Behind the Name
Before a ship enters unfamiliar waters, the captain directs the crew to throw out a lead line—a weighted rope marked at intervals—to measure depth and chart a safe course. It’s a simple tool, but profound in its purpose: to navigate complexity with care, to move forward without losing touch with what lies beneath.
What Leaders Are Facing Today
Newly hired leaders are stepping into teams shaped by years of generational turnover, shifting expectations, and uneven norms. They inherit a mix of long‑standing habits and fresh perspectives — often without a shared language, rhythm, or sense of direction. The result isn’t dysfunction; it’s fragmentation. Leaders need a way to bring people together without losing the strengths each group carries.
Why Alignment Matters
When new and long‑standing team members aren’t aligned, even the strongest strategy struggles to take root. Alignment creates clarity, reduces friction, and frees leaders to focus on what actually moves the organization forward. It’s the foundation for resilience, cohesion, and a culture where people feel grounded enough to contribute their best work.
How Sounding Line Works
Sounding Line provides a structured, neuroscience‑informed process that helps newly hired leaders understand their team’s dynamics, bridge mixed‑tenure perspectives, and cultivate the mental fitness needed for steady, resilient leadership. Through guided conversations, practical tools, and a focus on real‑world application, leaders gain the clarity and cohesion required to help their teams thrive.
At Malvern Prep, culture is our differentiator—it’s what makes our mission come alive in the relationships, decisions, and everyday experiences on campus. Working with Sounding Line was equal parts booster shot and blueprint. It gave us the energy to re-engage and the structure to evolve.
The impact has been both immediate and lasting. We’re speaking a common language across departments, calling out Saboteurs when they surface, and leaning into Sage powers that help us respond with clarity and composure. What’s more, we’re now living in an ecosystem that is intentionally designed to support and grow one another, not just professionally, but as whole people.
If you’re looking to take your organization to the next level, rooted in purpose, resilience, and connection, start here. This work not only aligns people, but it also elevates them. And in today’s landscape, that’s a differentiator you can’t afford to ignore.
Patrick Sillup
Head of School
Malvern Prep, Malvern, PA
Who I Work With
Sounding Line supports leaders stepping into teams that are constantly being reshaped. Every hire, departure, reorganization or promotion creates a new mix of history and emerging talent. These leaders must honor what came before, integrate what’s new, and build cohesion within a system built to last and hold over time.
I work with leaders in:
-
Schools and educational organizations
-
Clinical and human‑services programs
-
Nonprofits and mission‑driven organizations
-
For‑profit companies navigating mixed‑tenure teams or rapid change
Across sectors, they share a common challenge: aligning people who haven’t yet learned how to work together. They want clarity, steadiness, and a neuroscience‑informed process that helps their teams move forward with confidence and continuity.
The Sounding Line Approach
The Sounding Line approach is built on three pillars:
1
Clarity Through Conversation
Leaders gain a clear understanding of their team’s dynamics, strengths, and friction points. This creates a shared map of what’s happening beneath the surface.
2
Neuroscience‑Informed Mental Fitness
Using evidence‑based practices, leaders learn how to regulate attention, energy, and emotional bandwidth — the internal skills that support steady, grounded leadership.
3
Cohesion Through Alignment
Together, we build the structures, habits, and agreements that bring new and long‑standing team members into alignment, strengthening resilience and creating a foundation for long‑term success.
It’s exciting to see Drew launch a program that speaks directly to the real-world challenges executive leaders face. Education has become a battleground, and change has become a constant. I used to feel like I was bracing for impact every day. But once I stepped back and began to examine the deeper patterns shaping our culture, I started to see where real opportunities for change were—and how to bring that clarity back to staff.
Just having a space to hear from others facing similar challenges can make a real difference. The Positive Intelligence operating system is a meaningful framework for any school or care facility looking to contend with burnout and manage stress. What makes Sounding Line different is its focus on personal wellness and team cohesion as part of the work, not an add-on. It’s not just a one-time boost—it’s a steady, practical way for leaders to build mental stamina and focus on taking the next step with confidence.
Rachel Berry
Chief Executive Officer
Brandon School, Natick, MA
Powered by the Positive Intelligence® Operating System
Sounding Line integrates the Positive Intelligence® (PQ) operating system to strengthen the mental fitness leaders need to stay clear, grounded, and resilient. PQ offers a science‑backed pathway for building the internal capacity that steady leadership requires.
