Business Relationship Coaching

Believing a relationship problem will go away on its own or providing premature and shallow apologies doesn’t go very far in re-establishing trust, especially in the face of marital indiscretion, or a betrayal by a business partner.  How can you stabilize a relationship in crisis when you don’t really know what happened to get you there? Or you no longer can trust what was really real in your relationship?  Transition By Design can help you realize a clear path forward.  Imagine having difficult conversations confidently in a productive way, while actually still being able to be supportive of your partner’s efforts in re-building that trust—yes, accountability included!   No trust, no relationship.  Trust is fundamental to relationships. Imagine making real and meaningful repairs with a multi-faceted process that supports the repair going forward and getting to know your partner all the more deeply for it.  Don’t give up too soon.  Often, partners are breaking up just as they can be on the verge of really making up.  Give your Transition By Design work a shot and ALL your relationships will benefit.

Life is kind of funny that way:  you’ll have more opportunities to learn those lessons if you don’t learn them now.  (Actually, it’s not funny at all, reliving the same pain with the next significant relationship, like Ground Hog Day.)

No Trust.  No Relationship.  

In the event that your business partner is also your spouse, you have the added complication of transitioning your relationship from the bedroom to the boardroom and back. What percentage of your partnership is marital? What percentage is your business partnership? More often than not, the business will overrun the marriage. How does this dual role affect your decision-making processes in each arena? Transition By Design will help you find solutions on the business side as well as the marital side. You know you are in trouble when your children complain that they never see you, and you start feeling disconnected from the rest of your family as well. Imagine the calmness and wellbeing you will feel when you start emotionally connecting with your family relationships again! Your business will benefit too. 

To assist individuals and organizations to navigate and implement change, where leadership wants to expand their leadership----and wants to feel MORE in charge of their change process by the end of our work together. To support financial goals of the organization by resolving issues and dilemmas which drive less-than-desirable productivity and profitability. To help individuals and organizations create access to imperative organizational/client/ &market information while in a change process. To teach higher level diagnostic and intervention skill sets where invisible (or nearly invisible) organizational dynamics are interfering.

• Diagnostic Interviewing
• Advanced Group Diagnostics & Facilitation
• Administrative, Career, and Therapeutic Intervention & Transition Consultation (at personal, professional, and organizational levels of change)
• Work Systems/Cultural & Family Systems/Community Systems Change Strategies
• Business/Organization Development & Change Dynamics Management
• Pre-Emptive Conflict Resolution in the Workplace (& within Partnerships or between Leaders/Board Members or other key members) to facilitate simply getting unstuck---and certainly before legalized “Mediation” or “Arbitration” must be required----or expensive legal action taken
• And most importantly: Creating Access to Imperative Organizational / Client/ & Market Information while in a Change Process

1) In general, that any desired change begins with the leader of change and begins with shifts of perspectives inside the leader’s skin---i.e. change does not just begin with a goal or a directive or a financial plan.
2) Also, that the inevitable dilemmas which come up in change work are fundamentally DRIVEN BY relationships and must also be resolved by processes and relationships, not just by “decisions” made by leadership.
3) That (ironically) over-focusing on relationships (in the form of certain individuals) makes organizations overlook the imperative information that these relationships are revealing to the organization about ITself, ITS clients, or ITS market. Therefore, the imperative becomes how to access organization/client/market information from these relationship dilemmas that will shine a light on the best course of action for all involved---& that will result in multiple win scenarios for org/staff/&clients.
4) That, having the “right people on the bus” is often a career/business related concern that also may be “on the table” when the organization finds out it has inadvertently created the wrong job description OR filled a right one with the wrong talent OR has the right talent in the wrong place. (This point is, however, far more infrequent that the ones ---#1, #2, #3--- preceding it.)
5) That in the case of closely-held corporations &/or family-owned businesses, there is usually a family influence/dynamic that can confuse, block, or help to navigate normal organizational and business dynamics & processes. In either case, the owners need to know what works and what doesn’t----& especially what DOES work!
6) That in the #5 scenario above, family systems and organization systems/dynamics can and DO interfere with each other----esp. without specific boundaries that help one to not interfere with the other.
7) That especially for leaders (& their key players) who come from addictive (or dysfunctional) family systems, they need to access and shift certain family “scripts” and “rules” which unwittingly are sabotaging business success.

