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Centered on the Edge

A Developmental Coaching  for People-Helping leaders

 

Register my interest ➞

A six-month, coaching program for community services leaders (and allied sectors) to build the inner capacity to lead well through complexity, emotional load, and change.

Centered on the Edge

A Developmental Coaching Circle for People-Helping leaders

Register my interest ➞

A six-month, coaching program for community services leaders (and allied sectors) to build the inner capacity to lead well through complexity, emotional load, and change.

Small cohort · Place-based · Developmentally informed · Tasmania

Small cohort · Place-based · Developmentally informed · Tasmania

Program Overview

Duration: 6 months (March - August 2026)
Location: 

  • North West Coast — Forth Valley
  • North — Launceston
  • South — Hobart

Cohort size: Small and intentional (limited places)

The rhythm

Designed to be immediately resourcing — never just “another meeting to go to”.

  • Monthly in-person circle gathering (3.5 hours)

  • 4 x 1:1 coaching sessions across the six months (application to real scenarios)

Fee: $240 per month for 6 months ($1,440 total)

Payment pathways: individuals paying personally, or organisations sponsoring staff.

Why 'Centered on the Edge' Now?

Community services (and adjacent fields) are being reshaped in real time.

Not only by funding models, compliance, and workforce strain — but by the pressures that live inside everyday work life:

  • Interpersonal conflict under stress
  • The emotional labour of caring for others
  • The mismatch between client needs, organisational capacity, and service design
  • Being stuck between community expectations and what’s actually possible
  • Burnout patterns: over-functioning, carrying too much, quiet resentment
  • Consensus paralysis: staying “agreeable” instead of acting with clarity
  • Uncertainty around authority: avoiding power, or using it too hard when pressure rises

Many capable people helpers are discovering that what used to work doesn’t work the same way anymore.

Not because they’re failing, but because the work has become more complex, and most professional development isn’t designed to build the deeper capacity this moment requires.

Centered on the Edge is a proactive space to grow that capacity — in community.

Tools and Practices

This circle is practical, grounded, and designed for the realities of people-helping leadership.

Across six months we work with:

  • Enneagram insight (how your pattern runs under stress, and what freedom looks like)

  • Adult Development lenses (capacity-building, not just competence)

  • Coaching as a leadership tool (better conversations, less rescuing, more empowerment)

  • Contemplative practice (silence, brief meditation, somatic presencing — accessible and non-religious)

  • Facilitation + group leadership skills, including:

    • holding dialogue

    • working with polarities

    • managing difference

    • prioritising decisions

    • leading healthy team life under pressure

These aren’t add-ons — they’re core capacities for leading well in relational work.

Care and Capacity

Leaders often carry a hidden belief:
“If I’m struggling, I must be doing it wrong.”

But often the truth is simpler — and kinder:
you’re trying to lead human work inside systems under strain.

Centered on the Edge supports you to:

  • Strengthen self-regulation (less reactivity, more steadiness)
  • Authorise yourself to set clearer boundaries and make the changes that's needed
  • Use power well — without force, avoidance, or guilt
  • Shift from rescuing to empowering (clients, staff, teams)
  • Get unstuck faster (especially in conflict and indecision)
  • Read the room and lead with presence
  • Stay engaged and fresh — without hardening or burning out

This is development as strategy: inner growth that changes outer leadership.

Waking Up

Expanding awareness and presence

This dimension focuses on helping leaders become aware of their inner state and how it shapes perception, decision-making, and relationships.

Core practices and tools include:

  • Conscious Leadership principles to recognise reactivity and return to presence

  • Enneagram exploration to distinguish personality patterns from deeper essence

  • Contemplative practices (silence, centering prayer, awareness of breath, body, and emotion)

  • Guided reflection on inner state, attention, and leadership presence

What this develops:
Greater self-awareness, reduced reactivity, and the ability to pause and respond rather than react under pressure.


Growing Up

Increasing developmental capacity

This dimension focuses on how leaders make meaning — the form of mind through which they interpret authority, faith, complexity, and responsibility.

Core practices and tools include:

  • Developmental stage assessment (adult development / meaning-making)

  • Individual debriefs to identify current centre of gravity and growth edge

  • Teaching on stages of adult development and the evolution of leadership and culture

  • Individual growth-edge coaching to support vertical development over time

What this develops:
Greater capacity to hold complexity, integrate multiple perspectives, and lead without relying on certainty, control, or external validation.

Cleaning Up

Integrating shadow and reactivity

This dimension supports leaders to work with unconscious patterns that undermine leadership impact, particularly under stress.

