Chris March

The Entourage

The Entourage is Australia’s leading education institution for entrepreneurs, helping business owners scale profitably and live more purposeful lives.

As a Senior Advisor in the Elevate program, I partner with founders of seven- to eight-figure businesses across diverse industries. Together, we build scalable sales engines, maximise profit, and systemise operations and teams to enable sustainable growth.

My work spans the six pillars of business growth — Marketing, Sales, Product, Operations, Finance, and People & Leadership.

Senior Business Advisor

Sybill

Brand Ambassador

Chris March Coaching

Executive and leadership coach with 20+ years of global leadership experience, first as a senior leader and COO, and now as a coach and strategic advisor to leaders and teams within organisations across North America, Australia, and Europe.

Individual clients: Senior leaders and high-potential managers across industries seeking promotion, influence, clarity, and performance without burnout.
Corporate clients include Flight Centre, Urban Rec Australia, Century Fire Protection, and fast-growing companies across travel, tourism and hospitality, technology, and health and professional services sectors.

My coaching focus combines sustainable performance with ROI for the organisation. Each engagement is structured using my SUCCESS Coaching Framework, supported by AGW Insights diagnostics to identify blind spots, shift mindsets, and build leadership capabilities.

Topics include: Executive presence. Communication and influence. Leadership transitions. Confidence and clarity. Strategic thinking. Team alignment and performance.

For individual or corporate enquiries, visit: https://www.chrismarchcoaching.com.

Executive Coach | Leadership Advisor

Urban Rec Australia

Strategic leadership and culture advisory to drive transformational change and prepare Urban Rec for scalable, sustainable growth.

Key Responsibilities:
Partnered with the executive team to align leadership behaviours and culture strategy, fostering a unified leadership approach.

Coached senior leaders through complex transformation using the SUCCESS Framework™, accelerating adoption and resilience.

Designed and delivered scalable leadership development programs, equipping leaders with skills to lead change confidently.

Key Achievements:
Boosted employee engagement by strengthening leadership alignment and trust across the organisation.

Improved organisational readiness, positioning Urban Rec for long-term growth and agility in a dynamic environment.

Strategic Advisor

Worldgo Travel Management

Led operational transformation to support Canadian and U.S. market expansion and sustainable business growth.

Key Responsibilities:
Directed HRIS, VOIP systems, and Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration to improve efficiency and scalability.
Coached and developed leaders, fostering a culture of continuous learning and high performance.
Oversaw day-to-day operations across business functions, ensuring alignment with strategic goals.

Achievements:
Strengthened U.S. market readiness through scalable processes and compliance.
Improved service delivery and leadership effectiveness by empowering and mentoring teams.

Chief Operating Officer

FCM Travel Canada

Stabilized national operations and led business recovery through organizational transition and executive turnover.

Key Responsibilities:
Led national team turnaround, restoring focus and accountability.
Rebuilt and strengthened enterprise client relationships.
Championed service improvement initiatives.

Achievements:
Achieved a 5% revenue increase through targeted recovery strategies.
Enhanced operational efficiency by reducing response times 20% through process optimization.

General Manager

Corporate Traveller Canada

Directed Ontario operations, leading Corporate Traveller’s largest global operations team in Canada’s most critical market, and driving post-COVID growth and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities:
Executed national growth strategy across cross-functional teams.
Implemented lean systems to support scalable growth.
Oversaw 24/7 emergency operations, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery and business continuity.

Achievements:
Collaborated with the senior leadership team to redesign business operations and growth strategy in response to COVID-19, positioning the company for recovery and renewed growth.
Delivered $3.9M profit in 2023—one of the highest profitability results globally across the Corporate Traveller network.

Director Of Operations

Flight Centre Business Travel - Canada

Led a national division, building a high-performing team and driving sustained growth across Canada. Held full accountability for sales, operations, and client success.

Key Responsibilities:
Directed sales, operations, and client success functions to ensure aligned execution and market responsiveness.
Spearheaded strategic expansion into Eastern Canada, opening new markets and revenue streams.

