Assessment

For Selection:

The consultants at Ollum have been using objective assessment tools to help their clients hire people who can not only do the job but also fit in their unique culture. for more than 10 years. Our assessments are designed specifically to meet the unique needs of family-owned and closely-held businesses.

For Development:

At times it is critical for leaders and teams of leaders to grow so the organization can grow. Our developmental assessments are designed to provide the insights and openings top leaders need to make the next level of performance accessible.

Assessments are also useful tools when executive teams have hit the wall and the old ways of communicating and decision making just are not working any longer. Learning to see our self and our team members through new eyes can open us to new ways of working, collaborating and growing together.

Executive Coaching:

Being a leader means constantly living in the turbulence at the growth edge of an organization. This requires continual evolution or adaptation from any leader who intends to thrive let alone survive. In family owned businesses the additional challenge of maintaining self while remaining in emotional touch with the many and varied demands of family is a constant drain on personal resources. At Ollum Consulting we have had the privilege of helping the leaders of many family owned and closely held businesses make changes in the way they manage self that have resulted in more effective relationships and greater success in business. We understand choosing the right coach is difficult but critical. Our coaches bring a unique blend of business acumen and family dynamics experience as well as personal and professional integrity.

Organization development

Organizations grow and change just like the human beings that comprise them. Just as human beings are communities of cells organizations are communities of people. As with all entities and systems the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

As organizations grow in complexity and size roles, structures and processes must adapt. The culture which in many ways is the personality of the organization must also learn, adapt and grow. But all too often the growth in complexity leads to a “stuckness” that leaves the organization suspended between its current reality and its imagined future.

The Ollum consultants will help you understand where you are in the development cycle and design a plan for moving the organization’s culture, structure, roles and process forward once again.

 

Services Offered:

 

The consultants at Ollum Consulting have helped many growing family owned and closely held businesses create processes that help maintain alignment in the following areas:

Strategic Intent:

The world that we thought we knew has vanished. The illusion of safety has been peeled from our eyes and yet we still need to plan. A new way of approaching planning is required. It must create focus and alignment while enhancing a company’s ability to adapt to its environment. We work with clients to design a process that fits your culture as well as your goals.

Role Clarification:

As a business grows out of the Entrepreneurial Stage and into the more structured Managerial Stage it begins to need to make roles and responsibilities more clear cut. Fast growth and few resources in the early years meant individuals created their jobs by picking up the balls that were hitting the floor. At some point these “bolted together positions” become difficult to manage and get in the way of further growth. In family businesses, this can be further exacerbated by the overlap of familial roles with work and governance roles.

Structural Evolution:

In fast growing businesses structure does not always keep pace with the changes. Strategic planning lays out long range changes in how a business goes to market but does not always plan for the structural changes required to support those plans.

Cultural Evolution:

Each of the life cycle stages of a business require a shift in the cultural beliefs and norms in order to make the required organizational changes viable. For example as a company moves out of the entrepreneurial stage it requires that more decision making and authority be put in the hands of managers other than the founder. Unfortunately few people in the organization may have been prepared for that change and a business can easily become paralyzed.