Owners and leadership teams in small businesses that are growing, stabilizing, or navigating people-related pressure.
Our clients are often dealing with unexpected turnover, underdeveloped leadership, unclear talent structure, or people issues that keep pulling leadership back into the weeds.
This is not traditional HR support. This is a straight, practical read on your leadership and talent risk,
without corporate jargon and without taking over the culture you have already built. We work alongside leaders as a partner who tells them the truth and helps them act on it, not as an outsourced HR department or an appointed bad guy.
Every business does not need the same level of support. Some need clarity first. Some need ongoing leadership guidance. Others need a full reset around retention, management, and team stability.
Choose the level of support that fits where your business is right now.
2–3 Week Focused Engagement
Best for leaders who know something is off but need clear insight before making major staff, leadership, or structural changes
Includes:
👉 Leadership and stakeholder interviews
👉 Frontline staff insight where appropriate
👉 Leadership and talent risk assessment
👉 Identification of pressure points
👉 Priority roadmap
👉 Executive summary of findings
👉 Optional follow-up advisory recommendations
3-Month Minimum Advisory Engagement
Best for owners and leadership teams who are actively making people decisions and want experienced guidance before problems escalate.
Includes:
👉 Monthly leadership strategy sessions
👉 Real-time decision support
👉 Leadership and talent guidance
👉 Retention and manager alignment recommendations
👉 Strategic people-planning support
👉 Practical next steps after each session
90-Day Strategic Reset
Best for organizations that need more than a diagnosis and are ready to address leadership gaps, retention issues, and team instability with clear action.
Includes:
👉 Full leadership and talent assessment
👉 Retention and engagement strategy
👉 Manager capability alignment
👉 Leadership communication recommendations
👉 Before-and-after outcome review
👉 Practical roadmap for long-term stability
4th Degree Consulting was founded on a simple belief that HR has lost the plot. Too often it has become the department people hid behind, the place blamed when culture went wrong, and the source of language nobody outside the room actually understood. That was never what the work was supposed to be.
4th Degree Consulting exists to put the people side of business back into plain English. The name comes from our owner's 4th Degree Black Belt, and the discipline behind it shows up in the work: structure, focus, and the patience to fix the real problem, not just the visible one.
To give business owners clarity about their people, so they can lead with confidence and make decisions based on insight rather than instinct.
To bring real conversation back to the workplace. We want leaders and their teams talking to each other directly, person to person, instead of hiding behind screens, policies, or a department. When people understand each other as people, the business gets stronger.
With over 15 years of HR leadership experience and a 4th Degree Black Belt in martial arts, we founded 4th Degree Consulting to bring discipline, structure, and measurable results to the people side of business. Based in Charlotte, NC, we serve clients both virtually and onsite across the Eastern and Central time zones.
We work with owners and leadership teams in the skilled trades, where a great worker gets promoted into a supervisor role without ever being taught how to lead, and where the cost of that gap shows up later as turnover, low morale, and an owner still solving problems they thought they had handed off. We help leaders see what is actually happening beneath the surface, and we talk to them like people while we do it.
7 Warning Signs Your Team Structure Is Becoming Unstable
Download the free Leadership Risk Assessment and quickly identify where your team may be exposed.