CEOs hire us to help them solve their people problems and organizational issues so they can work on their business and not just in their business. We show CEOs how to get what they want from their business by helping them identify and solve the different day – same problem bottlenecks that stifle growth.
No one starts a company because they love running a business. They get into business because they are passionate about an idea, a concept, filling a need, and/or making a return on their investment. The bureaucracy of managing a growing enterprise sometimes gets in the way of that growth and things stall out. The simple yet proven tools we share with our clients allow the CEO and the leadership team to get a handle on the complexity caused by increasing head counts and get back to growth.
Our proven process involves three steps: People, Issues, and Traction.
The People component starts with the CEO day. This is a day spent with you, the CEO and/or owner, to understand your goals and thoughts on your company. It is also a day for us to get to know each other in order to understand if we would work together well. Other than the investment of your time, it is a free day. Whether we agree to do business or not you will get a lot out of the day including a complete debrief on your strengths and challenges as a leader. The feedback is objective and actionable.
Understanding the strengths and challenges of the leadership team is the next part of the People process. We do in depth interviews and debriefs with each senior leader. Does what we hear confirm what you believe to be true? Is there alignment? Where is there misalignment? What issues does the team think are the most important to solve now? In what order? Who are the employees that are critical to success? Who might be getting in the way? Is there trust? What is the level of talent on the leadership team? Is the leadership team capable of solving the issues facing the company?
The Issues component brings you and your leadership team together to go through our proprietary Stages of Growth X-Ray. The X-Ray uncovers the ‘hidden agents’ that are creating obstacles to your company’s growth. It is based on research done by James Fischer, featured in his book Navigating The Growth Curve, on over 650 successful small businesses. You’ll compare your past, present, and future stages of growth to the study group allowing you and your senior leaders to work from a proven structure for growth and to anchor your initiatives in concrete outcomes.
The Stages of Growth X-Ray process identifies real issues based on factual, objective insight through the use of self-diagnostic tools and assessments. It provides a step-by-step process to engage your entire company in the planning process once key initiatives are created and shared with employees. This becomes your strategic plan and this unique approach creates unparalleled alignment and focus across your company.
The Traction component is where the rubber meets the road. We work to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System to ensure all of the initiatives are effectively and efficiently completed. EOS, created by Gino Wickman and featured in his book Traction, is the most practical and easy-to-implement operating system for small businesses that we have found. Gino created EOS by repackaging proven concepts from business thought leaders like Michael Gerber (The E-Myth Revisited), Verne Harnish (Mastering the Rockefeller Habits), Patrick Lencioni (The Advantage), and others, while adding in a few of his own proprietary ideas.
Whether you realize it or not, you already have an operating system in place at your company. It is how you are doing business today. It has evolved over time, usually without intention. Implementing EOS enables you to be intentional with how you run your business. EOS allows you, as the CEO, to step out of the daily operations so that your team is accountable to the system and not you.
Our proven 3 step process makes you the hero of the story.
Our goal is to give you the tools you need to scale your business and then get out of your way. Our process gives you the right tools at the right time to address your unique needs.
No company is the same. The number of employees, the level of development of your leadership team, the degree of team health and engagement, the level of trust between teammates, your industry, your competition, your capitalization, and much more all make for unique challenges. Our process takes the time to identify where you and your company are so that we can give you the exact tools you need for the challenges you are facing given your particular stage of growth.
We do this work on a monthly basis. This monthly work involves one full day in your or our office and weekly phone calls. The 30 day rhythm is the most efficient means to meet the agreed upon success outcomes. It keeps the work top of mind. It also allows us to act as your accountability partner each month to make sure that you and your team are doing the necessary day-to-day work. We are also always on hand for calls in between scheduled sessions when needed.
The days we are together in the office will be used to accomplish whatever goals we identified in the Stages of Growth X-Ray. One month it might be strategic planning work or organizational restructuring planning. The next month might be a team building communication workshop or a role definition session. We could use the time to read resumes and help interview candidates for a critical hire. Eventually, it will involve implementing EOS. Whatever you need, we will address it as part of our monthly work.
The retainer program also means that we are available “on-call” for those emergency situations that sometimes pop up. Our goal is to be a valuable resource for you no matter the timing, even if it falls outside of that month’s main hours. We are a firm of two people so we limit the number of clients with whom we work. This allows us to dive deep into each relationship and be available when our clients need us.
Our 3-step process – People, Issues, Traction – is a proven and comprehensive way to ensure your business is on sound footing. It will allow you to solve your people problems, build a team in which you can trust, delegate with confidence, plan for perpetuation or an exit, and usher in your next level of growth.
Engagements typically run between 18 and 24 months. Our mission is to provide value at every step of the process creating an excellent return on your investment. Either party may cancel at any time.
Some clients prefer to work solely on a project basis, where we are focused on a specific issue that can be addressed in a finite amount of time with clearly defined outcomes.
A few examples of our project work include:
Role Clarity – Here we look at a specific role within the company. Usually there has been high turnover in this role or a current employee in the role is causing disruption in the organization. We work with your company’s Subject Matter Experts to explicitly define the role to ensure that the expectations for the role are clearly laid out, setting the employee up for success.
Team Building – Working with Behavioral Assessments, we bring the team together to better understand their own styles of working and those of their co-workers. We facilitate multiple exercises to improve communication and build a feeling of camaraderie. Everyone leaves with a better understand of how they can work more effectively with their team.
Core Values Definition – A company can become listless and apathetic if it doesn’t have a set of clearly defined core values to guide its decisions and actions. Core values are already present in every company, so this project is really more a matter of uncovering and naming those values. We work with the senior leadership team to do just that and then help to roll them out to the company.
Individual Leadership Coaching – We have worked with many individuals over the years to help them become the best leaders that they can be. We use a series of diagnostic tools, including assessments, 360s, and interviews, to determine where the leader is currently and develop a plan of action to help them grow. We then meet with the individual on a regular basis to discuss progress and help remove obstacles.
5 Dysfunctions of a Team Workshop – There is no better exercise to improve the effectiveness of a leadership team. It is a comprehensive undertaking designed to eliminate the politics within the team, make members more accountable, and improve results of the organization.
This is not an exhaustive list as we have also worked on many custom projects for clients.
