Better Leaders. Better Teams. Better Results.
Something is getting in the way of performance
You are probably feeling and seeing the symptoms, but the cause is less obvious. What affects one part of the system can show up in the leader, the team and eventually in organisational performance.
you may feel it first
- Your confidence or executive presence is being tested
- You're struggling to influence or motivate others.
- You're making difficult decisions in isolation
- Greater responsibility isn't producing the impact you expected.
- The skills that got you here no longer feel sufficient.
- You have less confidence and trust in your team
- Your team isn't taking the initiative you expect
- Expectations are unclear and frustration is growing
- Working hard, but not getting the results
- People are polite, but not working well together
- Difficult conversations or tensions are unresolved
- Trust and psychological safety are declining
- Accountability and shared ownership are weak
- Strategic projects are not being executed.
- Processes aren't aligned with goals
- Leadership gaps impacting execution
- Low engagement, poor culture
- Performance and profitabilty are bing effected.
Meet Your Partner in Performance
I'm Maxine Greaves Attong, I work at the intersection of strategy, people and change.
I didn’t start my career there. I am an accountant and built my career in business, eventually becoming a COO with responsibility for finance, strategy and operations. I developed and managed budgets of over US$400 million, developed strategy, improved business processes and led change. I loved and excelled at this work.
As my leadership responsibilities grew, so did my frustration. Despite my technical competence, I struggled to motivate people and get the results I wanted. I was working longer hours and feeling increasingly isolated.
I began to realize that my failures were rarely about the technical work. They were about my ability to lead people. When I looked around, I saw other capable leaders struggling with the samething.
As a good process expert, I became curious.
I began observing how we work together: why some leaders and teams succeed while others struggle, why people resist change,and how our own behaviour contributes to the results we get.
That curiosity changed the course of my career.
Today, as a Gestalt Organizational Development practitioner and executive coach, I help leaders and teams make the invisible visible — surfacing the behaviours, assumptions, relationships and systemic patterns that may be getting in the way of performance.
I bring the operational discipline of an accountant and former COO together with the human and systemic perspective of a Gestalt Organisational Development and Leadership practitioner.
I understand the pressure to deliver results —and I understand that results happen through people.
My work is evidence-based, grounded in your reality and focused on helping you get better results that stick.
Three Systems. One Integrated Approach
I work with leaders, teams and organizations to make the invisible visible: raising awareness of what is getting in the way of people performance and turning insight into action.
Executive Coaching
The SELF Model™
The SELF Model™ at work:
Creating a Personal Brand
A leader at a pharmaceutical company transformed her performance scores by discovering her core values and designing her authentic leadership brand.
Aligning Values and Work
A safety executive discovered that his struggles were not only about workload. His deeply held value of “family first” conflicted with the demands of his senior leadership role. Making that conflict visible allowed him to examine his assumptions, make more conscious choices and lead in a way that better reflected what mattered to him.
For: Senior and newly promoted executives
When: Leadership feels harder or more isolating than it should. You may be navigating greater responsibility, leading in a rapidly changing environment, struggling to influence or motivate others, questioning your confidence or executive presence, or finding that the skills that got you here are no longer enough.
The Work: I use assessments, reflection, challenge and feedback to deepen your awareness of how you lead and the impact you have on others.
Together, we create a leadership development roadmap. You will experiment new ways of being and leading, reflect on what happens, and be supported to integrate what works into your leadership practice.
Outcomes:
- Greater awareness of your leadership style, values and impact
- Increased confidence, influence and executive presence
- Stronger relationships and ability to motivate others
- Greater clarity and confidence in decision-making
- Practical strategies to lead from who you are in complex and changing environments
What Clients Say: I initially thought that I needed to improve my communication skills…[Maxine] helped me recognise that the real obstacle was not my communication, but my confidence and belief in my own abilities.”
C. Braithwaite| Senior Leader | Red Cross International
Team Development
The LEAP Model™
The LEAP Model™ at work:
Better Negotiation, Better Outcomes
A purchasing team learned negotiation skills and became empowered to actively seek savings — delivering $30,000 in value within 3 months.
Team Effectiveness in Practice
An intergovernmental organization in Europe wanted to build greater harmony within a multicultural team after several years of leadership changes and unresolved tensions. During a multiday team retreat, facilitated conversations helped team members surface issues that had gone unspoken, explore how their own behaviours were contributing to the team dynamics, and agree on a road map for working together differently.
