Business Performance Improvement, People Performance, Management Consulting, Leadership and Personal Development, Executive Coaching

Results You Can Expect to Achieve with Lamplighter

• Dramatically increase revenue and profit margins
• Increase productivity and performance throughout the organisation
• Build Executive Team Cohesion and High Performance
• Dramatically improve personal communication and persuasive leadership
• Develop and achieve strategic improvement and initiatives, with greater employee commitment
• Build leaders within the organisation
• Provide capability for strategic succession planning and human capital development
• Drive performance with core key performance indicators
• Re-engage employees and develop loyalty
• Create robust change with increased motivation and decreased disruption
• Grow business and market share
• Increase prospect and client base
• Increase leadership effectiveness
• Decrease stress
• Decrease business disruption

Case Studies

Case Study 1: Executive Team Realignment - Breathing Life into a Senior Leadership Team

The Situation

The Senior Executive of this large Perth organisation (over 500 staff) had had a major shakeup. The Board had appointed a new CEO to give the organisation a major redirection and solve damaging problems.

The organisation had a decades’ long history of leadership in their industry, but damaging incidents and a lack of positive leadership had weakened the effectiveness and perception of the organisation across its stakeholders.  Various executives were insular and defensive, protecting themselves against highly political, aggressive and manipulative behaviours from a history of organisational leaders.

The Program

We were invited to give our advice on the restructuring of the corporate hierarchy, hiring of one of the new General Managers and other organisational initiatives.

Following that, we profiled the executive, providing management recommendations directly to the CEO on how best to maximise the strengths and manage the weaknesses of the new team.  We then designed and delivered two days of Executive Development, partially based on our understanding of the executives involved and on our processes for collaboratively developing senior leadership teams.

The stipulated outcome of the workshop was to bring the new Executive together as a team, educating them on positive team behaviours, and to prepare them for future achievement and the challenging months and year ahead.  We aimed to break through many years of conditioning that bred mistrust and a lack of transparency and communication at all levels.

The workshop needed to negotiate sensitive issues and repercussions from the organisation’s immediate history and set the executive on a path to rebuilding the whole organisation’s effectiveness and reputation.

The Results

The Senior Executives commented that the Development days were the best they had ever had in their experience.  Not only did we reaffirm the purpose of the leadership, the standards and expectations for their conduct, their commitment to working together as a team, but we were able to recast the organisation's Vision and Mission in a way that motivated the team to work together to achieve outstanding results.

We established charters for their standards and behavioural expectations as a team, determined optimal meeting and collaborative principles and created an ideal vision for their operation as a team and as leaders.

Additional senior staff were invited to the final portion of the workshop to contribute to the Vision and direction of the organisation.  Through our facilitation, the executive and senior leadership were able to achieve extraordinary results within a short time period.

The CEO commented months later that our work caused the team to function together in an extremely effective fashion and publicly thanked Lamplighter Performance Consulting during the organisation's AGM for making the organisation stronger and more successful.

We were further invited to consult on the development and review of a strategic directions research project that is helping to direct the growth of the organisation over the next five to ten years.

 

Case Study 2: SME Makeover - Lifting Results, Reducing Turnover and Creating a Loyal Workforce

The Situation

An established market leader had grown from a one-person outfit a decade ago to an industry leader with an average 40% revenue growth every year.  The company had exceptional product, but there were many issues facing the company, including: high staff turnover (hovering at 90% annually), uncontrolled expansion and business results that had the company operating right at the break-even point (or under) every year.

The Program

We began with an executive level People Performance Audit - examining over 220 specific items of people performance within the company.  Conducted with the MD and senior personnel, this identified priority areas for company development and provided a plan for implementing performance improvements.

We began a six-month consultancy that focused on coaching the MD in leadership and overall business development, while developing and implementing systems to improve performance of all personnel across the group.  This program utilised our 7-Step Performance Improvement System™, working with all aspects of business and people performance.

We profiled every employee in this professional company, in order to determine job suitability and provide recommendations in job design, placement and team functioning.

Even during the profiling process, the Operations Manager commented on how we were already solving thorny people problems through our discussions with staff.  Within two months, staff were already demonstrating a much higher degree of commitment to higher performance.  In conjunction with other initiatives in the company, the company had the prospect of 30% profit margins for the first time in its history and the real anticipation of doubling annual revenue within a short period.

We coached the MD on ways to re-engage, motivate and interact with her staff, thereby decreasing her stress and helping her to achieve more effective results.

We built on the progress already made by designing a custom employee engagement and performance survey for all staff to provide further direction for management and to increase engagement for all staff.  The results of this survey were used to direct further performance improvements across the group.

This was immediately followed by a team day for all staff, designed and facilitated by Lamplighter Performance Consulting.  The team day focused on conveying the owners' vision for the company and then co-creating a vision for the development of the group and for higher levels of professionalism.

Through this day, staff came to see how much their own goals and purpose mirrored that of the company as a whole.  As a result, staff were excited and started to immediately take even greater initiative in growing the company.  Additionally, further professional standards for all staff were developed and then contracted for all staff.

The development day also highlighted staff issues that were able to be immediately followed up and resolved to the benefit of all parties.

The MD commented that they had never had positive results like this from previous staff days, nor that they could even remember a time when the company was going so strong. The MD was even confident enough to be able to announce a phased retirement as Managing Director and the succession of the new Managing Director, using the Staff Day as a starting point for the new MD. This succession was not something the MD had been able to hope for when we started the consulting engagement.

During the staff day, we also trained the staff in approaches to performing as a team under pressure. Shortly afterwards, the company went through one of its worst crises, brought on through a combination of factors.  Due to the training we had conducted and our coaching with the MD, all hands were brought on board in a structured and clear process.  The company successfully worked through the crisis, with higher morale and better results than ever before.

