Leading is Lonely
Go With a Guide
Welcome
About Us.
We are a collective of seasoned leaders who can provide wayfinding when you've lost direction, tools when you need new equipping, and encouragement when you've grown weary. Whether you are at the beginning of your journey or attempting a new summit, our biggest thrill is to connect leaders with guides to help show the way.
About Us
Who We Serve.
You are a leader. Every day you make big decisions, carry burdens so your team doesn't have to, and strive to make it all work out. You are the person others follow, but more often than you'd like to admit, you’re just getting by.
Whether you’re a new leader wondering am I up for this challenge?, a mid-level leader sorting out can I level up?, or a seasoned leader questioning what if I fail?, you find yourself in a season you didn't expect and don't feel prepared for. But who can admit that?
About Us
Our Story.
As individual coaches, we kept running into the same issues as we worked with leaders and organizations. We were frequently called in to help fight leadership fires: culture problems, staffing changes, or gaps in organizational processes. But what we came to realize is that often, the way to fight fires starts with an entirely different approach.
The story of Altitude began out of our shared goal to do more than fight fires. Instead, we wanted to introduce frameworks that would bring about lasting change and the grit needed to lead with resilience. We didn't want to only solve immediate problems; we wanted to provide space for leaders to understand the story of their influence, help teams understand their impact in the context of the organization, and help organizations understand their role in the larger culture.
About Us
Our Approach.
People are integrated. You bring your whole self with you into leadership tasks. That's why we created the Altitude Story Process. Through processing our stories, we explore the four central questions every leader wrestles with. We coach to help you know yourself. Then we coach to help you grow in the fundamentals of leadership. In our experience there are five fundamentals that every leader must master. Most of us ignore these and spend hundreds of hours reading books and listening to podcasts hoping to find a silver bullet to cure our leadership problems. What if the answers were much simpler? We believe they are. Our coaches will guide you through a process of understanding yourself and then mastering the basics.
What We Offer
Leadership Coaching.
When you work with Altitude, you can expect to have a leadership coach hand-picked for your unique personality, leadership goals, and season of life and work. A coach who cares and understands the weight of leading. A coach who will help you understand your strengths, name your challenges, and develop your rhythms while feeling known, seen and cared for.
Through these structured conversations we’ll walk with you through crucial seasons of your leadership as you gain Altitude to see further in and farther out.
About Us
Our Team.
Gabe Smith
Co-Founder & Coach
Gabe is a people-loving strategist, with deep experience in starting new things and helping organizations and people grow. He is passionate about helping others move toward being fully present, fully alive versions of their true selves in life and work. His experience includes an eight year career as an Army Officer, pastoral experience at the Executive Level, founding a non-profit in South Africa, and coaching C-Suite leaders in both non-profit and corporate environments. Gabe currently resides in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife of 24 years and their daughter.
Nicole Unice
Co-Founder & Coach
Nicole brings 20 years of leadership and counseling experience to her work as a coach and communicator. Nicole’s passion is facilitating environments of safety and vulnerability so that individuals and communities can courageously identify obstacles keeping them from maximum potential. Author of several books on spiritual formation and communication, she is a sought-after speaker to audiences of all kinds, and also brings experience in facilitation for nonprofits, churches, family offices and corporations. Nicole makes her home in the Fan District of Richmond, VA, which she shares with her husband and three [almost grownup] kids. Nicole holds degrees from the College of William and Mary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and serves on the board of Rise Richmond, a local nonprofit focused on restorative work with young people in poverty.
Stacie Heyman
Coach
Stacie brings 10 years of corporate experience from her career at a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Richmond. While there, she worked in Talent Management to create and roll out company-wide leadership assessments and training programs, managed leadership pipelines and recruiting partnerships, and facilitated training with a focus on Manager development. She also has first-hand experience leading her own team through significant organizational changes. She lives in Richmond with her husband and two young kids.
ERIK BORGGREN
Coach
Erik is a people-centered coach and advisor, who believes every individual has a story worth listening to and gifts and passions that need to be fostered. His nearly 20 years of leadership experience includes serving as an Army officer after graduating from West Point, a high school teacher, university and local church pastor, and now walking with people as a leadership coach. Beyond vocation, Erik partnered with community leaders to start a non-profit to fight food insecurity in his neighborhood, was a foster parent along with his wife, and is a cancer survivor. Having lived, taught, and worked on four different continents, Erik’s posture of deep curiosity and gentle wisdom enables individuals and teams to discern rhythms and practices that create healthy cultures and unlock excellence. Erik lives in Chicago, IL, with his wife, Erica, of 22 years. Together they have a son playing baseball (and studying) at Northwestern University and a daughter who never stops dancing.
About Us
Testimonials.
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