EXECUTIVE SUPPORT
The future of Executive Support will involve providing an intensely focused crucible for change in the midst of the pressures of the C suite. From here, a profound insight can emerge, and change can begin.
We support executives in three areas:
1. Acting as a sounding board for strategic initiatives.
[ See: Mandarin | Resorts | Hilton | Pelican Hill ]2. Providing individual support to create a breakthrough insight.
3. Working on team building and trust building.
[ See: Innovation paper | Building Trust graphic]
Foundations of C-Level Development
• C-level professionals have more impact than anyone else on the success of the enterprise.
• People at the C level are expected to solve their own problems, but that task is complicated by the isolation and distortion created by C-suite dynamics.
• Executives know what the strategically important issues are, but they tend not to see their own blind spots about those issues.
• Transformation results from free choice that is born of a clear sense of necessity and is made within a properly constructed context—a crucible that encourages and supports change.
A Different Approach
Our approach to executive development puts the executive at the center of the effort, not the consultant or the survey instrument. We begin by requiring the executive to commit to engineering a breakthrough in an issue of specific importance to his or her future. This declaration creates the conditions for productive work. Then, to provide structure for the crucible of transformation, we ask the executive to provide:
• a written statement of the issue;
• supporting facts relevant to the issue;
• the executive’s work history;
• examples of the issue in action, both written and verbal, formal and informal.
We then schedule a turning-point event to support the executive’s decision to engineer a breakthrough. The event is a compressed, high-energy interaction, two to three hours in duration and completely confidential. It is designed to bring one new insight into the executive’s awareness.
Can a single conversation on a clearly focused issue produce the beginning of an important change? Yes. We have been part of such special experiences hundreds of times. We protect the problem-solving dialogue from distorting agendas and extraneous considerations. We know how to sharpen the intensity of focus while maintaining freedom of thought and expression so that a truly creative insight can manifest.
To see brief descriptions of some of our Executive Support projects, click here.