I love what I do for a living.
Clients tell me what I do best is stir strategic conversations that inspire helpful solutions around people & strategy. Both are about clarity, focus, & intent & I believe it should be a results-oriented journey. I work with leaders to establish & leverage specific Winning Moves that will serve as catalytic mechanisms for forward movement that are measurable & observable.
Most days I’m either working with a leadership group or I’m plugged into my laptop writing on ‘the people dilemma’ or I’m pondering the leadership crisis faced by so many companies. I’ve built a career over the past 25 years where passion & people are at the core, where inspiring real relationships & transformation are paramount. I’ve always pursued things that I’m passionate about of which leadership, organizational culture, & strategy are a part.
By working directly with leaders to help them create pathways for realizing their strategic intent, a domino effect ensues where all people within an organization reap the benefits. To me, that’s what making a difference is about.
Writing helps me organize my thoughts & connect to what’s relevant. As for speaking, it’s the energy. I get all wrapped up in the audience, in their engagement & in their desire to gain insight into doing what they do…better. Speaking provides the avenue to share insights; it makes everything meaningful.
My world is all about “Strategic.Leadership.Excellence” because leadership is strategic. In the end, it’s what defines a company’s soul & the degree to which that company has a high performing culture. The bottom line (literally) is this: How you lead people, via your leadership & your corporate strategy, matters.
Specialties: Strategy, Leadership, Organizational Culture, High-Performance Culture, Executive Coaching, “People Issues,” Team Development, Conflict Resolution/Difficult Discussions, Leading Change, Speaking
Culture & Leadership Analysis
Your company culture is your organization’s DNA. It’s made up of the rituals and practices that your people employ every single day. You have a formal organizational structure; your culture, though, is your company’s invisible structure. Invisible, and powerful. Understanding your company’s cultural DNA is the only way you can design a progressive, high-performance organization with a competitive edge. We help you design your progressive pathway into the future based on the results of a thorough leadership analysis.
Research demonstrates the power of challenging our assumptions about leadership. In fact, organizations that leverage transformational leadership as a strategy outperform the competition on multiple levels. Knowing this is one thing. Implementing it is another matter. The bottom line (literally) is this: How you lead people matters.
According to the research, having key success leverage is your secret weapon. Your success leverage hinges on the invisible structure of your organization because this is where the power of action actually exists. Without understanding the dynamics of your organization’s invisible structure, your ability to grow, sustain and move toward your organizational vision are limited.
McCullough Leadership Group partners with leaders to help them do what they do…better. Excellence in leadership is a very personal journey and, for maximum impact, it should also be a results-oriented journey. Beginning with an initial leadership analysis, McCullough Group works with leaders in your company to establish and leverage specific leadership goals to move your organization forward. These goals, coupled with newfound skills, provide a framework for leadership alignment within your organization that is observable as well as measurable.
To do this, McCullough Group will do one or more of the following:
- One-on-One Interviews with a cross-section of your people (either company-wide or at the divisional level)
- 360 Leadership Assessments and Analysis
- Various leadership assessments, as needed (such as The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for Leaders, the CPI 260 Report for Leaders, the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Assessment, the Denison Culture Survey, the Denison Leadership 360 Survey, or a customized survey that targets your desired outcomes)
- Customized Executive Coaching
- Executive Team and/or Leadership Team Consultation & Training
Leadership Summit
Come together for a Leadership Summit. Allow your team to advance, as the summit becomes a powerful catalyst to align leaders in your organization, develop solutions to problems, explore new strategies, and fuel collaboration across the organization.
A Re-Design of Your Strategic Planning Process
It’s interesting to think about a few questions. For instance: What makes a company great? Why do most strategic plans fail? Why can’t most companies build higher levels of accountability? What are the mechanics behind high-performance that lead an organization to sustainable success?
McCullough Leadership Group facilitates you through a streamlined process for creating a strong and actionable Annual Strategic Plan that has clear priorities, who’s accountable for what, and definitions (for each annual initiative) of what success looks like.
In turn, you’ll be guided through the creation of a Quarterly Plan with the same level of detail as noted above. In essence, every quarter is a 13-week race; i.e., you have 13 weeks to see movement, so your Quarterly Plan becomes essential.
You’ll be provided with a meeting rhythm for maximizing your plan’s success, thereby creating a focus on real-time solutions to any challenges that arise along the way. Your team will be more focused and aligned. As the journey continues, you’ll notice your company evolving into a more disciplined, empowered culture of transparency. Combined with evolving your leaders to understand new leadership strategies and growing in your understanding of how to lead people through the changes that will be necessary to embed this change, you’ll be armed with the “what” (your company’s core strategy) as well as with the “how” (how your leaders go about engaging people to higher levels of accountability and performance).
Executive Coaching
Executive Coaching is a very personal course of action that can make a huge, positive difference (both short-term and long-term) in the performance of those around you. Our Executive Coaching initiatives are designed to be used to help accelerate your abilities, to help you to be more successful in reaching your expressed outcomes, and to have more of what you desire in your personal and professional environments.
Executive Coaching focuses on your professional development and at the same time addresses the whole person. The emphasis is on becoming more self-aware and on uncovering developmental needs that can lead to increased professional and personal fulfillment. In addition, the emphasis is placed on balance and effectiveness, thereby producing meaningful action. Our Coaches are committed to helping you grow and develop in whatever ways you need. In our coaching sessions, nothing is off the table. You are encouraged to be your full self. The more your Coach knows about you, the more effective your Coach can be.
What you can expect from your Executive Coach:
- Commitment to your success
- A non-judgmental and encouraging position, allowing you to relax and explore your present and future path
- Complete confidentiality (as much as is allowed by law)
- Updates to your supervisor. However, prior to any discussion with your supervisor, you and I will review any information that I may be asked to share. All other information is confidential (except for any information I am required by law to report).
- Open, honest, and candid feedback
- Intent listening and, when appropriate, suggestions of new insights and discovery
- A belief that many times you already have the answer, but that you just need someone to ask you the right questions, etc.
- An intention to have the coaching relationship equip you to move through new behavioral processes independently and to know when you need help going forward
- A goal of bringing out the best in you at present and seek your greatest future direction.
- A resource and a sounding board for you to break through barriers and accomplish your goals
What is expected from you as the Coachee:
- A commitment to an internal and external focused self-evaluation
- Pursuit of a limited number of professional goals for our work together
- Experimentation with new behaviors and adjusted self-talk when necessary
- An openness to feedback and suggestions
- Ownership for your progress and accomplishments.
