Clients

July 6th, 2017

Who I work with – about my clients


I help leaders achieve positive lasting change in behaviour: for themselves, their teams and their organisation.

I typically work with Chief Executives, Chief Operating Officers, Executive Directors for People and other Executive Directors in all kinds of organisations. My clients are responsible for implementing significant change in their organisation – change that will address a problem that really matters to them – and want external help in making that change.

My clients have achieved success in their careers, which has brought them to senior leadership positions. But the skills and experience that brought them to the top are not enough to help them make the change they need. They may be feeling ‘stuck’. They know that they need to try something they haven’t done before, and they are ready to do that now.

I am a sought-after consultant, and I work with only 3 or 4 consulting clients a year.

Are any of these statements true for you?

Your organisation’s strategy isn’t working. You may have an organisational strategy, but no one ever looks at it and it makes no difference to anyone’s day job. Or the world has changed and your strategy needs to be renewed. Or you are not satisfied with how you have developed your strategy in the past, and you want something more engaging and more effective, that produces a strategy that changes your business for the better.

Your leadership team doesn’t work together. When your team meets, it gets side-tracked and wastes time. Key decisions get postponed. Decisions get ‘unpicked’ or fail to be actioned, and you waste a lot of your time ‘chasing up’ actions. Team members act as independent ‘barons’ in their own areas, and don’t work together as a team.

Your leaders don’t lead change effectively. Successful change depends on influencing and changing people’s behaviour, but your leaders use methods that don’t work. People resist change, wait for the change initiative to blow over, or just keep their heads down. You lose the people you most want to keep, and the promised benefits of change are never fully realised.

You have a problem in an area of the business that just won’t go away. You might have a persistent problem in a particular part of the business, like your customer service team. Or your annual staff survey tells you every year that ‘communication’ is a problem, despite trying one initiative after another. You are not ready to give up, but don’t know what else to try.

Being at the top can feel lonely. All those around you have a vested interest in influencing your decisions: they want a particular outcome. You may report to a board chair or a political leader, but there are some problems that you want to work through first by yourself, before taking them ‘up the line’. You know that talking things through is helpful, but you don’t make enough time to actually do it, and aren’t sure who you can trust.

People don’t tell you bad news until it’s too late. No matter how open you are, those who report to you can be reluctant to give you bad news. You find out about some problems when it’s too late: you could have fixed them with less effort if you had found out earlier. And you suspect that your leadership role means that people don’t always give you the feedback that you need, especially where you might be contributing to a problem. They don’t tell you what you need to do differently, so how can you change?

Who is most likely to succeed with the approach I take to organisational change?

You are more likely to get success in working with me if you:

  • Are committed to personal development. You know that what got you here won’t get you there. You want to continue to grow, learn and apply your learning.
  • Are willing to get help. You expect others to ask for and accept help when they need it, and you expect the same of yourself.
  • Are willing to invest in yourself and in your organisation. You will commit the time, effort and resources into improving your organisation. This includes committing your own time: you are willing to working with me as a trusted advisor, making time to meet regularly.
  • Are open to trying something different. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get the results you’ve always got! You are willing to try something new, even if it feels awkward or uncomfortable at first.
  • Are willing to share your thinking and reflect on your actions. You are willing to examine your own contribution to problems, and take action on them.
  • Are committed to mutually supportive relationships. You know that your success has come in part from the long-term, supportive relationships that you have developed.

If you fit the profile above you are in a good position to approach a critical change. I help leaders like you through exactly that kind of change.  Find out more about how I work.

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