are six months and begin at $18,000. Six months is the minimum because anything shorter doesn't hold. Sessions are bi-weekly, and you have direct access between them when something can't wait for the next one. Corporate advisory retainers run twelve months and begin at $45,000.
Six months is for a situation with an end to it. A transition, a promotion case, a specific mandate, a team you've just inherited. The twelve-month retainer is for a seat that keeps producing them. If your year reliably has more than one of these coming, an engagement with a finish line is the wrong shape.
No. Some people arrive with a clear mandate. Most arrive with tension they can feel and haven't named yet. We start where you are and we don't stay there. The early work is finding what's actually causing the stall. Once that's visible the objective is usually obvious and the work moves fast.
Most teams I work with aren't dysfunctional. They're capable, experienced and busy, and stuck in patterns that quietly slow decisions and dilute accountability. I work with senior teams when alignment looks fine on the surface and momentum has stalled underneath. It starts with a read of what's actually happening, not with a day in a room.