For: Leadership teams, intact teams, cross-functional groups
When: Your team needs to strengthen its skills, build capacity and improve how it works together to deliver better results.
You may be developing new or existing managers, enhancing critical people skills, building trust, navigating change, addressing unnamed tensions or conflict,strengthening accountability, or helping a team become less dependent on its leader.
The Work: This includes capability and team effectiveness, developing the skills needed to lead and work with others while identifying and addressing the behaviours, relationships and patterns affecting how the team performs.
This may include communication, leadership and management development, feedback, conflict and performance management, negotiation, problem-solving and other critical people skills.
I also work with teams to build psychological safety so that people can speak up, raise concerns, disagree, admit mistakesand have the difficult conversations needed to work effectively together.
Team retreats, team coaching, facilitated interventions and workshops are used to surface and address what is getting in the way of performance.
Outcomes:
- Enhanced leadership and interpersonal skills
- Greater trust and psychological safety, so people can speak up, disagree and raise concerns
- More open and productive conversations
- Greater ability to address conflict and difficult issues
- Clearer expectations and stronger accountability
- Greater adaptability when navigating change
- Stronger collaboration and shared ownership
- More capable, self-managing teams that deliver results
What Clients Say: Employees commended her ability to simplify complex topics, relate the material to real workplace situations, and effectively use role plays and practical exercises to build confidence in conducting performance conversations.
D. Roopchand| Executive Manager HR | Angostura Limited
Gestalt OD Interventions
The PASS Model™
The PASS Model™ Effect
Organizational Transformation in Practice
A regional technology company wanted to improve its customer experience. Starting with the leadership team, we built leadership capability, shifted the organization from a bureaucratic hierarchy to a customer-focused matrix structure, and redesigned processes and ways of working to support the strategic priority. Customer satisfaction scores improved by 30%.
Organizational Recovery in Practice
An NGO experienced a crisis that rocked the foundations of the organization and threatened to shut it down.
I facilitated a strategic planning process that helped the organization make sense of what happened, regain focus and agree on a way forward. The process shortened the organization’s recovery period, enabling it to return to its roots and to restore the value it delivered to its stakeholders.
For: Executive teams and, organizations navigating change, or seeking to improve performance.
When: Your organization needs to improve performance, navigate change or turn strategy into action. You may be experiencing declining profitability, high employee turnover or low engagement. You may hear people complain about the culture or performance. Your organisation maybe navigating growth, restructuring, undergoing transformation or crisis. You may be realising that your strategy, people, processes and structures are no longer working together to deliver the results you need.
The Work: I treat the organization as an integrated system: its strategy, people, processes and structures. I assess and identify where misalignment may be affecting performance.
The work may include strategic planning and implementation, organizational design, business process improvement, culture and change interventions, leadership development, and building psychological safety.
Throughout, I facilitate conversations and engage people across the organization so they can speak openly, make sense of change and take ownership of what happens next.
Outcomes:
- Clearer strategic direction and priorities
- Greater alignment between strategy, people, processes and structure
- Stronger leadership capability, ownership and accountability
- Greater psychological safety, enabling people to take initiative, take appropriate risks and drive change
- Greater employee engagement and reduced unwanted turnover
- Greater capacity to navigate and implement change
- Improved organizational performance and profitability
What Clients Say: Maxine streamlined everything, allowing us to generate an immense volume of actionable ideas in a remarkably short space of time.” Jean Claude Cournand| Co-Founder| 2 cents Movement
Changing how we lead, work and make decisions.
Start your transformation today with these frameworks and insights.
Change or Die
The Business Process Improvement Manual
A practical guide to examining how work gets done, challenging outdated processes and involving employees in creating better ways of working.
Contact me to explore how this works for your organisation info@maxineattong.com
Lead Your Team to Win
Achieve Optimal Performance by providing a SAFE SPACE for Employees
Learn how to create the trust and psychological safety that allow people to take initiative, experiment, learn from mistakes and contribute their best work.
Contact me to explore how it works for your organisation. info@maxineattong.com
26 personal tips to positively impact and level up your leadership
26 personal tips to positively impact and level up your leadership
Frustrated with your team underperforming? Identify the problems.
Gain valuable insights into strengths and areas for improvement by evaluating key aspects of teamwork, communication, and collaboration.
