Soft on People. Sharp on Nonsense.
Leadership Development Wellington
For People Holding Complexity
Again and again, I’ve watched capable, values-led people carry the weight of outcomes that don’t shift.
Not because they’re incapable.
But because something in the system keeps pulling behaviour out of alignment.
Good people. Sound strategies. And still, the same patterns, the same circles, the same tensions resurfacing.
This work starts there — with noticing what’s happening below the surface, before rushing to fix what was never the real problem.
Because “Just try harder” has had a very long and unsuccessful run.
It was shaped inside organisations where urgency is constant, scrutiny is high, and decisions carry real consequences. Where the language sounds right, the strategies look solid — and still the same tensions keep resurfacing.
Over time, a harder truth became unavoidable: most systems were never designed for the complexity of the work people are actually being asked to do.
They were designed to protect something else — timelines, reputations, control, a sense of coherence — and under pressure, they will reliably protect that design, even when it quietly undermines the outcomes they claim to care about.
What gets lost isn’t just time to reflect.
It’s honesty.
Relational safety.
And the ability to name what’s actually happening without consequence.
Under pressure, behaviour doesn’t change randomly — it changes predictably.
People adapt to what the system rewards, not what it declares.
Certainty becomes safer than curiosity.
Compliance carries less risk than truth-telling.
Responsibility drifts downward, until individuals are carrying what no single person could ever resolve.
What often gets labelled as resistance, disengagement, or burnout is usually people doing the best they can inside conditions that were never designed for this work.
Because you’re not just leading a team — you’re holding complexity. You’re navigating uncharted territory.
You’re trying to shift something real in a system that resists change.
The Translation: Nimacor™
At some point, it became clear that what was missing wasn’t effort, insight, or goodwill.
It was shared language.
Without it, the same conversations kept circling — or collapsing — because naming what was happening too easily sounded like blame, criticism, or resistance.
Nimacor™ didn’t start as a framework or a method.
It emerged as I tried to metabolise years of friction, frustration, and repeated pattern failure — looking for language that could hold what I was seeing without turning people into the problem.
Not elegantly.
Not all at once.
And definitely not according to plan.
Over time, that language became something others could use too.
Nimacor is a pattern-based language and practice for seeing what systems can’t see about themselves.
It brings into view how behaviour shifts under pressure, what the system reliably rewards (regardless of its stated values), and how responsibility gets pulled onto individuals simply because someone has to carry it.
Nimacor doesn’t sit on the sidelines analysing.
It operates inside the work — shaping how conversations unfold in meetings, decisions, tensions, and moments where something feels off but hard to name.
It names the patterns at play:
the pull toward certainty when risk rises
the pressure to smooth things over to keep things moving
the quiet compromises people make to stay effective inside self-protective systems
Once those patterns are named, they stop landing as personal shortcomings.
They become information about what the system is training people to do — and information people can use to respond with more clarity, care, and choice.
Nimacor isn’t about prescribing behaviour or enforcing alignment.
It’s about restoring shared orientation — so people can work with complexity honestly, without turning on themselves or each other.
The Vehicle: Cor Coaching
Cor Coaching exists to create the conditions where this work can happen safely — inside real organisations, under real pressure.
Where people can slow down enough to notice what’s really shaping behaviour.
Where difficult conversations don’t collapse into blame or performance.
And where clarity can emerge without urgency forcing false certainty.
People work with me in different ways, depending on what their context is asking of them:
Personal navigation — for leaders holding complexity, influence, and invisible labour, who need space to see clearly while they’re inside it.
Collective pattern work — for teams and groups who want to surface and work with the conditions shaping how they operate, not just what they say.
Longer-range partnerships — for organisations ready to stay with the work over time, testing new conditions rather than chasing quick fixes.
Across all of it, the stance stays the same:
Soft on people, sharp on nonsense.
Honest about pressure.
Attentive to pacing.
Grounded in reality.
This isn’t about doing more.
It’s about seeing differently — and choosing with more care once you can.
What Working Together Opens Up For You
A place to return to your own clarity — and move forward from there.
From navigating complexity alone → To having a trusted compass during chaos. You've been carrying the big questions and quiet tensions — this is where they're met, not managed.
From leadership as performance → To grounded, systemic leadership. Stop checking boxes and managing optics. Start leading from your core truth.
From analysis paralysis → To decisive action, rooted in truth. Using your whole self—not just your head—to make choices that hold both integrity and viability.
From silent exhaustion → To sustained resilience. This is a space to finally be held, not just hold.
The Invitation: A threshold
If something here resonates, you’ll know why.
The gaps.
The trade-offs.
The quiet weight of carrying outcomes in conditions that were never designed for this work.
This work usually begins the same way it unfolds — with a conversation.
Not a pitch.
Not a diagnosis.
Just two people paying attention to what’s actually happening, and what becomes possible once it’s named.
If that feels like a useful place to begin, you’re welcome to reach out.
No performance.
No persuasion.
Just a clear place to step in.