Why PQ® Matters for Leaders
Root‑Cause Solution
PQ goes beyond surface‑level strategies by rewiring the negative response patterns (Saboteurs) that undermine well‑being, performance, and team dynamics.
Science‑Backed and Measurable
Grounded in neuroscience and research, PQ tracks progress using real‑world behavioral and performance metrics.
Sustainable Results
Simple, daily mental‑fitness practices help leaders build habits that create long‑term, measurable growth.
Scalable and Flexible
The PQ platform provides a customizable roadmap for strengthening mental fitness across teams and entire organizations.
Resilience Elevated: Proven Outcomes With PQ
Positive Intelligence Boosts Resilience Among Participants*
*Based on survey results from a cohort of >2000 Positive Intelligence Program participants after seven weeks of mental fitness training
© 2025 Positive Intelligence, LLC
91%
manage stress better
87%
adapt more effectively to change
84%
resolve conflicts more efficiently
90%
optimize mental and emotional energy
92%
enhance teamwork and collaboration
Programs
A simple, transparent structure designed to meet leaders and organizations exactly where they are — from individual grounding to full‑scale organizational transformation.
Tier 1:
The Oxygen Mask
1:1 Leadership Reset
Best For: Individual leaders who need to steady themselves before leading others
Format: Weekly 1:1 sessions + PQ® mental‑fitness integration
Duration: 10 week Foundations, 6 week Integrate, Customized quarterly Applications, year long support
What's Included:
-
Personalized leadership assessment
-
Weekly 1:1 coaching sessions
-
PQ® mental‑fitness program access
-
First‑90‑day clarity roadmap
-
Applications for resilience, focus, and grounded decision‑making
Tier 2:
The Alignment Intensive
Executive + Team (10 Weeks)
Best For: Newly hired executives leading mixed‑tenure teams
Format: Executive cohort + team sessions + PQ® integration
Duration: The 7 + 3, seven week pod based Foundations Program, 3 weeks Integrate
What's Included:
-
Executive onboarding + leadership clarity sessions
-
Team alignment workshops
-
Shared agreements, norms, and communication rhythms
-
PQ® mental‑fitness program for the leadership team
-
A clear set of cornerstones for the team’s next chapter
-
The opportunity to design creative applications to continue the work
Tier 3:
The Organizational Lift
Yearlong Partnership
Best For: Organizations ready to scale resilience, cohesion, and mental fitness
Format: Executive cohort + team rollouts + organization‑wide PQ® integration + PQ for Teams
Duration: 12 months
What's Included:
-
Executive leadership cohort
-
Team‑by‑team alignment rollouts
-
Organization‑wide PQ® mental‑fitness platform
-
Cohesion and collaboration metrics
-
Quarterly leadership strategy sessions
-
A scalable operating system for how teams work together
-
Targeted support for family members
About Drew
We’re living through a historical moment when learning, work, and identity are being reshaped at every level. Institutions that once offered stability now find themselves navigating liminality — trying to carry forward the virtues, knowledge, and skills that will shape a technologically wise and ecologically sound future.
My work begins with a simple question:
How do we experience what’s changing and respond from a deeper place, not a reactive one?
For over two decades, my calling has been career development — designing career operating systems that help students and organizations adapt quickly and create a culture of continuous improvement. At Landmark College, I helped build student‑navigation technology that reconstituted academic affairs and professional skill building as the college expanded into a four‑year institution. In southern Vermont, I led a regional project with uConnect that used silo‑busting technology to bridge campuses and workforce systems. My career has unfolded in niche environments: students who learn differently, CTE pathways, and communities confronting economic transition.
Across all of it, one truth kept surfacing: the pace of change always outpaced the shift in practice. The real crisis wasn’t technical — it was imaginative. Systems couldn’t transform because the people inside them were stretched thin, operating from outdated mental models, or disconnected from their own sense of agency.
Leadership today depends on something deeper than strategy. It hinges on how we help people re‑orient their understanding of themselves while adapting to change. Leverage has shifted from what you can do to how you show up doing it.
My work is grounded in a simple belief:
When we change how we think, we expand what feels plausible — and what becomes possible.
Get Started
Book a call below or contact Drew at 802.451.8925 or drew@soundingline.com