1) The work is to help key individuals identify the layers of dilemmas in their own individual “silos,” be able to exchange information in such a fashion as NOT to scapegoat (over-focus on one person) or split the organization (cause loyalty dilemmas in which members feel forced to choose sides).

2) These dilemmas are shared in such a non-defensive manner as to create mutual non-blaming interest in each other’s dilemmas---in order to access the imperative information about the org./client/market described above.

3) The goals may shift or stay the same. The perspectives and the approach will probably shift at this point.

4) If appropriate, the lead strategist in that area may help leadership to update the company scorecard to reflect new information and variances on goals.

5) For longevity and maintenance, the new relational culture plan needs to be installed into the organization via systems practices.

1) Frustrations & delays are treated before expensive “conflict” breaks out.
2) Organizations and employees are spared the stress and expense of letting persons go, when the dilemmas found end up belonging to the position, not the person. The organization quickly re-stabilizes with minimal “damage control.”
3) Projects move forward with greater substance, effectiveness, &/or more efficient completion.

1) The work is profoundly accelerated and enhanced---positively impacting ongoing cost and revenues (typically by at least hundreds of thousands of dollars & usually millions).
2) Enhanced goals function to bring about more superior results (especially regarding speed and quality) than anticipated by earlier projections.
3) While TBD is usually working only with core leadership, the masses and the volume of business expectations (& results) are elevated and OWNED by key players and their support networks which drive the larger corporate revenues.
4) The organization becomes a superior culture to work in, manifesting great intensity of loyalty and accountability from its key players and supporting staff.
5) Once relationships experience the power to resolve their own business dilemmas, leaders apply these advanced skill sets to next challenges & mentor these advanced skill sets through the ranks and divisions.

Multiple owners of a company where one division has been tanked by the economy are in a crisis regarding how to function as a company AND as a partnership. They use the above TBD process to re-invent their company & adjust the partnership accordingly. Resulting in a multiple “win” scenario for each partner. Long term impact is the survival of the company, the relationships that created it, and the creation of company direction both increasing profits and reducing dead overhead.

Multiple partners see opportunities for a market niche with a new big client and a new partner. They use the TBD process to accelerate finding strengths and weaknesses in their new corporate set up. Resulting in completely overhauling their expectations and interests in pursuing this market niche----& aligning new expectations with “here & now” operations decisions. Long-term impact was making partner corrections very early in their partnership experience to free them up to meet revenue goals & release one partner from a poorly matched role. Partnership shifts made, again, with multiple “win” scenarios for each partner.

Couple-owned business initiates second major business expansion which dangerously stresses their core management team. Owners use the TBD process to uncover key information about the impact of this expansion on the total business and make shifts to protect their investment as well as retain their key staff. Long term impact was the successful completion of the expansion transition and keeping the management team intact---while increasing revenues beyond expectations due to uncovering imperative information earlier on that the stress points were trying to show the key players.

Large company needs to meet financial goals & new financial strategies. Leadership uses this TBD process to access ongoing imperative information which the new strategic plan has set in motion. Stand-Stills and Delays are mined to uncover dilemmas which are then used to evolve advanced strategic questions. Leadership uses these non-blaming and non-defensive questions to engage the key relationships to resolve the delays. Long-range impact was not only revenue producing, but significantly calmed the anxiety in the work system----so as not to be so quick to hold up or paralyze the system in the future.

New leadership in an organization wants to transition the organization to new values and mission statement while minimally interrupting current revenue production. New leader uses the TBD process to shift his/her perspectives about how to change his organization and how s/he needs to shift critical conversations to produce next steps that others now take “ownership” of---one conversation at a time. Work focused first on leader and client-focused goals, then on key opinion makers, then on alliances and processes for client-centered services. Process created clarity for leader on which “dead wood” to clean up &/or clear out of the organization, while not threatening, but rather, cementing productive relationships with loyalty and mutual accountability to the new values and mission statement. Longer term impact was that financial goals were accelerated over a shorter time because of the increased level of confidence from which new leader made and implemented decisions. Accountability within any one critical conversation was born to live a long life in this organization.