Career, Business & Executive Coach | Mindset & Mental Fitness Coach | DISC® Certified | Mentor

👋 Hi, I’m Monica.

I help founders think more clearly, make better decisions, lead more effectively, and run a business that performs. 

I’ve spent 30+ years leading teams across corporate and start-up environments, responsible for people, revenue, and operations. 

I understand the pressure at the top - and what happens when the founder tries to carry it all.

Those decades taught me one thing:If the founder is overwhelmed, the business will be too. No strategy fixes a leadership bottleneck.

My coaching isn’t generic leadership training. It’s deep, personalised, evidence-based work grounded in performance psychology, neuroscience, and practical leadership experience.

Credentials:
• ICF-accredited Performance Coach
• Neuroscience of Change certified
• Positive Intelligence Coach
• Certified Neuroscience Coach
• CIPD Associate in HR Management

Since starting my practice, I’ve coached founders and leaders from organisations including Nike, Amazon, Warner Bros, and the NHS -  but my focus now is singular:

➔ founders navigating growth, decision fatigue, and the pressure to lead.

Does this sound familiar?

✔︎ You’re making nonstop decisions but trusting yourself less
✔︎ Your team asks for things they should handle alone
✔︎ You’re busy all day but key work isn’t moving
✔︎ You’re dragged into fires instead of thinking strategically
✔︎ Stress is rising and your headspace shrinking
✔︎ You want growth but can’t keep leading like this

You don’t need another masterclass.
You need support tailored to you and your business.

We work across three layers:

1. Lead Yourself
Build the clarity and headspace to make better decisions and stay out of reactive mode.

2. Lead Your Team
Get your team thinking for themselves, taking ownership, and solving problems without everything coming back to you.

3. Lead Your Business
Make clearer decisions, cut through noise, focus on what drives progress, and create momentum.

Client results:

✔︎ Simplified their business → revenue up 40%
✔︎ Fixed costly team issues (incl. a £250K mis-hire)
✔︎ Rebuilt confidence in communication and leadership
✔︎ Stepped out of firefighting and regained thinking time
✔︎ Reduced stress at work and at home

Clients often say I make complicated things feel simple, and create a space where they can think clearly and make decisions they trust.

📩 If you’re ready to lead with more clarity - and build a business that performs without burning you out - book a free 30-minute consultation.

You can be a boss without being a leader.
Most founders learn that the hard way.

Building a business is one thing.
Leading one is another.

Most founders get pulled into the work.
I see it with my clients all the time.
Successful. Smart. Still “too busy.”

Almost every founder I coach thinks their problem is lack of time, but it’s usually leadership.

They run operations.
Solve problems.
Put out fires.
And somewhere along the way, the leadership part gets pushed aside.

It usually comes down to three layers:

1. Leading yourself
↳ Your clarity becomes the team’s clarity.
↳ Your emotional state sets the tone.
↳ Your habits set the pace.
Operate from a calm, focused, clear space and everything else steadies.

2. Leading your team
↳ Give direction, not micromanagement.
↳ Don’t get stuck in the weeds. Delegate.
↳ Help your team develop and grow.
Culture and alignment start here.

3. Leading the business
↳ Strategy becomes cleaner.
↳ Decisions get simpler.
↳ You shift from reacting to building.
This is where growth becomes predictable.

Founders often think leadership is something to revisit when things calm down.

But things calm down when leadership becomes the priority.

You can be a boss by default.
Becoming a leader is a choice.

And it always starts with how you run yourself.
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Monica Federico

Founder Leadership & Performance Coach | Helping founders think more clearly, lead better, and build a business that doesn’t burn you out | Based in 🇬🇧 supporting clients worldwide 🌎

5 interview questions to spot integrity:

(Buffett was right)

Most hiring processes obsess over capability: skills, speed, track record.

Useful, but not the thing that decides whether someone will strengthen or destabilise your team.

Integrity does that.

It shows up when no one is watching, in the small choices, in the moments where doing the right thing costs something.

If you want to spot it early, here are 5 interview questions that quietly reveal a candidate’s integrity:

1️⃣ “Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. What did you do next?”
Integrity isn’t perfection. It’s ownership.

2️⃣ “What’s a decision you disagreed with, and how did you handle it?”
Respect + honesty > silent resentment.

3️⃣ “Describe a situation where you had to choose between speed and doing things the right way.”
Shortcuts reveal values.

