Case Studies

Case 1: From expert to leader

Jerry and his partner had built up a market leading technology business. In order to continue to grow with the market they were leading, something had to change. The business needed a new level of financial muscle and market credibility. Jerry was wise enough to see that the old ways of providing leadership were no longer cutting it.

As the coaching unfolded, Jerry realized that his approach to control was sabotaging his leadership. He was living life as a burden: a seemingly unstoppable wave of problems that had to be survived. Their market was set to blow wide open but the prospect of growing the operation hardly looked like fun.

Jerry was a deeply spiritual man. Somehow his work life had become dissociated from his prayer and meditation life, from his desire for transformation and his sense of destiny. We began to heal some of those places of disconnect and rekindle Jerry’s love and care for the people he works with. Where once he was afraid to trust them with tasks he had always felt only he could do, he is now enjoying seeing people flourish and grow as the business grows.

The corporation was successful in forming an alliance with a major multi-national. The operation has grown 300% in short order and is poised for another leap. Thanks to Jerry’s openness to the coaching work, he has walked through all of the typical traumas experienced by rapidly growing organizations—insufficient information to plan properly, crazy busy periods where everyone has to stretch beyond their limitations, interpersonal conflicts, grief at the loss of the old family culture, corporate bosses who don’t understand what it takes to deliver the competitive advantage they crave—taking each challenge as a learning opportunity for him and his colleagues.

Jerry’s partner is amazed at how he has grown to encompass an operation so transformed from what it was less than a year ago. For Jerry, yes there are challenges of course, but the feeling of burden he used to carry is replaced by the pleasure of playing a part in bringing forward the best in the people around him. He graduated from highly skilled expert to become an inspirational leader.

Case 2: From confusion into strength

Lisa is a highly talented management consultant and trainer. She trained top managers and had the sensitivity to unlock deep resources of insight and creativity in people. Her career seemed set to go on to greater and greater heights. Suddenly she hit a wall. Her whole world seemed to collapse around him. She lost the confidence to continue, gave up her consulting practice and began a spiritual quest.

Although she found some help along the way, she also had her hopes betrayed by some charismatic but unreliable characters and other well-meaning folk who did not really understand who she was and what she was looking for. She also did not have an easy time with the men in her life. Lisa was in therapy, using anti-depressant medication and yet she still had the spark that was so obviously the source of the talent that was once so respected.

Lisa embarked on the coaching work in parallel to therapy. She knew that her personal healing was linked to her finding direction for the next phase of her life. Through a series of telephone sessions and personal retreats, we fleshed out Lisa’s options and possibilities. The factors inhibiting her forward movement became apparent.

Of course, everything was interlinked. The challenges in relationship were driven by the same factors that were blocking her creativity and sapping her energy. Lisa was willing to commit to a program that included a potent body-energy practice, deliberate prayer and meditation exercises and learning new ways to approach relationship. Through the coaching work she had the guidance to help meet the challenges that continued to present themselves and, step-by-step, Lisa has found a deep inner strength that is always present for her regardless of the ups and downs of circumstance.

As I write this, Lisa is in the midst of leading her first professional training for many years. She has completed her therapy and come off the medications. She is looking at the rest of her life with positive excitement once again and I am sure many people in the years ahead are going to benefit from what she has to offer.

Case 3: From small business to national brand

When I joined the board, Swan Gully Inc (not the real name) was a relatively small business with 100 employees operating a single property very successfully. The CEO wanted to grow the business but the evident potential was bumping up against both internal and external roadblocks. Stockholders and management were in conflict as to future direction, there was tension between board and the senior executives, the corporate structure made the balance sheet unattractive to outside sources of finance and the magic that made the single property so successful was not understood in way that others beyond the CEO could replicate it in other places.

Through the appointment of David Lesser as an independent director, the stockholders began to relax. They had representation on the board that they could trust. The next step was to convert trust into agreement. Although the CEO had remarkable vision, this corporation had never had a long-term plan. We implemented a carefully crafted business planning process. We began to draw that vision into ten-year development, financial, human resources and marketing plans. The stockholders were able to understand where the business was headed. They agreed to a balance sheet re-structuring, which enabled the corporation to access the outside capital needed to fulfill the plan. At the same time, the board and CEO forged clear agreements about the goals for which management would be measured and compensation was aligned with the core components of the plan.

People did not really believe that the ambitious aims articulated in this plan could all be achieved. Five years into the first ten-year plan, the plan had not merely exceeded the revenue, profit and stock value targets, we had way exceeded them. The new ten-year plan recognized that the business was no longer managing properties but developing a brand.

Now the corporation has opened a number of new properties and its brand is being sought out by other serious players who see how working with Swan Gully can enhance their developments and operations. Now recognized as an established regional brand, opportunities are showing up to make possible this corporation’s emergence as the leading national brand in its segment of the industry.