Core practices and tools include:

  • Enneagram-based exploration of blind spots, defensive strategies, and edge emotions

  • Conscious Leadership tools for working with blame, avoidance, over-control, and responsibility

  • Peer dialogue and reflective inquiry to surface blind spots in a safe relational context

  • Contemplative practice to remain present with discomfort and emotional charge

What this develops:
Emotional maturity, relational freedom, and greater compassion for self and others — reducing the likelihood of reactive leadership patterns.

Showing Up

Embodying leadership in action

This dimension focuses on translating inner shifts into visible leadership practice and cultural impact.

Core practices and tools include:

  • Leadership-in-practice reflection on real, live leadership challenges

  • Individual coaching to integrate awareness, capacity, and action

  • Facilitation and coaching skill development to support growth in others

  • Final integration and prototyping of a leadership practice that embodies formation

What this develops:
Leadership that is grounded, credible, and generative — capable of developing others and shaping healthy organisational culture.

Who this circle is for?

This circle is for people helpers who:

  • Work in community services (primary home base)
  • And/or lead in allied sectors: health, education, aged care, disability, social services
  • Are frontline team leaders, coordinators, middle managers, or senior managers
  • Want to grow their leadership from the inside out
  • Want to lead inspiring, healthy teams — not just “cope”
  • Can feel the pressure and want to respond with maturity, clarity, and presence

It’s not for:

  • Quick fixes or “one clever framework”
  • Brand new leaders needing basic training
  • People seeking therapy or clinical mental health support
  • People who aren’t willing to reflect on their own pattern as part of leadership


This is a developmental coaching circle — not therapy. It supports leadership growth, emotional regulation, and relational capacity in the context of work. If you’re seeking treatment for acute mental health concerns, this circle may not be the right support on its own.

Qualified 

Master’s-trained certified coach and accredited counsellor—deep experience across leaders, teams, and organisations. 

Evidence Based

Grounded in contemporary research across coaching psychology, adult development, and organisational systems. 

Developmentally Informed

Our work is guided by adult-development theory, supporting leaders to grow not just skills, but capacity.

Collective Learning 

Individual insight fuels the group, and the group becomes the practice ground for discernment and leadership.

What Outcomes Can Participants Expect: 

Participants commonly leave with:

  • Clearer inner authority and better boundaries

  • Reduced over-functioning and rescuing (without losing heart)

  • Improved conflict capacity and healthier conversations

  • More decisive action without consensus paralysis

  • Increased steadiness under pressure (self-regulation)

  • Stronger facilitation and room-reading ability

  • A felt sense of being less alone — and more resourced

  • Renewed capacity to lead teams that are fresh, grounded, and effective

For organisations, this supports:

  • Healthier team culture

  • Stronger leadership bench strength

  • Fewer relational breakdowns

  • Improved supervision and coaching conversations

  • Reduced burnout risk through proactive capacity-building

Supporting Leaders like Yourself

High School Principal

“Ben’s coaching is empathetic, professional, and creates a safe space to build confidence and resilience. His listening is exceptional and his strategies were tailored to my needs.”

Health Care Specialist

“I came to Ben feeling stuck in self-confidence and left with self-awareness and peace. He asked the questions that got to the heart of what I needed to know and understand"

Community Liaison Officer

“I’d tried other services and got nothing out of them — but Ben helped me grow real confidence. I got a role I didn’t expect, and I’m stronger in both work and life.”

Senior Case Manager / Team Leader

“Ben created a space of acceptance and safety where I could be fully authentic — and grow. My confidence as a leader increased and I lifted self-imposed limits on my career.”

Community Development Manager

“I was stuck in patterns that destabilised my emotional regulation and confidence. Ben’s intelligent, impactful guidance helped me understand myself, make big decisions, and feel far more content.”

Community Legal Service

“Ben’s coaching gave me practical tools and a deeper perspective so I could lead effectively in a demanding, under-resourced environment. I’m more capable in the moment, and better able to facilitate my team to contribute positively and constructively.”

Register Your Interest

Places are limited to protect depth and trust.

Registering your interest allows us to:

  • Confirm fit (for you or your staff member/s)

  • Share dates 

  • Discuss sponsorship options if relevant

Register My Interest ➞

Once you register, I’ll reach out with:

  • Program dates

  • Sponsorship details

  • What to expect and,

  • a short next-step conversation

About Your Facilitator

Ben Pangas is a leadership development specialist, qualified counsellor, and certified developmental coach (Masters level) with more than twenty years’ experience working across construction, education, and community development.

His work integrates professional leadership practice, adult developmental psychology, and contemplative methods that strengthen attention, regulation, and discernment.

Ben’s approach is grounded and practical — he supports leaders to grow the inner capacity required to lead with clarity, maturity, and integrity in demanding contexts.

FAQ

 

The Retreat

Space to Reflect and Connect