A young CEO of a successful business-to-business company was struggling with his management team. In truth, they were not a team at all, but a group of senior executives pursuing their own agendas. There was very little collaboration or exchange between the executives and they were increasingly unable to launch a concentrated response to challenges. Of particular concern was a recently hired Director of Sales, who bumped heads constantly with this peers. The HR director told me the CEO hired the Director of Sales based on some values and interests they shared with each other, but against the advice of a previous consultant.

I worked with the CEO to help him see the damage this bad hire was doing to his company. Reluctantly, the CEO agreed to terminate the Director of Sales. Then we set about creating a team out of the remaining executives. We needed to replace the Sales Director and add a Chief Operating Officer to the operation. I administered personality assessments to the remaining executives so we could determine where the competency gaps were in the current team. Armed with that information, a job description for the new COO position was written and we launched an employment search. Since we knew the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals on the current management team, we were able to interview for candidates that possessed the character traits needed for success on this team.

The new hires fit very well with the team and because the original team members participated in this process, they were able to start looking past their own agendas and start cooperating with each other.

To start experiencing results like this for yourself, call me at 503-248-2163 to discuss how I can help you build your professional team.