Thomas Zeltner · People. Reality. Now.

Sound familiar?

Where it usually starts

Your leadership team meets, debates, agrees… and nothing changes.
Your sales structure, processes and skills need to adapt, and you want what works on the ground, not another theory.
Your managers are carrying their teams through change, and trust is wearing thin.

Complexity is normal. Staying stuck in it isn't.

What I stand for

Three principles behind every engagement

People

Strategies don't execute themselves. People do. Every engagement starts with them, and ends with them.

Reality

I say what I see. No jargon, no theatre, no 80-page report gathering dust.

Fair warning: I don't do diplomatic vagueness.

Now

You're here because something has to change, and it can't wait. So implementation starts during the work, not after it.

How I work

Always three steps. Never the same programme twice.

Diagnose
Before recommending anything, I find out what's really happening: in the team, in the numbers, in the conversations nobody is having.
Recommend
A short list of practical priorities you can act on straight away. Nothing you'll file and forget.
Build
A tailor-made programme, focused on your people and your business. I use AI where it makes people better, never as a substitute for them.

Recent work

Clients stay anonymous. The results speak.

From individual agendas to one voice

Leadership team · Industrial group · West Africa

With AC Mentoring × MarcoPolo Performance

The challenge: Talented leaders, each running their own race. Decisions were made, then quietly dropped.
What we did: An intensive three-day leadership programme, combined with team and individual coaching, focused on how they communicate, decide and deliver results.
Now: The leadership team speaks with one voice, takes the initiative, and makes better decisions, faster.

Leading through layoffs without losing the team

Management team · European tech company

With AC Mentoring × MarcoPolo Performance

The challenge: A restructuring under way, trust eroding, and managers facing the hardest conversations of their careers.
What we did: A leadership programme on trust, communication and engagement, built on the real situations they were facing day to day.
Now: Managers went back to their teams equipped for the conversations that mattered.

Putting sales back at the heart of the business

Tech scale-up · Financial services · Africa · Ongoing

The challenge: Fast growth, a slowing time to market, and a customer onboarding experience lagging behind the company's ambition.
What we're doing: A six-month advisory and hands-on operational role: processes, team capabilities and customer experience, with sales back at the centre.
Now: In progress.

Also recently: sales training programmes in Switzerland and across Africa. Delivered by experts, built on participants' real client situations, with AI-supported practice where it adds value.

Client feedback

What clients tell me, again and again

No lectures

The answers come from the room, so the team owns them.

Always back to business

Every exercise lands on a real issue. Implementation starts before the session ends.

Demanding and warm

People leave stronger, not bruised. And the energy stays.

Collective

Independent. Never alone.

You work with me, directly. When your challenge calls for more, such as a company-wide programme, several countries or specialist expertise, I bring in AC Mentoring × MarcoPolo Performance, a collective of around thirty specialists.

One point of contact. The depth of a team.

About

Pressure, from the inside

French-born, British-educated, fully bilingual. Fifteen years leading businesses as Country Director across sub-Saharan Africa. Ten years in strategy consulting in London. Boardrooms, start-ups, multinationals and war zones.

I don't coach pressure from the outside. I know what it feels like from the inside.

Identity

French born · British educated · Bilingual

Experience

25+ years · 20+ countries · Europe & Africa

Sectors

FMCG · Agro · Pharma · Chem · Tech · Services · Institutions · Defence · Oil & Gas · Automotive

Track record

100+ managers coached · individually & in teams

Certification

ICF ACC · DISC TTI · PRINCE2

Contact

30 minutes. No pitch.

One conversation is enough to know whether I'm the right person for you. Either way, you'll leave with at least one idea you can use.

Get in touch LinkedIn