4️⃣ “Describe a situation where you gave someone tough feedback. How did you approach it?”

Integrity shows up in how someone handles honesty. 
Especially when honesty is uncomfortable.

5️⃣ “What’s a piece of feedback you received that was hard to hear?”
People who can self-reflect can self-correct.

Hiring for intelligence and energy tells you what someone can do.

Hiring for integrity tells you what they’ll do when it matters.

Integrity shapes judgment.
It shapes behaviour under pressure.

And it shapes whether you can trust someone with the parts of the business that actually move the needle.

Spot it early.
Don’t compromise on it.

Everything else is easier when you hire people you can trust.
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Founder Coach → Clarity under pressure | Better decisions | Teams that deliver | Grow your business without overwhelm | Neuroscience-informed leadership & performance coaching

A Christmas party is a nice gesture.

But it won't fix a broken culture.

Most people don’t need a fancy venue or free drinks.

They need to feel respected.
Supported.
Listened to.
Valued.

Culture isn’t defined by a single night.

It’s defined by the everyday atmosphere we all contribute to:

 • How we speak to each other.
 • How we handle challenges.
 • How we give feedback.
 • How we show appreciation.
 • How we make people feel.

A great workplace isn’t built on one-off events.
It’s built on consistent behaviour.

When the day-to-day feels healthy, human, and fair,
the celebrations actually mean something.

Because the real foundation of any team comes from daily actions:

↳ Clear communication.
↳ Kindness.
↳ Integrity.
↳ Respect.
↳ Support.

Those are the moments that people care about.

And those are the ones that shape the culture we all experience.
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The most expensive hire is...

the wrong one.

When the attitude required by the role doesn’t match the person, the cost spreads quickly.

And if you’ve ever wondered whether a hire is off, it usually shows up like this:

❌ Leaders spend energy correcting behaviour
❌ Momentum slows across the business
❌ Decisions take longer than they should
❌ The team absorbs the friction

You feel it before you can measure it.

And by the time it’s obvious, the damage is already done.

Before you hire, get precise about the attitude this role actually needs.

These are the questions I come back to whenever I'm hiring:

1️⃣ Does this role need a go-getter, or someone who thrives on precision and follow-through?

2️⃣ Does success come from pushing things forward, or from getting things right?

3️⃣ Do you need someone who enjoys owning outcomes, or someone who enjoys supporting them?

4️⃣ Is progress driven by collaboration, or by individual drive?

5️⃣ What kind of person does well here six months in?

Clarity changes everything.

Be clear on what’s non-negotiable.
Be clear on what’s nice to have.
Be clear on the attitude the role requires.

That’s how you hire someone who adds real value.

Experience matters.
But attitude is the standard you don’t compromise on.

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The moment a team stops feeling trusted is the moment they stop showing initiative.

And that tension shows up inside every growing business.

When it’s our business, it’s natural to stay close to everything.

But that instinct comes with a cost.

The watching, the double-checking, the stepping in…
it creates the very friction you’re trying to avoid.

There are always 3 layers to this:

1. The leader
↳ Control feels safer
↳ Perfectionism creeps in
↳ Guilt makes handing things over harder
↳ No one understands the business like you do

2. The team
↳ Rushed handovers
↳ One brief with no checkpoints
↳ Taking tasks back because it’s quicker
↳ Assuming delegation doesn’t work after one mistake

3. The strategy
↳ Right person, right role
↳ Do they have the skill?
↳ Do they have the time?
↳ Do they understand the bigger picture?

When these layers fall out of sync, leaders end up doing the thinking and the doing.

Meanwhile, the team waits (and disengages) on the sidelines.

But when the layers line up, delegation becomes lighter.

✓ Your workload decreases
✓ Your team steps forward

And you get to focus on the work only you can do.
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Founder Coach | Helping founders think more clearly, lead better, and build a business that doesn’t burn you out | Leadership & Performance | Based in 🇬🇧 supporting SMEs worldwide 🌎

We all work with 3 currencies.
And most problems come from mismanaging one of them.

I see this all the time.

People feel stuck, not because they lack potential, but because they’re trying to solve everything with the wrong resource.

And I’ve done it myself.

 • Pushing harder when I needed clarity
 • Adding hours when I needed support
 • Searching for solutions when I needed to invest.

Here’s the simple way to get unstuck.

🧠 If you need knowledge:
↳ Use time to learn.
↳ Use money to learn faster.

