hit the ground running
How to nail your first 90 days as chief of staff
Execution breaks down not because leaders lack talent or commitment, but because partnerships lack clarity, truth, and shared ownership. Misalignment slows decisions, erodes trust, and quietly drains momentum, even among high performers.
The Handshake Meeting is a practical leadership guide for building high-trust, high-performing partnerships across roles, teams, and organizations. Drawing on Laurie Arron’s Fortune 50 leadership experience and years of advising senior leaders, this book introduces the Handshake Meeting, a proven framework for aligning expectations, addressing tension early, and creating the conditions for fast, confident, and sustainable execution.
When partnerships are intentionally designed, work moves faster, decisions improve, and pressure eases. The partnership becomes an advantage.
Ideal for leaders navigating growth, complexity, change, or high-stakes collaboration who know results depend not just on what gets done, but on how people work together.
“This is an operating tool for leaders who are tired of rework, slowdecisions, and vague ownership. The Handshake Meeting helps two leaders get aligned fast, set clear commitments, and hold each other accountable without unnecessary friction as conditions change. Laurie’s framework is simple, but it’s not soft. It saves time, prevents expensive misalignment, and keeps partnerships strong when the pace picks up.”
— JACK BAUM
Turn Critical Partnerships into an Execution Advantage
In The Handshake Meeting, you’ll learn how to:
Create shared clarity that eliminates friction and execution drag
Build trust through direct, respectful truth-telling
Accelerate decision-making without sacrificing alignment
Reset strained partnerships before performance suffers
Establish a repeatable rhythm for accountability and follow-through
Turn strong working relationships into sustained execution engines
pRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“As an investor, I’ve learned that the biggest execution risk is rarely the market. It’s misalignment between the people who have to make the hard calls together.
The Handshake Meeting is a practical way to surface assumptions early, make clean commitments, and build the kind of trust that holds under pressure.
If you’re building anything that matters, this is a conversation discipline you want in your operating system.”
— Yousuf Khan
“When leaders get clearer with each other, everything speeds up: decisions, ownership, and follow-through. Laurie’s Handshake Meeting framework gives leaders a straightforward way to align expectations, surface tension early, and build trust that holds when the stakes rise.
I’ve watched this approach change how two executives worked together, and the results were immediate: cleaner decisions, fewer misfires, stronger execution. This is a book leaders will keep within reach.”
— Jamie Shapiro
“Elite leadership requires a repeatable way to say what’s true, decide what’s promised, and hold the line.
The Handshake Meeting is a direct, elegant practice for making the conversations most leaders avoid both doable and productive.
Laurie doesn’t offer theory, she offers a disciplined method that raises standards, strengthens partnership, and accelerates outcomes. If you lead people, read this and use it.”
— RICH LITVIN
About The Book
About THe AUthor
Laurie Arron is the founder of Arron Coaching LLC, a premier executive coaching firm located in Dallas, Texas. She is recognized as a Top 20 Executive Coach in Dallas by Influence Digest. Laurie spent 27+ years climbing the corporate ladder at AT&T, where she gained multidimensional experience in sales leadership, strategic planning, and business transformation. Laurie also served as a Chief of Staff to senior executives.
Today, Laurie serves passionately as a trusted adviser and executive coach to C-suite executives and Chiefs of Staff. She helps her clients tap into their fullest expression as leaders, both for themselves and for the powerful impact they want to have on others. Laurie guides her clients to navigate the hard turns and pivot when they reach that internal dead-end of “no more.” She helps leaders not only emerge but thrive.
Laurie earned her executive coaching certification from Coaches Training Institute (CTI), the largest coaches training school in the world (ICF accredited). She is a member of Litvin 4PC, an invitation-only, exclusive community for some of the world’s most extraordinary coaches. Laurie enjoys serving her community through boards and her philanthropic passions. She is also a dedicated member of the Texas Women’s Leadership Institute. She enjoys traveling, cooking, working out, and spending quality time with her family.