We think one of the best ways to describe what we can do for you is by sharing real world examples of our work and its effects.
- Helping a Young Executive
- Building a Strong Team
- Salvaging a Work Relationship
- Planning for an Entrepreneurial Firm’s Future
- Working with Cross Functional Teams on Strategic Issues
* Please note that identifying details have been changed to protect the identities of individual clients and organizations. We take the privacy of our clients very seriously.
Helping a Young Executive (Executive Coaching)
This talented young executive received very harsh performance feedback regarding his relationships with colleagues. While his individual work was strong his contentious relationships damaged his ability to work in group settings and projects.
We used a process of assessment, discernment, and honest self-confrontation to help him gain significant insights into how his relationships impact his effectiveness. From that new insight he was able to build and rebuild several important work relationships.
Building a Strong Team (Coaching, Facilitation, Team Building)
This industry leader needed to increase collaboration, productivity and job satisfaction among employees. We created a custom program that combined coaching, team building and facilitation to address those needs.
We conducted interviews with each member of two multiple executive level teams. We collected their anonymous observations about their teams goals, roles, interpersonal relationships, processes and leadership. We also had each team member take the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). In offsite team meetings we first worked with the individual and collective MBTI® results. This work gave the teams language for describing the similarities and differences in how they relate to work. Armed with that new level of awareness we then shared the teams interview results. The groups worked through the materials to create a prioritized list of issues and action plans to address those issues.
In parallel we conducted 360-degree assessments for the leaders in the department. Several team members and leaders took this work very seriously and have enthusiastically implemented the actions they identified. In recent progress interviews they reported a significantly improved atmosphere in the team, more collaboration on work and greater job satisfaction.
Salvaging a Work Relationship (Facilitation, Leadership Development)
When the relationship between two department leaders who had a truly discordant work relationship dissolved even further we were called in. Using a process that involved each person responding to probing questions about the other leader (such as “I think you want me to” and “What do I want you to do more of? Less of?”) we facilitated a creating a new set of working agreements to move their conversations and conflicts to a different stance.
In recent follow up interviews the leaders told us the process significantly decreased tensions and enabled them to build a productive working relationship.
Planning for an Entrepreneurial Firm’s Future (Organizational Change, Coaching, Leadership Development)
This entrepreneurial firm faced had grown significantly and needed significant change in order to be sustainable beyond the founders’ tenure. Leadership realized the organization had grown and was profitable but was unprepared to continue its mission successfully if the founders were not at its core. Working with the leadership team we defined a plan for implementing the changes needed to create a more sustainable organization. These included strategic planning, succession planning, strengthening HR practices to decrease turnover and improve morale and coaching senior leaders to improve their leadership and communication skills.
Working with Cross Functional Teams on Strategic Issues (Strategic Planning)
On this project we began with a leadership retreat that included the extended senior staff from across the company. At the retreat we drafted a statement of purpose, values and vision for the company. From that vision we identified four areas on which to focus strategy development.
Following the retreat we created cross-functional teams led by members of the senior leadership team to further analyze the specific strategy areas, conduct gap analyses define strategies, goals and the first 12-18 months of tactics in support of the plan.
This analysis addressed questions such as:
- Where are we today?
- Where do we want to be in 5 years?
- What is in the gap between today’s reality and the desired future?
Creation of the strategic plan led to a number of critically important strategy changes from ownership including developing a new set of leadership skills and spurring organic growth. It is an important example of the power cross-functional teams working together on the strategic and sometimes intractable challenges businesses face.