The Undivided Life Blog

 

Executives Down the Hall - - The Next Game Changer

communication leadership strategy undivided life Aug 05, 2024
Man speaking in conference room to a set of clients and coworkers

“You’re telling me that I get access to Undivided Life's entire lineup of executive firepower while only paying the cost of a fractional executive?”

Yup.

When we first started meeting with potential clients to explore their needs and opportunities, it was obvious that small- to mid-sized organizations struggled to get the proper support when engaging outside consultants. While there are many reasons for this disconnect, here is my oversimplified version of what happens.

Sensing an internal problem or seeing an upside opportunity that isn’t being captured, a client will contact a consulting firm and ask for a proposal. The consultant works with the client to define the need and then agrees to perform work within a scope that is timebound and limited to only a certain focus area. While working on the stated project, the client will likely face shifting priorities, new external threats or opportunities, unexpected turnover, and the need to continuously evaluate the best use of time, talent, and other resources.

For small—to mid-sized organizations, the restrictive nature of traditional consulting arrangements and the battle to avoid scope creep can greatly diminish the value received during a project, create internal friction over the fees being paid to an outside party, and even cause the client to avoid seeking outside expertise when it is most needed.

Side note - Many of these same issues occur with large organizations, too, but generally speaking, a larger client can also shift resources more easily and is often better equipped to absorb a loss when consulting projects don’t produce the desired results.

After a handful of client engagements, we continuously spotted issues and opportunities where our combined expertise would be a major benefit, but the clients only thought of us regarding the one focus area related to our engagement. We knew there had to be a better way.

What if we agreed to work on specific projects, strategies, or focus areas with a client AND built the flexibility, accountability, and processes that would allow our entire team to work interchangeably as fraction executives for the client? Could we change the game for the often-overlooked client segment that needs a diverse set of expertise but can’t afford to add multiple executives to the team?

Undivided Life is proud to announce our Executives Down the Hall program.

Executives Down the Hall is a unique way to bring an experienced and highly nimble elite task force to an organization’s leadership team. While agreeing upon primary focus areas and regularly reviewing priorities and projects for potential adjustments, this program also allows clients to leverage our knowledge, experience, networks (both personal and professional), and the strength of our brand as the engagement progresses.

To support this program, we developed a series of internal processes and reporting mechanisms that ensure we are aligned with our client's ongoing needs. We use this structure to seamlessly interchange the appropriate team members from Undivided Life while still assigning a single point of contact for clear and consistent communication.

Imagine the impact a small- to mid-sized organization experiences when they can leverage our team’s expertise in strategy, finance, accounting, sales, marketing, recruiting, operations, startups, turnarounds, pre-equity planning, due diligence, Quality of Earnings, culture building, leadership development, and more. When clients view Undivided Life as part of their executive team and then utilize this unique approach and delivery, they report feeling a sense of freedom and confidence that wasn’t there beforehand. They share how their internal culture begins to thrive as communication improves and more team members start owning the solutions and challenging what’s possible.

Recently, the Board of the Catholic Pro-Life Community (CPLC) of Dallas hired Undivided Life to lead the organization through a time of transition and, more importantly, transformation. As part of the engagement, Undivided Life co-founder Jeff Schiefelbein was named the interim Executive Director for the CPLC, an organization with more than three decades of community impact.

As the Executives Down the Hall for the CPLC, Undivided Life is working on every aspect of the organization’s health – finances, culture, strategy, messaging, management, recruiting, partnerships, and more – while helping the team craft a long-term strategy to solidify their impact for the next 30 years.

Does Undivided Life have the capacity for more?

Yup, again.

In addition to the incredible players we currently have in place, we have also built a bench of future teammates who are waiting to get in the game as part of the team.

Is your organization looking for outside expertise, but unsure where to start? Are you afraid of narrowing in on a specific project because you don’t want to get locked into only one focus area when the work is plenty but the laborers are few?

Contact us, and let’s work together to build something special.

Kenneth has special needs… and special gifts.

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