Build an effective senior team that can make important strategic decisions together.  A manufacturing company was extremely successful in the boom of the late 1990s, but when the market dropped precipitously in 2000, so did their revenues.  Tension built within the company, especially among the family members in the business, as the economy got worse.  The leadership team believed in the company but had lost its footing.  We brought the family together to craft a vision for the future, and we brought the leadership team together to develop a strategic plan to meet the vision.  Both the family and the leadership team built their ability to communicate clearly and effectively with each other.  They learned to make effective use of information they already had.  Together, they made decisions about where to take the company.  The payoff:  the tension in the family is greatly reduced, the leadership team is focused, and company revenue is growing even though the economy is still slow.

Build accountability for the company vision and strategy.  A manufacturing company successfully created a strategic plan, but questioned whether it would go anywhere.  We put in place an accountability system for creating action plans, implementing them, and making adjustments.  We also trained a facilitator to run the accountability meetings.  Six months later, they continue to follow the accountability system, and are even expanding it to include more people in the company.  The company remains focused and has had significant operational and financial accomplishments.

Successfully transition to a new leader.  A professional services firm was transitioning to a new leader after 19 years with the founding president.  The senior managers were questioning whether the new leader, a company insider, was the right person for the job.  We brought together the senior managers to openly discuss their concerns with the new president and to let him know what they wanted from him as a leader.  The conversation was difficult, but a lot of important issues were brought into the open.  We also coached the new president in expanding his leadership skills.   Today, the leadership team is working together to address the profitable growth of the firm.

Dramatically reduce interdepartmental conflict and instead build support for the company.  “This should be a wonderful place to work, but we have serious morale problems.”  This was what I heard from the president of a service business during our first meeting.  This challenge is faced by many business owners: they’re doing a lot of things right, but day-to-day feel stuck in the mire of people issues.  We coached the president to understand his part in the morale issue.  With our guidance, he then developed a clear vision for the company.  We also held a meeting in which he shared his vision and engaged everyone in identifying how to make the vision happen.  After several years of working together, the owner had unexpected heart surgery and was out for four months.  As he put it:  “Everything ran smoothly.  If this had happened three years ago, there would have been chaos.  Today people know the direction of the business and their role in it.”

Re-build effective partner relationships.  The three partner-owners of a service business had been told by their advisory board that if they did not work out their relationships, they would be out of business in a year.  They had been such good friends when they started the partnership.  Would they be able to get beyond their power struggles and re-capture what they had found so valuable in each other?   We worked with them over a period of four months to help them untangle the challenging knots in their relationship.  At a company retreat, their employees marveled at the changes in partners, and how much better it was to work there.  Two years later, the company is successfully growing.

Shift from a department-wide tactical focus to a company-wide strategic focus.  The owner of a manufacturing company had semi-retired, and the managers, who had grown with the company, had never seen themselves as leaders.  They were focused on their departments’ success, but had no vision for the future of the company.  We brought the managers together and looked at the company as a whole.  With our help, they defined their role as leaders, set a direction for the company, and created a strategic plan.  This was a first for this 23-year-old company, and it paid off in record company growth in the following year.

Significantly increase operating results in unexpected places.  The partner-owners of a manufacturing company were unwittingly leaving money on the table.  They were each responsible for a particular aspect of business, and did not give each other direct feedback or input in each others’ areas unless asked.  Basically, they liked each other, and didn’t want to say anything that could be seen as offensive.  We worked with them on a strategic plan, and in the process, they learned how their communication patterns both helped them and hurt them.  Armed with this knowledge, they began to talk to each other about areas of concern.  One benefit:  they saved tens of thousands of dollars in just a few months on one P&L line item simply by learning to effectively talk to each other when they disagreed.