Can You Refer Me to a SpecialGeneralist?
When interviewing the professional service providers we feature in these white papers, I usually hear about specific problems, obstacles, or opportunities their clients might be experiencing. My guests usually describe an accounting, finance, human resource, technology, or other isolated, finite problem. However, when I interviewed our guests for this issue, the problems they described were vague, general, and esoteric. “Our clients often say, ‘I know something’s wrong, but I’m not sure what.’ Others give us a long list of problems that, when we dig into them, reveal themselves as merely symptoms.”
If you’re struggling to identify the real problems your business faces or have implemented endless “fixes” without improving its overall health, let me introduce you to my friends Mike Butler and Aleah Horstman, the business and leadership development gurus behind The Executive Guide.
Mike and Aleah facilitate groups of developing leader peers, help business owners and executives be more purposeful building teams and cohesive organizational cultures, and coach their executive and leadership clients. During our interview, both said that the thing they like most about what they do is seeing radical transformation in their clients.
Aleah shared that their clients are passionate about making their businesses better. Many clients “grew up” performing a trade and have created large organizations of employees who perform those services. However, these clients frequently missed any chance to learn how to lead and inspire a larger organization, and they lack the skills needed to support their companies.
Mike’s favorite consultations involve giving business owners tools they start using immediately to solve problems and watching the leaders and their teams become more cohesive and effective.
Mike and Aleah’s clients describe their own experiences in much the same way. Each client experienced a problem, or several problems, that they couldn’t define. Their pain was great enough to make them seek relief. Most complained that they were working harder than ever but not making more money. No one knew why.
These clients were not alone. Mike pointed out that 80% of American small businesses fail within ten years. Many businesses have high turnover, low morale, or both. Many lack a business plan. Many experience communication or technical problems. Mike and Aleah guide these clients by helping them identify the problems. The simple experience of naming a problem, by itself, can provide the relief and support the client needs to be able to move forward.
A client once shared with Aleah, “I got into this business because I was passionate about it. Now it’s making millions of dollars but I’m not having fun anymore,” Aleah added that many of their clients share this feeling. However, after being on the journey with The Executive Guide, clients sing a different tune, such as, “Mike and Aleah got me unstuck and gave me tools to better deal with problems at work and at home;” “I didn’t really understand how to move my business forward, but now I have a plan;” and “This changed my life, not just my business.”
Mike and Aleah make sure that each client relationship is a good fit and that the client is ready to do the work needed for the change they seek. Aleah says, “We often hear people using words like ‘touchy-feely’ and ‘soft skills’ – but there’s nothing soft about it; this is difficult work.”
Sometimes owners and executives have to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves. For example, an executive’s ego may be getting in the way or the way a client is accustomed to managing people alienates most of their employees. Mike and Aleah are committed to helping, even when they are forced to tell a client what he or she needs to hear when it’s not what the client wants to hear. “It’s challenging,” Aleah says, “but successful people eventually lean into it. That’s when the real change starts.”
Aleah and Mike are both trained in coaching and leadership development using best practices. Both also have lived experience leading organizations. This is part of what makes them different from other consultants – many others haven’t run a business. Most of Mike and Aleah’s coaching is informed by their own experiences doing just that. They’re passionate about partnering with clients to identify problems and help them experience the transformation they need and want.
Mike and Aleah have developed and continue to perfect their own unique approach. They began with curriculum created by Patrick Lencioni more than 20 years ago and offered by The Table Group, and they paired this content with the work of Brené Brown, Adam Grant, and others. Using these resources and drawing from their own experience, Mike and Aleah created their own model. Even though they’ve developed a great process, both emphasized that the most important thing is to meet the client where they are. Mike and Aleah will adapt their process to the client’s needs – except when it comes to skipping steps. “We won’t skip steps,” Aleah pointed out, “because they’re all connected. Everyone starts at the beginning.”
One of the first things they focus their efforts on is the client’s “Clarity Statement” – a succinct, one page statement of the client’s answers to the following questions:
- Who are we?
- Why do we exist?
- How are we different?
- Where are we going?
- What are the values that guide our behaviors?
Mike and Aleah couple developing the Clarity Statement with a “values” exercise that encourages the client to come up with three to four specific core values of their organization. If the client struggles to keep their values to four or less, Mike notes, this is often part of the reason they’re struggling to find cohesiveness within their organization.
Each offered an example of one of their favorite or most meaningful projects. Aleah’s example featured a CEO with a Superman complex and a team that couldn’t function without him. The company was losing money and the CEO was working harder than ever. He fundamentally didn’t understand how to empower the leadership team. Aleah says it took about a year, but eventually the CEO could leave the office early and could take vacations knowing that his team could handle anything. The team became more cohesive, productivity went up, and the company was soon back in the black.
In Mike’s example, a young, ambitious CEO of a fast-growing engineering firm had 14 engineer employees but struggled to find the new talent necessary to continue growing. After working with The Executive Guide, the CEO transformed the organization from a “top-down” structure to a more transparent, collaborative culture. Within nine months candidates were flocking to apply to become part of the company’s great culture.
If they were going to engage someone like themselves, Mike says, they would look for someone with lived experience of what they were trying to coach. He added that while someone in their line of work must be confident in what they provide, they also have to have humility to have complete curiosity, which is necessary to meet the client where they are and craft customized advice and coaching to help each individual client. Aleah added that she would look for someone who walks in with curiosity, rather than who walks in and immediately tells people how to change everything, and someone who is passionate about paying it forward.
For their part, the clients Mike and Aleah are looking for are businesses in small to medium markets, although they’re also confident in larger markets. They have leaders who are committed to the work and a more cohesive organizational culture. To companies working toward stronger teams and better workplaces, they recommend focusing on the emotional health of their leaders and teams, and recommend two books in particular: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, and Leadership is Language by L. David Marquet. If you see a path for your company to thrive with the help of The Executive Guide, please reach out to me. I’d be honored to connect you.
