Special Assistant

About this role

About Incandescent

Incandescent is an advisory firm discovering how to create, build, and run enterprises to do the world’s most important work. We focus our work on four primary platforms:

- Corporates & Fortune 500s https://www.incandescent.com/work/advise, including a dedicated focus on Private Equity. We work with leaders with ambitious visions, whose aspirations reach beyond simply optimizing their current operations or applying known best practices.

- Systems Change Organizations https://www.incandescent.com/work/social-impact, including philanthropies, non-profit organizations, and mission-driven enterprises.

- Ventures https://www.incandescent.com/work/ventures, from late seed stage through Series B. We act as partners to founders, growing ideas into businesses that scale and endure.

Incandescent was founded in 2013, and we’ve been building a small team, slowly and carefully, since then. In January 2026, we acquired Minds at Work founded by Bob Kegan & Lisa Lahey, a firm with a distinctive body of work in Adult Development, Immunity to Change, and helping leaders and organizations become Deliberately Developmental Organizations. You can read more about the acquisition here https://www.onhumanenterprise.com/frogs-butterflies-announcing-incandescents-acquisition-of-minds-at-work.

Essence of the Role

We’re looking for a Special Assistant who can bring leverage and life to two of our priorities for Minds at Work: supporting the firm’s co-founder, Bob Kegan, in his day-to-day work, and driving the operational work behind Minds at Work’s Public Programs so they run with precision and care. Bob is the author of Immunity to Change and An Everyone Culture, and a celebrated teacher and advisor whose work has influenced leaders and organizations around the world. He travels globally and coaches senior executives across sectors. The role is closely connected to the ideas, programs, and relationships surrounding Adult Development, Immunity to Change, and the wider Minds at Work body of work. The role is demanding and fast-paced, with significant responsibility from the outset that demands a proactive, entrepreneurial mindset & a strong learning and development orientation.

The two areas of responsibility are different in important ways, but they call on the same core strengths: organization, sound judgment, anticipation, responsiveness, and a talent for turning recurring work into reliable, repeatable systems. The right person will help shape and grow the role over time.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will include:

- Supporting the co-founder. You will manage the co-founder’s calendar with precision, help him stay ahead of his priorities, and prepare the materials, briefings, and background he needs for meetings, travel, and recurring commitments. You will communicate regularly with colleagues, external partners, and clients, always with the discretion and care that working closely with a co-founder requires. As you grow into the role, you will help build the systems that keep his working life organized and easy to navigate.

- Producing Public Programs. You will own the operational work that keeps Minds at Work’s Public Programs running smoothly before, during, and after each session: participant communications and tracking, registration coordination, faculty preparation and briefings, management of the run of show, and live support during sessions.

- Building better systems and AI-enabled workflows. Across both areas, you will help create the trackers, documentation, routines, and AI-enabled workflows that make recurring work dependable and straightforward for others to pick up. You will notice where work can be organized more simply, made less reliant on any one person, or improved through thoughtful use of AI, and partner with the team to steadily strengthen how the work gets done.

- Contributing across the firm. Every member of our team, regardless of title, plays an important role in building Incandescent and Minds at Work. As you settle into the role, you will have opportunities to contribute to internal priorities, client engagements, and special projects, including work that touches research and AI. You will also be paired with a development manager who will help you identify your growth edge and chart your development.

Attributes

- You are disciplined, self-driven, and intentional. You consistently follow through, translating intentions and decisions into sustained effort and results. You enjoy creating order, planning ahead, and finding ways to make recurring work reliable.

- You have a strong developmental orientation. You are committed to honest self-examination and open feedback from others. You are willing to invest in doing whatever it takes to grow into an exceptional performer.

- You are intellectually curious and an eager and creative adopter of AI. You seek a deeper understanding of how organizations in all sectors perform best, and you are genuinely excited by how AI can reshape how small teams operate and how we create impact.

- You are empathetic and team well with others. You have the capacity to imagine how the world looks to others and to build bonds of trust even in difficult circumstances. You bring warmth and presence to your interactions with senior leaders, clients, faculty, and program participants. You want to add value as part of a larger team – building bridges to and relationships across the firm that enables connecting dots.

- You like to roll up your sleeves in work. You possess humility and grit, willing to take on both “lower level” and “higher level” tasks based on what needs to be done. The phrase “that’s not my job” is not something you would say.

Experience/Background

This role is well suited to someone early in their career with a strong commitment to learning and growth and comfort in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment. No particular background is required; the right person learns quickly and is

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