Culture, Values & Character Strengths Consulting

Countless entrepreneurs, when they first start their businesses, take on most of the decision-making responsibility themselves. As their company grows, and new team members are added, there’s a level of normal chaos that sets in on their teams. By defining the values that will drive their growing firm, people will feel a shared and a common purpose and direction that drives growth.

Peter Drucker’s once famously said that “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast.” Our experience suggests that culture actually “Eats Strategy, People, Technology and Growth for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.” It’s at the heart of everything. Values are not a gimmick, they’re a way of life. When people feel they’re valued and are contributing towards common goals; their level of trust, engagement, collaboration, and productivity organically increases. For local or global corporations, culture provides a shared ground no matter where employees are located, increasing a sense of belonging and contributing towards a shared vision, goals and doing the right thing for the greatest good.

Coach People Inc.^® has a dedicated team of professionals who specialize in implementing positive, values-driven, performance cultures with a successful track record. Its consulting practice leverages the founder’s first-hand experience on successfully being a part of a connected and result’s driven team that implemented innovative solutions against all odds. Since 1995, Coach People Inc. has enabled clients, through assessments, insight-building facilitated sessions and practical action steps for: executives, individual leaders, professionals, teams, start-ups, mid-level organizations, newly merged companies all the way to global corporations to implement positive cultures where people feel connected, love coming to work, proactively share ideas, find innovative solutions, that produce overall enterprise growth. When Leaders’ consistently make decisions aligned with Values; people’s trust, collaboration increases, enabling people to stretch beyond any perceived limits, feel fulfilled, grow and deliver excellence.

In addition to consulting, facilitated sessions, Coach People Inc. team coaches are Master Certified Practitioners delivering powerful Character Strengths building tools and exercises for individuals and teams to accelerate: agility, positive culture development and performance growth. We invite you to contact us at info@coachpeople.com for more information.

Coach People Inc.^® has been providing a Values Clarification and Culture Assimilation programs using many techniques, including facilitated sessions for: individuals, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists; mid-level to Fortune 500 corporations since 1995.

After understanding business needs and desired culture, a customized roadmap or framework is co-designed to enable key leaders to identify and define individual, team or organizational Values. Specific steps are then reviewed with leaders on how to best: communicate these effectively, get ‘buy-in,’ and integrate these across all service lines. We also make recommendations on how to realign all HR and people development services such as: recruiting, orientation, performance management, compensation, employee relations practices, rewards programs and training to accelerate assimilation & adoption of Values.

Coach People Inc.^®’s founder was inspired to create this specialized consulting service because she was compelled to share her firsthand experience in working with a small team reporting to visionary CEO, Craig McCaw. Mr. McCaw famously started McCaw Cellular Communications, with a few cable licenses he inherited from his family’s business and grew McCaw Cellular Communications exponentially; until it was sold to AT&T Wireless for billions. At the heart of McCaw Cellular Communications’ success and exponential growth, was an uncompromising, values-driven Culture called: “People, not Places.”

McCaw’s clear: vision, corporate values, goals, roles and expectations were shared across levels and offices empowering people to fast track important decisions within this framework. He lead with passion, character and clarity that inspired teams, across the country to drive excellence and results. What makes this story compelling is people worked effectively together, at a time when today’s modern technology and social media didn’t exist. Yet teams figured out a way to communicate and work together effectively. Mr. McCaw insisted its leaders apply the same values-driven approach with all important business units from recruiting to vendor relationships, treating everyone with respect, fairness and ethics because he understood culture was a key ingredient in building an efficient world class organization.

The McCaw organization also encouraged people to be unique and bold, to take risks, while using good judgement acting swiftly against stated goals, objectives and guiding principles. McCaw’s leaders were asked to generously recognize big and small acts of excellence with meaningful rewards including professional development opportunities, financial rewards for consistently living the “McCaw Goals and Values.” When Mr. McCaw shared his five year vision with his team that he envisioned a “Digital Network” that connected people across the globe, via satellites, on a thin device, even a wristwatch, at a time when the technology was Analog, and calls were dropping; the team believed his vision and made it happen. The company was sold for billions and everyone benefitted with its profit sharing plan.

It was prioritizing the positive culture that inspired its people to work together, ethically, and to test innovative growth solutions and technology. McCaw’s positive culture made such a difference in people’s lives, a podcast was launched in 2018 called: “People. Not Places” celebrating real stories, as recounted by former McCaw employees, who still remember the lessons learned, their contributions and most
memorable meaningful moments.

This story still inspires, because it’s still relevant, even more so to today. In more recent years, we’ve seen other CEOs like Zappos’ Tony Hsieh apply a positive, values-driven culture to inspire the best people to join their organizations.

We have deep experience in implementing a performance, values-driven culture from start-ups to mid-level organizations to Fortune 500s. For more information, or to discuss your needs contact us at: info@coachpeople.com.

• A world-class brand that makes a difference, attracts, retains and develops top talent through an, assimilated, positive culture where everyone ‘walks the talk’ and inspires passion, integrity, creativity and growth.
• Clarity and alignment with vision, goals and roles allowing for empowerment, collaboration, fast decision making, grounded in good judgement.
• Build a network of highly effective internal and external individuals, teams of motivated people who are collaborative, agile and focused on delivering value for clients and a fulfilling work environment.
• Attract top talent, aligned with Culture with deep market skills and a fresh perspective who are eager to share their expertise for the good of all.
• A clear path towards positive behaviors and how to build trust with individuals, teams and vendor-partners across levels, geography and industries to inspire loyalty, collaboration, innovation, and focused results.
• Empower employees to have a voice in decision-making process while holding them accountable for their own personal and professional growth, and choices in creating an environment that supports: values-driven, positive behaviors, especially under stress or conflict; promoting continuous improvement, knowledge-sharing, and fairness for all employees.
• Individual-Corporate Social responsibility: clear corporate objectives that positively impact local and global communities fostered by: compassion, humility and service.
• Adaptability, Agility and Continuous learning: unify people, celebrate and honor differences and diversity.
• High-performance philosophy, systems and guidelines: for example, a: “Do it Right The First Time” philosophy; sharing best practices, using good judgement when taking risks and learning from mistakes.
• Create unified employee engagement by establishing policies, procedures, systems, structures, support and rewards that reduces bureaucracy, hierarchy, silo‐mentality, political self-seeking status, blame, confusion, favoritism, complacency, or arrogance and instead reward teamwork, out of the box innovative thinking, excellence and results.
• Shareholder value: create an environment of financial stability, growth, safety and wellness for all employees.
• Reduction of excessive control and caution, short‐term focus, and zero tolerance for all forms of disrespect, political driven drama, greed or exploitation to build a world-class brand and reputation.
• Strong strategic alliances and partnerships: Build mutually beneficial alliances with other organizations.