⏳ If you need time:
↳ Use money to take work off your plate.
↳ Use knowledge to simplify how you work.

💰 If you need money:
↳ Use time to create something valuable.
↳ Use knowledge to turn your strengths into income.

Once you understand which currency you’re low on, the next step becomes obvious.

And everything feels a little less heavy.
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Your leadership won’t outperform your habits.
And neither will your team.

After coaching leaders and founders across industries, I see the same pattern repeatedly:

👉🏼 Your daily habits become the culture your team works inside.

When leaders are clear, intentional, and grounded, performance rises.

When they’re reactive or stretched thin, the whole system feels it.

Here are the 9 laws I see consistently in high-performing leaders who navigate pressure, build trust, and make better decisions under stress.

Which one is your favourite?
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Leading from the front

Doesn’t require doing every job.

Many still misunderstand what "leading by example" means.

Mainly because they’re stuck in the early-stage version of it.

When your team is small, rolling up your sleeves works.

It proves you’re willing.
It builds trust.
It keeps things moving.

I learned this firsthand.

When I was leading a team of 5, doing everything did work.

But when that team grew to 35, the exact same instinct started breaking things instead of building them.

And I see this pattern in every team that scales:

❌ If you keep doing every job, you stop doing your job.
❌ If you stay everywhere, your team stays dependent.
❌ If you signal commitment through hours, you teach exhaustion is normal.
❌ If you fix everything, they never learn to think without you.

At scale, “leading by example” changes shape completely.

✅ It becomes calm over chaos.
✅ Clarity over noise.
✅ Boundaries over burnout.
✅ Delegation over micromanagement.
✅ Thinking time over constant busyness.

Because your team doesn’t copy what you say.
They copy what you model.

📌 And what you model becomes the culture.

Switching from the old version to the real version isn’t dramatic.

It’s a series of small, deliberate choices that shift how your team operates, even when you’re not in the room.

If you want a team that leads, stop showing them leadership means doing everything.

Show them what leadership looks like now.
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The smartest founders are often the most overwhelmed.

Not because they lack intelligence.
But because their minds never stop generating solutions.

Every problem gets a new tool.
Every challenge gets a new framework.
Every dip gets a new strategy.

More apps.
More advisors.
More methodologies.

It happens quickly.
You see possibilities everywhere.
And the very thing that makes you effective starts to scatter your focus.

When you can see ten ways to solve something, it’s tempting to try all ten.

Meanwhile, the simple answer sits there.
Ignored.

Under pressure, switching to something new gives the mind a quick sense of relief.
It feels like progress, even when it isn’t.

Complexity doesn’t create clarity.
It buries it.

I’ve seen founders stack system on top of system.
Each one made sense on its own.
Together, they created chaos.

The team couldn’t keep up.
The direction blurred.
Momentum dipped.

Mental clarity isn’t about hunting for better solutions.
It’s about creating space to use the ones you already have.

One strategy, fully executed, beats ten half-started.
One clear metric beats a dashboard of noise.
One focused quarter beats a year of pivots.

The founders who operate at their best don’t collect everything.
They commit to what matters.

In a world built to sell you endless solutions, the real power is knowing when to stop adding.

What’s one thing you could pause this week to see things more clearly?
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When your head is overloaded, big productivity systems don’t help.

Your brain doesn’t have the bandwidth for them.

I get to this point almost every year.
And I know I’m not alone.

Many of us hit this stage where half of our brain is planning for next year.

We’re trying to tidy up the loose ends of this one.

And we’re noticing the things we thought we’d finish…
and didn’t.🤷‍♀️

It creates a quiet mental clutter that sits in the background.

Nothing dramatic.
Just a little less clarity.
A little more noise.

And that’s when I reach for these tools.

They’re simple.
But they’re effective.

They might sound basic.
But they’re grounded in performance science.
And each one targets a specific mental state.

They work because they help your brain do what it struggles to do
when it’s overloaded.

Five different tools.
Five different states.
About five minutes each.

If your head feels full right now,
pick one and give it a go.

PS: How's your brain doing right now? Just me? 😉
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5 quick & easy ways to declutter your mind

Stop overcomplicating leadership.

This is all you really need.

Great cheat sheet and post from my brilliant friend Jen Blandos - give her a follow.

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits were published in 1989.
But in today’s world of burnout and "busywork" - they’re more relevant than ever.

This is the cheat sheet I wish every manager, founder, and exec had on their wall.

