You built a business. You didn’t expect every people decision to keep coming back to you.
A manager needs an answer. An employee situation gets complicated. Something lands on your desk that matters, and everyone is waiting for you to decide what happens next.
You’re not winging it. You’ve just been carrying too much of the people side yourself.
It starts with a conversation, not a contract.
The goal isn’t to be needed less. It’s to stop being the only one everything depends on.
You can handle the hard things. The relief comes when every hard thing no longer has to route through you.
You hear about a difficult people issue after it has been handled thoughtfully, not while everyone is waiting for you to step in.
You leave for an afternoon and the business keeps moving. Your phone is not the decision-making system.
Good judgment lives in your managers and your systems, not only in your head. You get to lead the business instead of being on call for it.
Put support where the weight is landing.
Sometimes you need experienced judgment beside you. Sometimes your managers need to carry more. Sometimes the repeatable work needs a better system.
Get experienced judgment beside you.
Sort through the options, the risk, and what fits the business you are building.
Equip them to handle more themselves.
Build the judgment, preparation, and confidence to lead people without routing every issue back to you.
Build a better way to handle it.
Turn a recurring HR process into something clearer, more consistent, and easier for your team to use.
There’s a conversation you know needs to happen. You just don’t want to get it wrong.
You may have already had it in your head a dozen times. The hard part is walking into the room clear on what matters, what needs to change, and how to say it fairly.
Performance Conversation Prep helps you sort that out before you walk in, so you are not working it out for the first time in the conversation.
Beside you, never above you.
You know your business. My job is to help you see the options, understand the people and business implications, and make a decision you can stand behind.
I believe the law is a guardrail, not a wall. Compliance matters, but most people decisions involve more than finding the rule and stopping there.
And I’m not interested in making you dependent on me. Over time, your managers should become more capable, your processes clearer, and fewer routine people decisions should need to come back to you.
If your team keeps doing the same HR work over and over, there’s a better way to handle the repeatable part.
The same policy question gets researched again. Managers run the same process three different ways. Someone rebuilds something the company has already figured out.
I build purpose-built tools around your process, your policies, and the way your organization actually works. The repeatable part gets easier. The judgment stays human.
I’ve been doing this work for more than 30 years.
I’ve worked through people issues across organizations ranging from aerospace to healthcare. What that experience taught me is that difficult HR situations are rarely solved by finding one perfect answer.
You have to understand what happened, the people involved, the risk, the options in front of you, and where the business is trying to go.
Dr. Kimberly D. Washburn, DBA
Founder, E Factor Leadership
Tell me what’s landing on your desk.
You don’t need to diagnose it first. Bring the situation, and we’ll get clear on what would make it feel lighter and what kind of help makes sense.