Cubemate

---

Probably not, at least not for this. Most coaching aimed at HR professionals is built for people on their way somewhere: building competencies, polishing executive presence, or preparing for the next title. That’s useful work, but you’ve already arrived. You got the job, you know the work, and no one needs to teach you how to run an investigation or build a pay band. 

What tends to wobble once you’re in the seat isn’t your knowledge but your confidence - usually on the days when the stakes are high, the call is yours to make, and there’s no one in the building to check it against. That kind of confidence doesn’t come from another certification, assessment, or development plan; it comes from talking a decision through with someone who has made the same kind of call. It comes from hearing that your instincts are sound (or finding out, privately, where they aren’t), and walking into the room steadier for it. That’s the work of a cubemate.

Cubemate works best for three kinds of HR leaders: people who are new to the top HR seat, whether it’s a first head-of-HR role or the first time there’s no one more senior in HR to turn to; people who are an HR department of one; and people leading a small HR team, where the ones reporting to you are also the ones watching how you handle things. What they have in common is that the hardest calls land on their desk, and there’s no one down the hall who has made those calls before.

And if your honest reaction is “but I’ve never done this before,” that isn’t a reason to wait; it’s a pretty good reason to start. Much of what you’ll gain comes from the conversations themselves: thinking a problem through out loud, pressure-testing a decision before it’s final, and, over time, learning to recognize the moment when you should stop and review before you act. 

Everything starts with Draw Your Line, which is also where you’ll see how different this is from coaching: there are no personality assessments or four-letter types here, just the work of putting your own HR philosophies into words. Some people treat it as a one-time exercise, and that’s perfectly fine, while others use it as the launching pad for an ongoing working relationship as Cubemates.

We begin with a 30-minute call, where I’ll explain what an HR manifesto is and why it’s the first step in this process. You’ll then receive the template, and you can either draft your manifesto on your own beforehand or save it for our one-hour session and build it with me there. If you arrive with a draft, we’ll spend that hour discussing it and pressure-testing it against the situations you’re likely to face; if you don’t, we’ll work through it together.

The fee covers the prep call, the template, and the one-hour session, and it’s billed once the session is booked. From there, you’re welcome to head off on your own with what you’ve built, or we can set you up as a Cubemate on the monthly retainer. to this item.

Coaching, as the profession defines it, is built on asking rather than telling. It operates on the theory that you already know the answer and simply need the right questions to find it.  That certainly has its place, but it’s not much help when you’re asking whether your CEO’s request is as bad as it looks and the reply from your coach is “What do you think?” 

When you work with me, I’ll listen while you think out loud. I'll work through the problem-solving with you. And then, when you want it, I’ll tell you what I’d do.  

You won’t always take my advice, and you don’t have to, but you’ll walk away clearer about your own decision either way.

Yes. What you bring to our conversations stays between us, whoever covers the invoice. If your company pays, they’ll know we’re working together (they are, after all, the ones paying), but that’s where their knowledge ends: I don’t report back, send progress updates, or share anything you’ve told me. 

The only exceptions are the rare ones any responsible professional would make, such as a serious risk of harm to someone or a legal obligation to disclose, and whenever I can, I’d talk with you about it first. The whole point of a cubemate is having someone outside your org chart and your network, and that only works if what’s said in the next cube stays in the next cube.

Between our scheduled calls, you can reach me however suits the moment: text, email, a phone call, or a chat channel such as Teams or Slack. Response times depend on urgency: if you’re walking into a termination meeting this afternoon, we’ll agree on a way to flag it as urgent, and for everything else, you can expect to hear back within 24 hours. That covers the gut check before a hard conversation, a draft email you’d like a second pair of eyes on, or the “am I overreacting?” question that can’t wait two weeks for our next call. 

And, if something turns out to need more than a quick exchange, we’ll schedule time to talk it through. It isn’t an emergency hotline, but it’s the closest thing to leaning over the cubicle wall.