Lots of business owners and CEOs have questions and doubts about bringing in an outside consultant to improve the performance of their company – especially if they’re already successful.
I get it. Having run companies myself for 20 years, I’ve worked with my share of consultants – and not all of them were great.
As CEOs, we’re skeptical. We care about results, of course, but also culture fit:
- How is this going to impact my team?
- How is this going to help us get more done?
- How is this going to help us focus on what’s most important?
This is the final portion (Part 5) of our interview with John Maier, President and CEO of Blue Microphones. In this video, John talks about being just as skeptical as the next guy, but he’s experienced the benefits of finding and working with the right CEO coach and strategic planning facilitator. He also describes what to look for and how working with the right person can help you get the kind of results you’re looking for.
Here’s the rest of the interview:
Why did you reach out to The Oken Company? (Part 1)
Strategic Planning Results and Benefits – Blue Microphones (Part 2)
How Has CEO Coach Brian Oken Helped Your Team? (Part 3)
How Does Working With a CEO Coach Help You as a Leader? (Part 4)
Transcript:.
So what would you say to someone who needs help with their business, but is skeptical about bringing in an outside consultant?
Yeah, so I’m a fairly cynical guy, and when you talk about bringing in outside consultants, I understand that. I’m that guy who tends to say, “Why do we really need this?”
What I would say about that is, that you’ve got to have the right consultant.
You’ve got to have the right person who understands the business, has been there before, and knows how to get rid of the noise and get right into the heart of the issues. And Brian’s done a great job at that.
I think if another company had the opportunity to give him a shot at that, he would do the same thing for any other company that he did for us.