Real-life examples of our work.
Two organizations merged together with a new CEO put in place. The new organization was lacking a common vision and infrastructure consistency. No change management and an overwhelmed CEO.
Executive coaching helped the CEO develop clear priorities for the organization as well as a change management plan that helped align staff members with the organizational changes. A planning committee was constructed that enabled the development of a strategic business plan. The plan incorporated a new vision and mission statement for the merged organization.
“Kate is a skilled coach and mentor. She works with you to develop an approach that is unique to your individual needs and interests. I have known and worked with Kate for a number of years. She has been my leadership coach as well as primary support on various organizational projects, which include: organizational development, change leadership and strategic business planning. I am grateful for her support. Because of Kate and our work together, I am a better leader, staff members are more engaged, and we are better prepared for our future."
Amy Strite, President & CEO, Family Lifeline
A Vice President of a large organization solicited KickStart to develop a team building program to help address communication issues and team inefficiencies.
Upon initial consult, KickStart recommended further investigation into the situation. We conducted personal interviews with team members and stakeholders and discovered that the issues went beyond communication. Significant trust issues with the leadership team and lack of direction was causing the team to be competitive and dysfunctional.
KickStart developed a custom workshop that exposed the challenges being faced by the team. In addition, the workshop addressed style differences and leadership gaps. Activities focused on the development of team protocols and a plan for addressing team challenges and development opportunities.
“DISC helped us gain awareness of our style differences. The activities helped us learn to adjust our style when working with others. We developed good protocols for working together in the future."
Workshop Participant
A local scaffolding firm approached KickStart to develop a training program for their foremen and supervisors. There were inconsistencies in how staff were managed, how company representatives were interfacing with customers and how company policies were being carried out.
KickStart conducted interviews with the company’s leadership team to better understand company policies and the challenges being faced with their direct reports. A significant amount of time was spent becoming familiar with the company culture. A 3-day program was developed that focused on: leadership, personnel management, and managing projects. Participants walked away with a diploma and a fundamental understanding of company expectations.
“Working with Bob & Kate is one of the 3 best things I have done since taking over this company. Adult education, particularly with this level employee is challenging to make effective and significant. Their interactive learning process … was outstanding to observe and participate in. The effectiveness could visibly be measured by seeing how engaged even the most resistant ‘old-dogs, who know it all!’ became…… and we have plenty of them!”
Roger Jetton, President & CEO, Scaffolding Solutions, LLC
A large corporate client engaged KickStart to develop a full-day leadership immersion program for their new managers. The goal was for the participants to experience leadership in a completely unfamiliar setting, while leading unknown teams to complete tasks.
KickStart developed a full-day program of experiential leadership activities and exercises designed to test participant’s leadership skills. The program featured opportunities for each manager to lead an activity, then to receive feedback on their leadership style and how well they led their team, along with a self-reflection of things done well and areas for improvement. Debriefs focused on after action reviews, DISC styles, leadership principles, and values in action.
This day-long immersion into experiential activities was consistently rated as one of the highlights of the week-long training.
A state agency director engaged KickStart to determine if his large staff had any personality issues or team conflicts. He suspected there may be some trust issues among the team members as well.
KickStart interviewed each team member anonymously to understand the magnitude of the issues. Following the interviews, which pointed out some bigger trust issues resulting from style differences and misperceptions, KickStart recommended that each team member complete a personality assessment. We provided a DISC overview that allowed individuals to recognize style differences in others, then utilized team building activities that leveraged the differences in styles and allowed individuals to work together in an informal setting away from the office.
This workshop provided personal growth and learning around styles and style differences, perceptions of other styles, and a common de-personalized language for communicating to minimize conflicts. Feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive.
The Director of a local hospital asked KickStart to provide a team building program that allowed two different shifts to get to know each other and bond while having a fun outdoor experience. The two shifts had been operating as their own entities with little total team identity.
KickStart chose outdoor activities at a local park that got team members out of their familiar setting, built on the theme of seeing themselves as one team, and that gave participants a chance to work across shifts to get to know each other.
The team building program gave participants a chance to get to know everyone better while working with each other very differently than they do at work. They all agreed that the day was fun and fulfilling, and vowed to have sessions more often.
Evergreen Enterprises approached KickStart to create a fun team-building activity for their national sales meeting of over 200 people from all over the country.
After discovering that giving back to the community was a high priority with this client, KickStart recommended a bike building activity that would be challenging and fun, and would provide fully assembled kid’s bikes to be donated to a local charity.
The bike building activity was fast-paced, loud, and fun. The most fun was seeing grown adults riding kids’ bikes through a participant-designed obstacle course, while their teammates cheered for them. To top off the event, the Marines showed up to thank the team for their contribution of bikes and helmets to Toys For Tots.