Because "high performance" isn’t about doing more.
It’s about doing the right things, in the right way.

If you only pick one:
↳ Be proactive.
↳ Prioritise what actually matters.
↳ Protect your energy like it’s your edge - because it is.

Start small.
Build the habit.
Then stack the next one.

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Red flags get all the attention.
But green flags are what leaders should reward.

Our brains are trained to spot the gap.
The problem.
The risk.
The person who isn’t pulling their weight.

That’s the brain doing what it’s built to do.
It prioritises threat over everything else.

Useful for survival.
Terrible for leadership.

Because when we’re glued to what’s wrong,
we miss what’s working.

We miss our steady performers in the middle.
We miss the green flags that quietly keep everything moving.

And the irony?
What we reward gets repeated.

So this week, try switching the lens.

✅ Spot the green flags.
✅ Name them.
✅ Reinforce them.
✅ Make the good behaviours visible.

People rise when they feel seen for what they’re doing right.
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Most people don’t have a productivity problem.
They have a prioritisation problem.

The 80–20 principle sounds simple…
But applying it?
That’s where everything changes.

Here’s the pattern I keep seeing with founders and leaders:

We spend 80% of our week on things that move us 20% forward.
Emails. Admin. Meetings.
Busy work disguised as progress.

But when you zoom out, you always find the same truth:

A tiny percentage of your actions, decisions, relationships, habits and customers drive almost all of your real growth.

And when you double down on those things?
Life gets a lot lighter, and results get a lot bigger.

I made this breakdown as a reminder:

 • Business.
 • Leadership.
 • Energy.
 • Strategy.
 • Relationships.

It’s all the same pattern.

Focus on the few things that actually move you forward.
Cut the rest.

Save this for the week you need the reminder.
Because we all hit those weeks.
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Earlier this month my brain felt like it had 39 tabs open and a YouTube ad playing somewhere in the background.

I kept pushing… until last week, when I finally had to take my own advice.🤦🏼‍♀️

As a performance coach, I spend my days helping people optimise their minds.

But even I forget that peak performance is not built on hacks.

It comes from recovery.
It comes from maintenance.
It comes from the boring habits most of us overlook.

Looking after your brain is not just about feeling better.

It is about:

- clearer business focus
- better decision making
- better emotional regulation
- being able to show up fully for your team, your work, and the people you care about

So I went back to my own checklist, the simple habits that keep my mind sharp without burning me out.

And as soon as I made a couple of small tweaks, I could feel the difference almost immediately.

So here is my invitation to use the infographic as a little self-audit 👇🏼

You do not need to tick every box on the checklist by Monday.

You can add a change or two per week.

And since it is Friday, consider this your permission slip to start small this weekend.

Give your brain the conditions it needs to show up fully next week.

PS: Happy Friday!
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The brain cuts corners to save energy.

And leadership ends up paying for it.

Our brains weren’t built for the complexity of modern organisations. 

They were built for speed and survival.

So even experienced leaders fall back on instinctive patterns that feel right in the moment… 

but quietly bend their judgment over time.

And that’s when biases start slipping into hiring decisions, performance reviews, strategy conversations, and conflict moments.

Not because someone isn’t skilled, but because the brain prioritises efficiency over accuracy.

In particular when things get busy or stressful.

Here's a visual guide that breaks down 9 common cognitive traps leaders run into, plus simple shifts that help you avoid them.

Think of it as a toolkit for clearer thinking, calmer decisions, and more consistent leadership.

If you’re responsible for people, performance or direction, save this for moments when clarity matters most.
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9 Biases That Sabotage Your Leadership Decisions

56% of leaders report burnout.
47% of UK founders say running their business has harmed their health.

56% of leaders report burnout.

That isn’t just a workload problem.
It’s a bandwidth problem.
A nervous system stretched past its limits.

When stress spikes, your prefrontal cortex loses processing power.

• Focus narrows
• Decision quality drops
• Emotional reactivity increases

Your brain shifts into short-term survival mode.

And your leadership follows.

That’s why the same behaviours keep showing up when pressure rises.

They’re not personality traits.
They’re stress responses.

• Talking in circles
• Chasing urgency
• Acting on impulse
• Over-controlling decisions
• Working nonstop to “catch up”
• Avoiding overdue conversations

They feel productive in the moment, but they quietly sabotage your leadership reputation and impact.

Better leadership doesn’t come from trying harder.

It starts with getting your capacity back.

