Developing Your Leaders
The 80/20 principle is alive and well when it comes to getting a return on your investment in leadership. Invest your time and money to develop the best people in your company. That is where you will get the best return on your investment. We work with high-value executives and managers to accelerate their ability to lead, manage, and produce excellent results in challenging situations.
Results
How much would it be worth if your best employees improved in the following areas?
• Step up and take responsibility and ownership for key functions in your company.
• Learn how to work with others to set clear goals and then provide accountability to make sure these goals are achieved.
• Get more organized.
• Manage their time better.
• Communicate more effectively with customers, suppliers, and co-workers.
• Improve relationships with co-workers and customers.
• Free up the time of senior executives by successfully accepting more responsibility.
How Does Leadership Coaching Pay Off?
The broad goal of coaching is always the same: to improve the already meaningful contribution that an executive or manager is making to an organization. The specifics of the coaching program will differ based on the company’s goals and the needs of the individuals involved. Some different leadership development coaching scenarios are:
Leading teams to better results. Star individual performers who now must learn how to lead and manager others. I work with these individuals to learn how to set goals for others, provide accountability, and encourages great performance from their people.
Removing obstacles to team effectiveness. Executives and managers are “difficult but top notch.” They make strong contributions to the business but their interpersonal and communication skills leave other people cold. I work with these individuals to learn how to listen, build trust with others, and communicate that they both value and respond to the opinions and goals of other people.
Achieving measurable goals. An individual in your company is a good performer and has all the potential in the world but needs to increase the clarity and intensity of their focus on achieving key goals. I help to set the right goals for these individuals and then serve as an outside coach who will challenge and encourage them to take their game to the next level.
Retaining key employees. A-Players often leave companies because they are hungry to learn and develop and don’t see opportunities to do so at their current company. I work with these individuals to create a vision and strategy for their career within your company and then work with both the individual and the company to keep them challenged and engaged within your organization.
Why Use A Business Coach?
Using an outside coach to improve an individual’s performance brings fresh perspective and ideas to your company. I am able to get unfiltered feedback from others in the organization. I don’t have my own agenda, and this causes others to trust me quickly and provide me with honest opinions about where and how an individual can improve his or her performance. I am also able to deliver critique and encouragement directly without concern about the affect it will have on ongoing work relationships. Finally, I bring lessons learned from hundreds of companies in over 50 industries to your company and to your people.
Are We A Fit?
If you have a serious interest in improving the effectiveness of your leadership team, you and I will hold a no-fee conversation in which I can learn about your goals and you can learn about my track record and approach. We can see if we are a good fit for one another. If the conversation goes well, I will provide you with a list of references that you can contact prior to engaging me to work with your people.
What Clients Have To Say
‘‘As a sales executive, my responsibilities start with initiating and developing strong client relationships. I also have a responsibility to be an effective leader and coach for my internal team. I found Eric to be a great resource for growing as an internal leader. His approach to coaching is strategic, in that he understands the larger business and organizational issues that affect my team. Eric is personal and practical. He cares that his clients succeed in their careers and in their lives, and this genuine interest comes through in his coaching. Most importantly, he knows how to get results when it comes to people and organizations. I view my work with him as an investment that benefited me and the Bank as a whole.’’
Marilyn Bush
Senior Vice President
Middle Market Banking
Bank of America
‘‘Eric has the unique ability to diagnose problems quickly and accurately. He truly listens to understand and gets to the core issues. He challenges where appropriate and always adds value. Eric helps me be a better thinker.’’
Todd Chandler
Divisional Vice President, Learning and Performance
Helzberg Diamonds
‘‘Eric, I appreciate your being a resource for me over the past two years as I have revitalized Friesen Enterprises. Most successful entrepreneurs know how to surround themselves with talented, effective people and I count you as one such person for me. I have found you to be a great partner in dealing with the leadership and management issues that face a business such as mine. Seeing the business from a distance with the wisdom you bring was so valuable to me. Without it I would have failed to experience this new level of success. Our sessions have been valuable for my own effectiveness as an entrepreneur and leader. I look forward to maintaining our relationship as Friesen Enterprises grows.’’