26 personal lessons to positively impact and level up your leadership
A comprehensive guide designed specifically to help women navigate their leadership journey in Caribbean and North American workplaces.
Bring This Expertise to Your Event or Retreat
Maxine delivers keynotes, workshops and facilitated retreats that challenge conventional thinking, question existing assumptions, and invite leaders and teams to reframe problems from fresh perspectives and experiment with different ways forward.
Keynote: Leadership in the time of AI
Suspend what you know about leadership and embrace the reality of constant change. Perfect for conferences and leadership summits.
Team Retreats: Helping teams make the invisible visible
Maxine helps teams to unearth and name tensions. With this raised awareness teams can now make sense of the dysfunction and plan a way forward. Highly interactive and immediately applicable.
Workshop: Strategic Facilitation for Results
Make it easier for teams to collaborate and make informed decisions. Ideal for retreats and planning sessions.
Listen to my podcast
Leadership Unlearned & Reframed
Regional Expertise. Global Standards.
I work virtually and in person with clients across the Caribbean and internationally.
Caribbean Focus
I get it. The market dynamics, the cultural nuances, the regional business landscape. Whether you're in:
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Jamaica
- Barbados
- Bahamas
- Eastern Caribbean
...I bring contextualized solutions that work in our reality.
Global Reach
Serving executives and teams across:
- United States
- Canada
- Europe
- Africa
Ready to Transform Your Leadership?
Stop spinning your wheels. Start leading with clarity, building aligned teams, and driving measurable results.
Three-Step Process:
Book a Call
30-minute complimentary assessment session to discuss your challenges
Get Your Plan
Customized proposal outlining approach, timeline, and investment
Begin Transformation
Start your journey toward sustainable performance excellence
Questions Leaders Ask
A: Coaching helps you develop greater awareness of how you lead, experiment with different ways of being and find solutions that work for you. Consulting brings expertise, analysis and recommendations to team and organisational challenges. I work in both modes and will be clear about which one we're using and why.
A: We begin by clarifying what you want to achieve from the coaching engagement and exploring your current situation. Through questions, reflection, feedback and, where useful, assessments, we build awareness of how you lead and the impact you have on others. You then experiment with different ways of being and responding in real leadership situations, reflect on what happens and integrate what works into your leadership practice.
A: Yes. Confidentiality is fundamental to the coaching relationship, and I work in accordance with ICF ethical standards. When an organisation sponsors coaching, we agree at the outset what, if anything, will be shared with the sponsor. The content of our coaching conversations remains confidential unless you give permission otherwise, subject to the limits set out in the coaching agreement. Where reports are required, the coachee is fully aware of what will be shared, and reportingf ocuses on agreed themes rather than the details of individual coaching conversations.
A: Both. I coach clients virtually across the world and deliver workshops, retreats and organisational engagements virtually and in person. Travel is available depending on the engagement.
A: This depends on what the client wants to achieve. Executive coaching typically runs for 3–12 months. A workshop or retreat may be a single engagement, while leadership development and organisational work may take place over several months. We agree the scope, outcomes and timeline , with the client, before the work begins.
A: I don’t assume that the problem presented is the problem that needs to be solved. My work is about making the invisible visible: surfacing the assumptions, behaviours, relationships and systemic patterns that may be affecting performance. I combine the operational discipline of a former COO and accountant with the human and systemic perspective of a Gestalt Organisational Development and Leadership practitioner. That means I understand both the pressure to deliver results, the need for a return on the client's investment and the people through whom those results happen.
A: Yes. I design and facilitate workshops and retreats around the specific needs of the group ; these are not off-the-shelf sessions. I start by gathering data so that I can understand what is happening and design an agenda that works for the group. Some teams opt for team coaching after the workshops.
A: Each engagement is different. Investment depends on the length and scope of the engagement, including whether assessments or organisational sponsorship are involved. After an initial conversation, I'll recommend an approach and provide a clear proposal and investment..
A: I have worked across financial services, energy, technology, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, public sector, health, hotels, statutory, government, non-profits and international development. While every sector has its nuances, many of the leadership, team and organisational dynamics have similarities regardless of the sector. I take time to understand your organisation rather than assume that what worked somewhere else will work for you.
A: We start with a conversation. I learn about you and you learn about me. You tell me what's happening and what you want to change or achieve. I share my thoughts and then we decide if I'm the right person to help. If wedecide to work together, we then agree on the next step and scope theengagement.