Practice Makes Braver

I help families say the thing
that needs saying.

I'm Annie Woods, a family enterprise advisor, executive coach, and facilitator. For about 12 years I've been in the room when the conversation gets hard: the sibling tension nobody names, the founder who can't let go, the next generation waiting for a seat.

Most of the families I work with are Latin American enterprises, in Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. I work in English and Spanish, and often in both at once, because the language a family argues in is not always the language it loves in.

I work in two phases (discovery first, then facilitation and development), and I'm part of a multidisciplinary team that includes a family business advisor specializing in systems thinking and corporate law. One of my specialties is G3 leadership development: helping the next generation find its voice before it inherits the table.

What I've learned.

The business problem is rarely only the business problem. A stalled succession, a committee that can't decide, a leader who is burning out: underneath, there is usually a pattern of communication that once protected people and now costs them. Change the pattern and the decisions follow.

How I see the work

  • Communication first. Governance only holds when people can talk honestly. I facilitate the conversations that build that, and teach families to run them without me.

  • Enneagram as a shared language. I use the Enneagram (IEQ9) to help family members understand what drives each other, not to label anyone. When people see the motive behind the behavior, the room changes.

  • Parts, not problems. Internal Family Systems shapes how I coach leaders: every strong reaction has a reason, and it deserves to be heard before it can change.

  • Governance that fits the family. Family constitutions, councils, and decision rights work when they match how a family actually relates. I help design what fits.

Credentials

Enneagram practitioner, IEQ9

Internal Family Systems-informed practice

About 12 years of facilitation and executive coaching

Bilingual: English and Spanish

Family Firm Institute (FFI) certificate in family business advising

A note on where I'm headed

After years of coaching leaders, my practice is now centered on enterprising families and the advisors who serve them. I'm opening my 2027 calendar for family business advising engagements.


If the conversation your family needs is the one no one wants to start, I'll help you start it. I got you!