Achievements:
Delivered 18% year-on-year growth, consistently surpassing financial targets.
Recognized as the most profitable retail division within the company.
Awarded Global Excellence and Top Operations Leader honours for outstanding performance.

Flight Centre Canada

Designed and delivered national product training programs for frontline teams, driving market insight, capability, and sales performance.

Identified growth opportunities through market segmentation and aligned offerings to evolving customer needs.

Led supplier negotiations that secured high-value corporate deals, increasing revenue and client satisfaction.

Product Development Manager

Directed national product strategy, implementation, and go-to-market plans for Business Travel offerings

Facilitated training and capability-building programs for Business Travel Specialists across the network

Oversaw end-to-end operational execution to ensure alignment with customer experience and business goals

Product Range Owner - Business Travel

Led & designed national training programs for 85+ travel managers, enhancing capability and boosting sales outcomes

Introduced continuous improvement initiatives that drove double-digit YoY sales and profit growth

Streamlined one best way process and embedded new sales strategies to elevate productivity and team performance

National Business Improvement Manager & Corporate Sales Trainer

Relocated from Sydney to lead operations in Vancouver, achieving top regional rankings and budget success.

Delivered exceptional client service across key corporate accounts, consistently surpassing monthly KPIs.

Recognised among the top 1% of global performers and invited to the Global Conference of Excellence.

Oversaw daily operations, including financial administration, team development, and client relationship management.

Operations Manager

Executive Coach & Former COO | Helping Directors & VPs Lead Bigger with Clarity, Influence & Results — Leadership Advisor & Speaker | Follow for Leadership Strategies

You want to lead bigger, but every choice feels like it could break everything.

The pressure is constant. Second-guessing decisions. Waking at 2 a.m., replaying meetings. Carrying too much, yet knowing you need to stretch further. I’ve been there.

Leading a team of 100+ taught me something crucial: leadership excellence isn’t about doing more. It’s about clarity, systems, and influence. That insight became the foundation of how I now coach senior leaders.

Today, I help Directors, VPs, and senior leaders:

✅ Step into larger roles with clarity, confidence, and executive presence
✅ Align their growth with organisational priorities and measurable outcomes
✅ Influence stakeholders and teams to drive meaningful impact
✅ Remove bottlenecks and scale leadership effectiveness sustainably

Through my SUCCESS Coaching Framework, every stage is designed to grow both the leader and the organization:

- Clarify priorities and define strategic goals

- Build executive presence and decision-making confidence

- Execute plans that deliver measurable business results

- Sustain influence and scale leadership across teams

I also partner with organisations to:

- Align executive teams for sharper strategy and execution

- Prepare high-potential leaders for senior roles

- Build leadership capacity that delivers tangible, measurable outcomes

The difference isn’t harder work. It’s smarter systems. Clarity. Influence. Impact, without burnout.

If you’re ready to accelerate your leadership trajectory and deliver results that move your career, your team, and your business forward, let’s connect.

🔹 Follow for leadership strategies trusted by senior leaders
🔹 Message me directly to start the conversation

You're checking email at 11pm, re-reading that draft your team sent. Again.

The AI conversation isn't about technology. It's about trust.

Most senior leaders I work with don't have a delegation problem. They have a "what if I'm wrong" problem.

So they review everything. Tweak the deck one more time. Jump into decisions that don't need them.

Here's what I've learned: The same anxiety that leads you to micro-manage your team also makes you hesitant to trust AI.

Both require the same skill: Knowing which decisions deserve your energy.

Keep your focus for:
→ Strategic pivots that shift company direction
→ High-stakes negotiations with human nuance
→ Decisions only you have the context to make

Let go of:
→ Rewriting your team's already-good work
→ Being in every meeting "just in case"
→ Decisions your team is paid to make

A client caught herself redoing her director's quarterly plan at midnight. Not because it was wrong. Because letting it be "good enough" felt risky.

We mapped which decisions actually needed her judgment. She delegated the rest to her team and to AI tools.

