It’s not only important to listen but also to prove that you are listening. ~Mike Lehr
Consulting applies to firms and individuals, to leaders and others. The focus is on internal business cultures and politics. If organization, ideas and processes are the bricks, culture and relationships are the mortar. Mike is gifted in overlaying these over any structure.
With that focus, we often help firms carry out their:
- Strategic plans
- Process improvements
- IT implementations
- Mergers, acquisitions and consolidations
- High-growth strategies
These situations result in one or more of these types of consulting engagements:
- Business Cultures
- Teams
- Executives and Managers
- Key Employees
- Individuals
Since our focus is on culture and internal politics, It is not unusual for us to partner with professionals in these areas:
- Accounting
- Information Technology
- Business Consulting
- Management Consulting
- Human Resources
- Organizational Development
- Process Improvement
- Executive and Personal Coaches
- Specialized Training (i.e. technical, legal, regulatory, sales, service)
Types of Consulting
Business Cultures
This is an enterprise-wide view. We are usually asked to:
- Define and establish a culture
- Change a culture
- Leverage a culture to implement a specific change
Teams
These are team building efforts within a team or among two or more teams. These teams often cross multiple reporting lines. Internal politics is more the focus here. We identify those relationships. We identify friction points that could retard collaboration. We create plans to leverage relationships and minimize friction points.
Executives and Managers
Many times our consulting activities with executives and managers come into play with our work with teams. The focus is the internal politics they must manage. These are the relationships inside and outside their teams. We identify relationships. We identify friction points that could retard collaboration. We then advise executives and managers on leveraging relationships and minimizing friction points. We create individualized plans for each of their important relationships.
Key Employees
We work with employees that have high-valued skills and talents to the business. It is not unusual for them to suffer from internal politics. They often require leadership or relationship skills. Their experience might not have prepared them well for using such skills. As with executives and managers, we advise them on each of their important relationships. We create individualized plans for managing them.
Individuals
Employees hire and work with us directly. Their relationship is with us. Our work with them is similar to key employees. It does differ though because we might not have free access to the company. Mike’s questioning and personality assessment skills help us here though. He can assess relationships even though he has not met the people.
Process
Our consulting process has seven steps. We use it for all our consulting types. We apply it fluidly and integratively.
- Acquire information and insights
- Assess situation
- Advise on options and recommendations
- Ascertain decisions
- Act on those decisions
- Adapt to initial results
- Again work the process
Deliverables
Our other Services Pages detail our deliverables. They are stand-alone services too. Generally, they take the following forms:
- Assessments: culture, internal politics, relationships and personalities
- Training: leadership, relationship building and leveraging, influencing, problem solving and others
- Facilitation: brainstorming, team building, planning, conflict management
- Documentation: internal communications strategies, plans, surveys, questionnaires and others
- Program Management: managing the internal politics and coordination of several projects
- Contract Employment: long-term talent on an ad hoc basis
