You know those consultants that sound like they’re reading Peter Drucker and management bestsellers to you? The ones that you’re pretty sure have never actually led anything. We know you’ve probably hired them; in our distant past lives, we did too. Since that time, we’ve learned a lot of lessons and many organizations to profitability and success. We’d like to share some of what got us there with you. 

 

Leadership starts with a lot of qualities that sound like buzzwords, of which we’ll mention just one: execution. We believe leaders are developed through activities that teach these qualities without having to say them. Our approach to leadership training can sometimes be a little unorthodox: some of our best leadership coaches will do anything for a mackerel. We often take clients to the zoo, where they’ll work together to teach dolphins new tricks, and choreograph complex maneuvers between several of our water-dwelling, fish loving leadership instructors. Learning to lead by doing instead of just telling. 

 

Other times, we observe our clients in the workplace, and relate advice to situations we observe, and then coach them through it. We help improve leadership among our clients by acting, not by preaching. One thing is almost always true: our clients have fun learning how to be better leaders.  

 

We help organizations engineer leadership development programs retain their top talent and turn potential into performance. Unlike other leadership programs or corporate universities that mostly focus on training and coaching, we focus on implementing game-changing strategies, innovating for the future and transforming the corporate culture. We don’t teach you abstract concepts or cheerleading, we help you solve concrete problems and think in an entirely new way. 

 

We developed the “Emotionally Intelligent Leader” workshop for a pharmaceutical client who needed advanced leadership development for their veteran managers. Managers who had already been through all their core management training and needed to continue to develop specific leadership competencies. We helped them relearn how to listen, and how to relate to their employees in a different way than they were used to. We received feedback from several of the people who went through the class that it improved their personal relationships as well as the way they related to employees. In other words, we helped them live emotional intelligence. 

 

We specialize in creating leadership experiences that you can’t find anywhere else.  When leaders and executives come together for a 3-day off-site conference, they can’t spend the whole time in a windowless classroom.  So we create experiences like “Working with Dolphins” to learn how trainers coach and motivate dolphins and how those tools and technique work with humans as well. 

 

A senior financial services firm told us that a group of their senior consultants were getting ready to be made partner. They wanted to create an executive coaching program to develop the skills and the executive presence that creates successful partners. We put that program together, and then stayed to help those consultants into their new role. Not one of them failed to make the transition.  

 

The engineering and marketing departments at Australian Gold were having communication problems. You know, the same communication problems that engineering and marketing always have: engineering thinks marketing puts lipstick on pigs and creates no real value, and marketing thinks engineering should be shut in a work room with Doritos and Mountain Dew to come up with new products. Leave everything else to the brilliant marketers... 

 

We implemented the The Birkman Method™ to help executives and team members understand themselves and each other better. The results were better teamwork, improved communication and more honest conversations in every meeting. They started working together, with marketing helping to develop better products, and engineering crafting messages that spoke to client needs.

 

A non-profit organization came to us to assess their board, clarify their “roles and responsibilities” and create a governance structure.  We defined boundaries for over/under-involvement, developed decision-making tools to increase engagement without micro-managing, and helped them strategize for organizational change in turbulent times. They weathered huge funding cuts and created new sources of revenue soon after. 

 

When an insurance company realized that many of their top officers were retiring over the next five years, they came to us to develop a succession plan. We assessed the “readiness” of their current candidates, clearly defined outcomes for the future success of the organization and built a plan to bridge the gap. Their leadership looks a little younger today, but they lead with the confidence and knowledge of battle hardened veterans, and the organization keeps growing. 

 

 

 

 

Have a different issue? Do any of these situations sound like something your organization needs? Contact us. Do you have an entirely different problem? We can help with that too, we have over 200 years of leadership experience between us, plus or minus some trench warfare. Tell us your problem, and we’ll tell you if we’re the right people to craft a solution.