Ellen Friesen
President
Friesen Enterprises
‘‘We have employed Eric Herrenkohl of Herrenkohl Consulting to help the leadership team of our firm clarify our vision for our company and develop strategies to implement that vision. He has been both a meeting facilitator and coach. We have appreciated Eric’s ability to ask the questions that make us wrestle together with the “big picture” issues so that they truly represent what we want to accomplish. Our firm has already begun to see tangible benefit from the time invested in working through these issues. It has been great to have Eric come along side and provide both an objective critique and encouragement. I could not think of someone who would be a better fit for our firm.’’
David Mastin
President
St. Louis Design Alliance
There is no higher compliment I can pay than asking you to work with Castle’s key person, Mike Myers . . . I can already see results in the areas of management, maturity, and focus. I expect those results to continue, and then we’ll move you along to the next guy in line. Thanks again for your hard work and thought on our behalf. We look forward to continuing our relationship into the future.”
Rich Ledbetter
Chief Operations Officer
Castle Contracting
“We utilized Eric Herrenkohl to create a statement of vision, strategy, and goals for our firm and align our people with these goals. After one year of work with Eric, we have a roadmap that clearly defines where our firm is heading, how we are going to reach our goals, and why those are the right goals for our firm. We feel that our improved organizational structure better supports the achievement of these goals. Our new, common sense plan has been quickly and effectively implemented as a result of Eric’s expertise. We appreciate his involvement with M+H and look forward to having an ongoing relationship with him as the firm grows.”
Larry Mitchell and Mark S. Hugeback
Principals
M+H Architects Inc.
“Eric, thank you for your participation in the spring 2005 Milhouse & Neal Breakfast briefings. Your presentations on leadership were very strong. Our clients appreciated the fact that you combine cutting-edge knowledge about the field of leadership development with practical lessons and anecdotes from your work with clients. In addition, the use of the on-line Leadership and Management assessment added a lot of value to the seminar. Everyone clearly enjoyed learning more about themselves! And, each person walked out of the session knowing how to apply the material to his or her own immediate business challenges. So, thank you again, and we look forward to doing more work together in the future.”
Mark O. Neal
Partner
Milhouse & Neal Certified Public Accountants and Consultants
"I have realized that everyone can benefit from a strong, experienced outside person to provide insight, perspective, and accountability. Eric has a very strong and broad business background, and I have been able to benefit from the lessons he has learned working with other strong executives. I know that I have been able to use Eric to develop my knowledge and discipline in areas like leadership, time management, sales psychology, and personal focus. He is a strong person, but is enjoyable to speak with. I highly recommend him.”
Mark Neumann
Managing Director
Northwestern Mutual Financial Network
"I've known Eric for many years and whether in formal training settings or informal coaching sessions, he always seems to boil things down to a something that is easy to remember and actionable. Eric provides concise, clear practical advice that can be implemented immediately. I like that he takes the times to learn about my business so that he can condense all the theory into easy-to-follow best practices and good professional habits."
Richard Ryffel
Managing Director -Investment Banking
Edward Jones
‘‘Eric, you did a great job of helping me to simultaneously achieve my business and personal goals. You were honest and challenging but encouraging. I appreciate the fact that you started our work by working to understand me – my strengths, my goals, and my weaknesses. You are highly professional in that you worked quickly and effectively to enable me to achieve my goals – I never felt that you were dragging the process out in order to extend the amount of time that I worked with you. Most importantly, even after our coaching has ended I am operating at a higher level of effectiveness than I was when I started working with you.’’
Tim Salzman
Investment Representative
Edward Jones
"The personal vision setting process that Eric guided me through far exceeded my expectations. Working with Eric helped me to not only identify my true motivators and talents . . . but also enabled me to understand the role that a person’s attributes play in business. With this knowledge I will easily be able to communicate a clear and accurate picture of the business and personal value I bring to any organization."
Jeffrey Topel
Territory Services Leader
IBM
“Eric, thank you for your coaching work with one of our key managers over the past year. I have seen a big improvement in her effectiveness as a recruiter and a manager as a result of your work with her. Her effectiveness as a leader has noticeably improved, as have her abilities to prioritize and focus. She also is proactively coming up with valuable ideas for our sales meetings, which helps every realtor in our office be more productive.
Most importantly, she is now consistently producing good recruiting results. I now feel comfortable giving her more latitude without an undue amount of involvement from me. The investment I have made with you in coaching has been well worth it. I would highly recommend this process to other business owners who are trying to develop a key person in their organization.”
Maryann Vitale, GRI CRB
Broker/Owner
Prudential Select Properties