Case Studies
A CEO with internal and external troubles
Mr. Y is the CEO of a small business that has not only survived, but grown rapidly over its first several years. Now, as the company prepares for its next hyper-growth phase; ongoing disagreements with partners and slipping employment retention rates are bleeding to negative customer feedback and PR. All of which threatens the prospect of exponential growth into stagnation. How might Mr. Y hold true to his beliefs and ways that got the company to this milestone?
After conversations with me, Mr. Y came to the realization that his philosophies and methods that successfully grew his business from start-up to now - will not be applicable to the next stage of his company going from a small to medium-sized market player. As organizations grow and mature, their systems, processes and operations must also evolve. This requires the company leadership to evolve first, ideally faster than the organization.
Ongoingly, I am working with Mr. Y to more effectively communicate his vision to his partners and expanding teams. Root differences in approach towards the vision between the partners have all been uncovered and communicated. Strategic milestones are defined with short, medium and longer-term priorities hashed out. Once the company's "why", "what", "when" and "who" have been clarified; Mr. Y incorporated decentralization and bottom-up approaches to allow and encourage front-line teams to come up with the "how" - whilst rapidly field-testing their initiatives and pivoting to achieve clearly defined goals and objectives.
Over the past 2 years we've worked together, Mr. Y's company has expanded 3x headcount, reduced turnover by 2/3s and launched 4 major initiatives in accordance to their product roadmap. More importantly, Mr. Y understands the different perspectives between him, his partners and his team members. He has grown to be at peace with those differences, and focus his energy on effective communications for closer alignments.
The Entrepreneurial Journey of a Business Executive
Ms C is a corporate executive with proven personal achievements and leadership abilities. With this track record, Ms C felt confident to leave her cushy gold-collar job and pursue her dream start-up. However, she wasn't prepared for the major setbacks she encountered taking the company from 0 to 1 with less structure and resources than she was used to in the corporate world. The challenges and stress are starting to strain her relationships with the people she loves. Now Ms C is facing spreading issues from not just her work, but also her family and friends...
We all wear many hats and serve many roles in the social fabric of our various relationships. However, at different times and in different settings, we should emphasize different priorities as we step into our constantly-changing roles.
Over the course of our sessions, Ms C became much better at 'switching gears' as she stepped into different relationships and roles throughout the day. She was able to become more present with each individual interaction, got back to spending quality time with each person and develop even deeper relationships.
Most amazingly, Ms C is much more enjoying her entrepreneurial journey. After all, this is start-up is her passion project and the journey of growth for Ms C. So its all about the enjoying the process of growth towards achievement.
Highly educated full-time mother looking for a sense of value outside the family
Mrs. W is a wonderful mother whom has taken great care of her child full-time since birth. This year, her child attends kindergarten, and she is struggling with what to do with her new-found time while her kid is in school. She worries that working full-time may reduce the quality and time she can give to her child. On the other hand, she yearns to make the most of her free time and regain her own sense of value and personal identity through achievements in the marketplace...
In our conversations, I found that Mrs. W was actually very clear about what she didn't want. Yet, she was not sure about what she wanted, exactly. Together, we identified Mrs. W's priorities by organization her "non-negotiables" (quality time with her child and family), some "nice-to-haves" (social recognition for her market value and achievements) and "unkowns / to-be-discovered" (what market or social impact she'd like to have on others outside of her immediate family). Clearly, there are areas that Mrs. W will continue to explore, but this helped her realize that she had enough information to move forward.
Currently, Mrs. W works remotely at home in a job that offers flexibile hours. She's making the most use of her available time, earning an income and getting back into the pace of the workplace after 3 years as a full-time mom. Meanwhile, we continue to meet up and journey towards uncovering what would make her most joyous and impactful with her "work time" - be it children's education of family nutrition.