Case Studies

case 1. from expert to leader

Jerry and his partner had built up a market leading technology business. In order to continue to grow with the market they were leading, something had to change. The business needed a new level of financial muscle and market credibility. Jerry was wise enough to see that the old ways of providing leadership were no longer cutting it.

As the coaching unfolded, Jerry realized that his approach to control was sabotaging his leadership. He was living life as a burden: a seemingly unstoppable wave of problems that had to be survived. Their market was set to blow wide open but the prospect of growing the operation hardly looked like fun.

Jerry was a deeply spiritual man. Somehow his work life had become dissociated from his prayer and meditation life, from his desire for transformation and his sense of destiny. We began to heal some of those places of disconnect and rekindle Jerry’s love and care for the people he works with. Where once he was afraid to trust them with tasks he had always felt only he could do, he is now enjoying seeing people flourish and grow as the business grows.

The corporation was successful in forming an alliance with a major multi-national. The operation has grown 300% in short order and is poised for another leap. Thanks to Jerry’s openness to the coaching work, he has walked through all of the typical traumas experienced by rapidly growing organizations—insufficient information to plan properly, crazy busy periods where everyone has to stretch beyond their limitations, interpersonal conflicts, grief at the loss of the old family culture, corporate bosses who don’t understand what it takes to deliver the competitive advantage they crave—taking each challenge as a learning opportunity for him and his colleagues.

Jerry’s partner is amazed at how he has grown to encompass an operation so transformed from what it was less than a year ago. For Jerry, yes there are challenges of course, but the feeling of burden he used to carry is replaced by the pleasure of playing a part in bringing forward the best in the people around him. He graduated from highly skilled expert to become an inspirational leader.

case 2. from confusion into strength

Lisa is a highly talented management consultant and trainer. She trained top managers and had the sensitivity to unlock deep resources of insight and creativity in people. Her career seemed set to go on to greater and greater heights. Suddenly she hit a wall. Her whole world seemed to collapse around him. She lost the confidence to continue, gave up her consulting practice and began a spiritual quest.

Although she found some help along the way, she also had her hopes betrayed by some charismatic but unreliable characters and other well-meaning folk who did not really understand who she was and what she was looking for. She also did not have an easy time with the men in her life. Lisa was in therapy, using anti-depressant medication and yet she still had the spark that was so obviously the source of the talent that was once so respected.

Lisa embarked on the coaching work in parallel to therapy. She knew that her personal healing was linked to her finding direction for the next phase of her life. Through a series of telephone sessions and personal retreats, we fleshed out Lisa’s options and possibilities. The factors inhibiting her forward movement became apparent.

Of course, everything was interlinked. The challenges in relationship were driven by the same factors that were blocking her creativity and sapping her energy. Lisa was willing to commit to a program that included a potent body-energy practice, deliberate prayer and meditation exercises and learning new ways to approach relationship. Through the coaching work she had the guidance to help meet the challenges that continued to present themselves and, step-by-step, Lisa has found a deep inner strength that is always present for her regardless of the ups and downs of circumstance.

As I write this, Lisa is in the midst of leading her first professional training for many years. She has completed her therapy and come off the medications. She is looking at the rest of her life with positive excitement once again and I am sure many people in the years ahead are going to benefit from what she has to offer.

case 3. from small business to national brand

When I joined the board, Swan Gully Inc (not the real name) was a relatively small business with 100 employees operating a single property very successfully. The CEO wanted to grow the business but the evident potential was bumping up against both internal and external roadblocks. Stockholders and management were in conflict as to future direction, there was tension between board and the senior executives, the corporate structure made the balance sheet unattractive to outside sources of finance and the magic that made the single property so successful was not understood in way that others beyond the CEO could replicate it in other places.

Through the appointment of David Lesser as an independent director, the stockholders began to relax. They had representation on the board that they could trust. The next step was to convert trust into agreement. Although the CEO had remarkable vision, this corporation had never had a long-term plan. We implemented a carefully crafted business planning process. We began to draw that vision into ten-year development, financial, human resources and marketing plans. The stockholders were able to understand where the business was headed. They agreed to a balance sheet re-structuring, which enabled the corporation to access the outside capital needed to fulfill the plan. At the same time, the board and CEO forged clear agreements about the goals for which management would be measured and compensation was aligned with the core components of the plan.

People did not really believe that the ambitious aims articulated in this plan could all be achieved. Five years into the first ten-year plan, the plan had not merely exceeded the revenue, profit and stock value targets, we had way exceeded them. The new ten-year plan recognized that the business was no longer managing properties but developing a brand.

Now the corporation has opened a number of new properties and its brand is being sought out by other serious players who see how working with Swan Gully can enhance their developments and operations. Now recognized as an established regional brand, opportunities are showing up to make possible this corporation’s emergence as the leading national brand in its segment of the industry.