Three weeks later: "I forgot what it feels like to finish dinner without opening my laptop."

The transformation isn't about working less. It's about protecting your energy for decisions that matter.

This week: Which decisions are you holding onto out of fear, not necessity?

Someone asked if I still lived at my place. I did. I just couldn't stand being there anymore.

I worked from my Toronto condo for 12 months during the pandemic.

No gym. No office. No separation between work and life.

By month 6, I was walking up Yonge Street feeling like the walking dead.

The breaking point came during a virtual happy hour on Houseparty (remember that app?).

Someone asked: "Do you still live at your place, or do you just work there?"

I laughed it off. But the question haunted me for days.

The real problem wasn't blurred boundaries. It was the patterns I couldn't shut off --checking Teams during meals, replaying work decisions at 2 AM, performing for an audience of one.

If you can't protect your own space, how can you protect your team's time?

What changed things:

• Hard stop at 6 PM -- laptop closed, no exceptions
• Morning routine BEFORE opening emails
• Asked "What do you think?" instead of jumping in
• One day a week, completely offline

Your home should feel like home. Not like you're sleeping at the office.

Drop your non-negotiable work-from-home below. Someone else might need it.

📷 Downtown Toronto, October 2020

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If your networking strategy is "collect contacts," you're already behind.

The leaders landing dream roles (and the influence that comes with them) build bridges long before they need them.

After 18 years between Canada and the UK and numerous "you don't fit here" rejections, I realised something counterintuitive:

Your network isn't who you know.
It's who knows what you can do.

Here are 3 shifts that changed everything for me:

1. Stop pitching, start solving
Not: "I'm looking for a COO role."
Instead: "I noticed your ops team is scaling internationally. I've done that 3 times."

2. Quality beats quantity
10 meaningful conversations > 100 random LinkedIn connections.
Focus on people solving problems you deeply understand.

3. Give first, ask second
Share an insight. Make an intro. Solve a small problem.
Value flows both ways.

The executives who rise in this market aren't the loudest networkers.

They're the ones who show up as peers, not applicants.

Because when you're known for solving specific problems, opportunities don't just open. 
They come looking for you.

What's one networking method that has actually worked for you?

Most work relationships are stuck at Level 1 trust.

Just realised why. And once you see this pattern, you'll spot it everywhere:

Lewicki and Bunker mapped three levels of trust back in '95. It’s one of those frameworks that rewires how you see teams:


Level 1: Deterrence-based trust
"I won’t screw you over… because it’ll cost me."
Think contracts, NDAs, and performance reviews. Fear keeps people honest.

Level 2: Knowledge-based trust
"I trust you because I know how you operate."
Built over time. You can predict their moves. Most solid work relationships live here.

Level 3: Identification-based trust
"I trust you because we want the same outcome."
Rare. Powerful. Values align so deeply that oversight becomes irrelevant.

Team impact:

Level 1: Every decision needs documentation. People protect themselves over the mission. Exhausting.
Level 2: Smooth day-to-day, but crisis reveals the gaps.
Level 3: Self-correcting. Bad ideas die naturally. People act like it’s their own company.

How to move up:

1 → 2: Be boringly consistent. Do what you say. Every time.

2→ 3: Harder. Share what you 'really' care about. Make decisions that cost you but serve the bigger picture. Show your actual values, not your LinkedIn values.

Try this:

Map your key relationships. Which level are they? 

Pick one Level 2 relationship to deepen. Next interaction: share something real about what drives you.

Because you can’t policy your way to Level 3 trust. You build it one vulnerable conversation at a time.

What level are most of your work relationships stuck at?

21%.

That’s global employee engagement in 2025, according to Gallup.

The lowest level since the pandemic -- costing $438B in lost productivity.

But here’s what matters most: manager engagement.

Dropped from 30% to 27% overall
Down 5 points for managers under 35
Down 7 points for female managers

When managers disengage, everything unravels. Why? 

Because managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.

Disengaged manager → disengaged team → lower productivity → higher turnover.