Through the profiling and development processes, we were able to point to and develop leaders within the organisation, as well as to create tailored recruiting processes and tools that allow the directors to hire high performers to develop the company and achieve greater profitability.

The Results

Over the course of 6 months, results included:

• Substantial increase in revenue (client unwilling to disclose publicly) and the achievement of 30% profit margins and reaching of target budgets for the first time in the company’s history.
• Resilient performance through a crisis with the potential to derail the company,
• Development of critical motivating performance indicators across the group,
• The identification of underperforming and unmotivated staff and resolution of their performance issues,
• Re-engagement of all staff,
• The development of loyal and effective leaders within the organisation,
• Improved life balance for the directors,
• Decreased stress for directors,
• Substantially decreased staff turnover – high performers remained loyal and engaged,
• A transition and succession plan for the MD, and
• Standardised recruiting processes that continue to help the organisation hire high performers who are the right people for the right job,
• Improved morale, performance and satisfaction (with associated rewards and bonuses) for all staff.
• (The company love us! :)

[The client has since won the 2010 Family Business Australia (WA) 2nd Gen Business of the Year Award] 

Workshops

Socratic Dialogues - Generating Change through Questioning

Socratic Dialogues are the use of questioning techniques to bring about change or to teach an individual.

The power of this technique lies in the fact that it works with where people are and subtly yet confidently leads them to accept your inescapable conclusion.  Listeners and stakeholders develop an unwavering certainty of your conclusions and realise that their own thinking has led them to that conclusion.

Senior Management at one of the world’s leading iron ore companies were confronted with the challenge of implementing profound change across their organisation.  Lamplighter coached staff in change initiation and management techniques, using our Socratic Dialogue Workshop.

Comments from participants:

"Very interesting, enjoyable and [a] source of knowledge and skills that would be beneficial for a wide range of applications (not just limited to work)."

"I will never go into a meeting again without this [method]!"

"I can see how I can apply this not just at work. Things are going to be different at home as well!"

Executive Development

Executive Development for the Senior Leadership Team of a major Perth-based organisation. The senior executive needed to build their leadership and team capacity and plan for a period of tremendous change and growth in their organisation.

Comments included:

“I usually find the exercises in workshops ‘horrible’ and dread them, but we were given time to talk and explore – it was the best I’ve been to. . . . I’m really excited about working as part of this team and the things we may achieve as a group. Great – Thank You.” - GM

“I found that we are already applying the ideas and skills, not having to go away and try to put it together – it was very valuable. . . Your knowledge of our organisation was a real asset.” - GM

“Thank you for your obvious passion and expertise.” - GM

“Brilliant. . . . We will ‘grow’ both individually and organisationally from this. . . . we [now] have a very clear sense of our strengths and weaknesses. . . . We are a different team than we were two days ago!” – CEO

In an unsolicited email the CEO stated . . .

“Peter, hi, The impact of the executive development is very noticeable. It has had an impact and the impact will last. . . . . The team has bonded – and thank you so much for making that happen.”

Authentic Speaking®

Authentic Speaking® is our 2-day Public Speaking Coaching Workshop (also available as executive coaching for advanced private development.)

Some comments from participants:

“I [now] have the skills and knowledge to speak with confidence and engage my audience on a level I never knew existed.  Not only am I speaking with confidence, I have learnt the necessary skills to engage an audience on all different levels.” – Stephanie Soter, CEO, Joblink

“To be honest, I came to this workshop with nothing prepared. I didn’t put in any effort to prepare and wanted you to do all the work because I was doubtful. But the results that you have achieved and what people have achieved in these two days is incredible.” – Dr. Jonathan Heim, Senior Geologist, Rio Tinto

“Really enjoyed it. Just what I needed! I overcame my fears . . . I got out of it everything I wanted and more.” - Karen Petrovski, Red Cross

Visit our Authentic Speaking® website for more.

Keynote Speaking

Marketing and Business Growth Seminar

A keynote delivered for Response Marketing Solutions’ Annual Graduate Conference – Dec 08

“We recently held an Advanced Marketing Workshop for over 105 Business Owners in which we invited Peter McLean to talk about Performance Consulting and People Productivity. I was most impressed, as were our clients, with the level of ideas, strategies and insights that Peter was able to share within a short presentation. The impact of his presentation was fantastic. During the break, I and other team members were inundated with requests to speak further with Peter, with recognition for his concepts and ideas. I highly recommend Peter in any presentation he may do for other organisations or companies, as he certainly created a spectacular result for our clients.” - Brett Williams, Managing Director, Response Marketing Solutions

"We recently invited Peter McLean from Lamplighter Performance Consulting to give a presentation to a group of Family Business Australia members and guests, the topic was ‘Getting the most from face to face Networking’. Peter delivered both an informative and entertaining presentation, he brought humour and a relaxed atmosphere to a group of strangers while delivering some insightful views and useful skills for the group to use.  Peter is a professional that I would recommend to anyone wishing to “shine some light” into their business." - Lorraine Willis, Executive Officer, Family Business Australia WA

 

Swan Chamber of Commerce - Business Growth through the Downturn Seminar

We delivered a one hour early evening seminar to local businesses. Designing a marketing campaign that brought new life to the Chamber's seminars during a difficult time (the height of the 08-09 downturn), the seminar was also praised by many of the attendees - even months after the event as we met them in other environments.

"Peter gave a business seminar that I attended in March and it was very inspiring." – Gary Levy, Franchise Owner, Viva Photography (May 2009)

"Best Seminar I have ever been to!" – Rosco McGlashan, Australian World Land Speed Holder, Aussie Invader 5R