Jonathan Barnes
FRACTIONAL LEADER, EXECUTIVE COACH, & TEAM DYNAMICS SPECIALIST
You built your business on relationships.
Now it needs to run on clarity, leadership, and rhythm.
I work with founders and leadership teams to help their businesses run and grow without depending on them. Most companies I step into have good people and real traction—but they’re still held together by the founder.
Through The Work Heartily Way, I bring clarity to roles, strengthen leaders, and establish simple operating rhythms that hold as the business grows.
Sound Familiar?
You’ve built something real. Good clients. Strong reputation. A team that cares.
Growth has come through relationships, referrals, and your own leadership.
But at some point, that stops carrying the weight.
- Revenue slows when you step out of the day-to-day
- The team is working hard, but not always in sync
- Leaders are stretched outside their strengths
- Communication gets messy under pressure
- You’ve invested in people, but performance is uneven
- You want structure but not red tape
- Growth is happening, but it’s not predictable
"We grow when I'm in it. We drift when I'm not."
You’ve probably said some version of that quote above. And that’s the moment I step into most often.
A Better Way
Over the years, working inside dozens of businesses, I’ve seen the same thing play out.
Growth doesn’t stall because people aren’t working hard.
It stalls because:
Roles Aren’t Clear
People are stepping into the same work, missing other work, and no one is fully sure where their responsibility starts and stops.
Ownership Is Fuzzy
Important priorities move forward, but without a single person clearly responsible, things stall, drift, or get revisited over and over.
Inconsistent Rhythm
Meetings, priorities, and follow-through happen inconsistently, so progress depends more on urgency than on a steady cadence.
ThE Work Heartily Way is built to help YOU NOW
When I start working with clients, we start seeing great results:
- The right people doing the right work
- Leaders who own outcomes, not just activity
- Simple rhythms for meetings, priorities, and execution
- Leadership inside the business, not advice from the outside
This isn’t theory. It’s how real companies get through real growth.
built to help YOU NOW
A consultant gives advice. A coach asks questions. An operator gets things done.
I bring all three, but I’m measured by one thing:
Can your business run and grow without you?
Here’s what we focus on together:
TEAM ALIGNMENT
Clear roles, clear expectations, real ownership, new opportunities.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Better decisions, not just better conversations
CLARITY OF FOCUS
The right work, done by the right people, at the right time
Who Is This For?
I work with companies in specific phases of growth:
- $5M–$25M in revenue
- Founder-led or partner-led
- Relationship-driven or service-based
- Growth has been strong, but inconsistent
- The founder is still too central
- The leadership team is in place, but not fully aligned
If that’s you, you don’t need more ideas.
You need leadership that builds capability inside your business.
“Using Working Genius as part of our Interview process helped us to identify what areas we needed for the position and ultimately helped us to find the right person. I recommend it for all looking for the right person to fit into their cohesive team.”
Choose the level of support you need right now.
Team Dynamics
Working Genius: Clarity for how your team actually works2–4 week engagement · One-time project
Most teams don’t have a people problem.
They have a clarity problem.
This engagement gives your leadership team a shared understanding of how work gets done best—so you can reduce friction, play to strengths, and move forward with alignment.
We step in, diagnose what’s really going on, and give you a clear picture of where things are working—and where they’re not.
What you get:
- Working Genius assessments for your leadership team
- A clear team map of strengths, gaps, and overlap
- Defined roles aligned to how people are wired
- Identification of friction points in workflow and execution
- Practical adjustments to meetings and communication
- A facilitated session to align the team around a shared language
Includes up to 10 team members. Custom plans available for larger teams.
Team Dynamics+
Clarity that carries into how your team actually runs4–6 week engagement · Includes follow-through
Team Dynamics+ helps your leaders apply Working Genius where it matters: inside their teams.
Because the real test isn’t the session.
It’s what happens the next few weeks when everyone goes back to work.
This engagement stays with you long enough to make the shift stick.
What you get:
- Everything included in Team Dynamics
- Follow-up coaching sessions with each department leader (2–3 weeks after initial session)
- Practical guidance on applying Working Genius to their team’s day-to-day work
- Adjustments to meetings, communication, and delegation by team
- Reinforcement of roles and responsibilities after rollout
- 30-day leadership team check-in to assess what’s working and where things are breaking down
- Alignment across departments
Best fit for:
- Teams larger than 10 people
- Organizations with multiple department leaders
- Leaders who want help turning insight into execution, not just understanding it
1:1 Executive Coaching
Leadership support in the middle of real pressureOngoing monthly engagement · Biweekly cadence
For founders and leaders carrying a lot.
This is grounded, practical coaching tied directly to what you’re dealing with each week.
What you get:
- Biweekly sessions (in-person + virtual)
- Help working through real decisions
- Integration of Working Genius and Full Focus Goal Achievement System
- Accountability to what matters most
- Support navigating team dynamics and pressure
- A steady voice who understands the weight you’re carrying
Ready to build a business that doesn’t depend on you?
Start with a 30-minute call. No pitch. No pressure. Just a clear look at where you are, and what it will take to move forward.