At Athena, new Executive Partners (XPs) often arrive with strong operational skills, but client trust is built on something else: anticipating needs before they're voiced, taking initiative without being asked, and following through without being chased. For XPs supporting founders and executives remotely, that mindset shift is the difference between being a task-taker and being a genuine thinking partner from day one.

For example, I designed and wrote a 90-minute virtual session, Getting Into the XP Mindset: Cultivating Initiative, Foresight & Ownership, to build exactly that. At its core is a simple framework: Anticipation, Initiative, Accountability, that gives XPs a shared language to recognise proactive behaviour in themselves and others. From there, the session moves into scenario-based discussion (spotting the early signs of executive overload, navigating communication overwhelm without overstepping) and persona-based breakouts, where small groups apply the mindset to four distinct leadership styles: the high-demand CEO, the shifting-priorities founder, the detail-obsessed VP, and the visionary-but-scattered leader.

Tools used: Google Docs, Google Slides Getting Into the XP Mindset