And yet: only 44% of managers have ever received formal training. Less than half.

We’re asking them to lead through AI disruption, hybrid complexity, and rising burnout without the tools to succeed.

Here’s the opportunity hiding inside this crisis:

If global engagement reached 70% (a level best-practice companies already achieve), we’d unlock $9.6 trillion in productivity. That’s 9% of global GDP.

The path forward isn’t complicated:

1. Train every manager. Even basic training halves active disengagement.
2. Teach coaching skills. Managers who coach see 20–28% performance gains.
3. Support wellbeing. Training plus ongoing development doubles manager thriving (28% → 50%).

The companies investing in managers now won’t just survive disruption. They’ll capture the talent and growth others leave behind.

Because when managers thrive, teams thrive. And when teams thrive, companies win.

If you could give every manager one skill tomorrow, what would it be?

You've shared the strategy. You've repeated the priorities. But your team is still guessing what matters.

Here's what I hear from leaders constantly:

"I've explained this three times already."

"Why aren't they getting it?"

"I was crystal clear about our direction."

And yet, three months later, the team is still misaligned. Still asking questions that feel obvious. Still working on things that don't move the needle.

The problem isn't that you weren't clear.

It's that clarity at your level doesn't automatically translate to clarity at theirs.

Here's what's actually happening:

You see the whole chessboard. Your team sees their individual pieces.

You understand the "why" behind every priority because you lived through the strategic discussions, the market analysis, and the executive debates. Your team concluded without the context.

So when you say "customer experience is our top priority," you're thinking about retention metrics, competitive positioning, and long-term value.

They're thinking: "Does that mean I stop working on this feature? Do we delay the product launch? Should I push back on the sales team's requests?"

The gap isn't comprehension. It's a translation.

You're speaking in strategy. They need to hear it in the context of "what this means for my work on Tuesday."

What's evident from 30,000 feet is invisible from ground level.

Your team isn't dense. They're operating with a fraction of the information you have.

The missing piece isn't more communication. It's a different communication.

Stop explaining what you decided. Start explaining how they should choose.

Not just "focus on quality." But "when you're choosing between shipping fast and getting it right, choose right. Here's what that looks like."

Not just "we're prioritising growth." But "if you have to pick between this project and that one, here's the framework I'd use."

Not just the strategy. The filter they can apply when you're not in the room.

Because alignment isn't about everyone understanding your vision.

It's about everyone being able to act on it without you.

What's your take? How do you bridge the gap between strategic clarity and daily execution?

Leadership Strategist & Former COO | Helping executives scale impact without scaling stress | Clarity, trust, and measurable influence in 8–12 weeks | Follow for proven leadership strategies

Most deals don't die because of a bad pitch.

They die because tasks slip through the cracks.

You know the drill.

Back-to-back calls all day. Between meetings, you're mentally tracking everything you promised.

"I'll send you that case study."
"Let me get that pricing over by EOD."
"I'll loop in our technical team."

Then you forget. Or remember at 9 pm. Or it gets buried under 47 other to-dos.

That's not your problem. That's a tool problem.

That's why Sybill built Tasks 2.0.

Here's what's different:

Sybill automatically captures every task from your calls and emails.

It prioritises based on deal value and urgency.

And it executes tasks for you with a single click.

Need to send custom pricing?

Sybill drafts it based on your prospect's requirements and the latest pricing. You review and approve.

Last week, I had a discovery call and mentioned scheduling a follow-up.

Sybill just handled it. Built the calendar invite, ready to send. I didn't have to do anything.

Three stakeholder follow-ups after a group call?

Sybill writes personalised emails for each person. You approve all three in 30 seconds.

It's like having a personal assistant who never forgets and knocks out your busywork so you can actually sell.

No slipped tasks. No forgotten promises. No wasted hours on admin.

Just more time doing what you do best.

What's one task you wish someone else would handle for you?

Helping executives scale impact without scaling stress | Leadership Strategist & Former COO | Clarity, trust, and measurable influence in 8–12 weeks | Message to learn more

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