And that begins with a few basic foundations that stabilise your nervous system:

 1. Protect your sleep
 2. Eat high-nutritional-value food
 3. Move your body daily
 4. Take micro-breaks between meetings
 5. Reduce caffeine when you feel wired
 6. Step outside for natural light

These are the levers that restore bandwidth.

Once your cognitive load drops, it becomes easier to correct your leadership responses.

You can’t access strategic thinking in survival mode.

And you can’t scale what your nervous system can’t sustain.

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Sources:
FreeAgent, Burnout Britain Report (2023).
Superhuman Executive Burnout Report (2024).
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Being right feels really good.

But in leadership, it can blind us.

In life, being teachable is helpful.
In leadership, it’s non-negotiable.

Because the hardest things to learn are the things about ourselves.

I’ve seen this catch leaders out more than they realise:

❌ Missing data because it didn't match their view
❌ Ignoring feedback that would have helped.
❌ Repeating the habit that kept them stuck.
❌ Closing off others input without noticing.
❌ Blaming the team when the pattern started with them.

Blind spots aren’t harmless.

• They distort leadership decisions.
• They limit business performance.
• They shape a culture without you noticing.

The answer isn’t being less confident.
It’s staying open to what you might be missing.

Here’s where to start:

✅ Notice when you start to get defensive.
✅ Invite honest feedback on how you show up.
✅ Pause before you react in the moment.
✅ Check the assumptions you walked in with.
✅ Keep learning the craft of leadership.

Being right feels good.
Being teachable makes you a better leader.

------------------
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72% of founders report feeling burned out. 

And it’s not just “the hustle.”

It’s bandwidth overload.

Burnout for founders rarely shows up as “I can’t do this anymore.”

It shows up as:

– Making slower decisions
– Snapping at tiny things
– Losing creative sharpness
– Feeling busy but oddly unproductive
– Carrying the whole business in your head
– Working all day but making no real progress
– Never having space to think beyond tomorrow

That’s not weakness.

That’s cognitive overload from running an entire company on a low bandwidth.

Most founders don’t burn out because of hard work.
They burn out because they’re:

✔️ the chief problem-solver
✔️ the decision engine
✔️ the emotional shock absorber
✔️ the strategist
✔️ the operator
✔️ the culture-setter
✔️ the safety net for everyone else

And you were never meant to hold all of that alone.

Here are 7 signs your leadership bandwidth is overloaded...and what to do before it costs you clarity, your team, or the business.👇🏼

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Sources:
– Startup Snapshot, State of the Startup Report (2023)
– Startup Snapshot & Intel Ignite, Founder Wellbeing Update (2024)
– MindForward Alliance, Wellbeing in Startups (2022)
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Most people overestimate big changes.
And underestimate small daily habits.

The reality is simple.

Your brain, your energy, and your performance are built from the things you do repeatedly.

Not the occasional reset.
Not the once a year moment of motivation.

Daily habits shape how clearly you think.
How you make decisions.
How you lead yourself when pressure is high.

These nine are a good place to start.
They’re small.
They’re practical.

↳ And they compound quickly when life gets busy.

If you’re trying to feel more focused, more grounded, or just a little more in control, pick one of them today.

Then let consistency do the heavy lifting.
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Your mind won’t relax when things calm down.
Things calm down when your mind relaxes.

Don’t get me wrong, having a busy mind isn’t always a bad thing.

Sometimes it’s a spark - the kind of busy that fuels ideas, creativity, and momentum.

But there’s another kind of busy.

The kind where you have too many tabs open at once.

And that version is usually a signal that you have been carrying more than your brain was designed to hold.

Decisions.
People.
Deadlines.
The invisible load no one else sees.

When everything lands at once, your mind stops sorting what matters from what is just noise.

So suddenly:
→ Everything feels urgent
→ Everything feels like yours to solve
→ Everything stays open in the background

Most people try to push through this.

But your brain does not need more pressure.
It needs more structure.

⤷ Space between tasks
⤷ Loops closed instead of left running
⤷ A body that is not locked in tension all day
⤷ The reminder that thoughts are not instructions

The truth is:

Things do not calm down and then you rest.
Things calm down because you rest.

A calm and focused mind makes clearer decisions.
Clearer decisions create better outcomes in work and in life.

If your mind has been too busy lately, take it as an invitation.

You do not have to carry everything at once.
You do not have to figure it all out today.

Happy Friday 🤍
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