01 - Leading and Adopting Change

01/23/24 • 23 min

Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan

In this first episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan, Sara introduces us to herself, her career history, and her business. Sara already shares insight and experience through her consulting work, but this podcast gives her another platform in which to address some of the corporate transformational concerns resonating through the business world today.

Sara discusses how COVID-19 changed the office culture landscape in ways that can’t be ignored. The shift to remote and hybrid working can’t be dialed back, and Sara advises that companies will additionally need to take a hard look at employee engagement and customer care. She names the four factors in transformation success and explains how taking them into consideration greatly impacts successful outcomes.

In this episode, Sara details exactly what her consulting company can offer clients. She explains the ROI and life-changing potential within her PInnacle Executive Coaching Program, shares the ways in which her Center for Change Leadership provides supportive community to C-suite changemakers, and lays out the framework of the 12-week Mastering Change Management course. Tune in to learn more about Sara and all the ways in which she can assist in supporting and transforming your business.

Resources discussed in this episode:

Harvard Business Review: “The Hard Side of Change Management”
William Bridges
Harvard Business Review: “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail” by John P Kotter
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: EKR Foundation

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Transcript:

Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I'm talking about my specialty in human capital, in the consulting and executive coaching services that I offer my clients. If you would like to learn more after listening to today's discussion, check out the show notes for a link to book a meeting with me.

Sara Sheehan: Hi there. My name is Sara Sheehan and welcome to Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. I'd like to share a little bit today about who I am and what I do so that listeners have a little more perspective on how we might work together in the future. I bring almost 30 years of experience working with the world's largest consulting firms and Fortune 100 clients. The kinds of projects that I typically work on are big business transformations like mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing of a global function, technology transformations like implementing SAP, Oracle or Workday, custom application development, or other kinds of digital transformations, just to name a few. I specialize in human capital, and that means that I help clients with human performance challenges through organization change management, training, leadership development, organization design, and executive coaching. My clients like to work with me because I make the hard work of adopting change easy. They know that I am a trusted business advisor that they can count on for years to come. I have truly deep personal relationships with clients and business partners alike. Relationships matter a ton to me and I value them for all that they bring to my life and to my work. In terms of my ideal client, I am looking to work with companies at $100 million in revenue up to a couple billion dollars in revenue. And I am not looking to compete with my former firms at all. I'm interested in working with growing companies that really see the value in investing in people, companies that want to increase employee engagement, that want to develop more leaders at more levels of the organization, and companies that see that investing in people increases shareholder value. That's the kind of client that I would love to work with. So thank you for giving me an opportunity to share a little bit about me and my business.

Sara Sheehan: Now I'd like to transition our conversation to talk a little bit about big challenges affecting business, as well as four key factors for transformation success, and then transition into giving you a definition on what change management is and sharing a little bit about the ways that Sara Sheehan Consulting works with clients. That's my agenda for today and I very much look forward to hearing back from you after getting through the conversation. And so moving forward, let's talk a...

Resources discussed in this episode:

Harvard Business Review: “The Hard Side of Change Management”
William Bridges
Harvard Business Review: “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail” by John P Kotter
Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: EKR Foundation

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Transcript:

Previous Episode

Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan

The business world is brewing up a storm. Let's thrive in these extraordinary times together! This is a clarion call to Transformational Thinkers across the globe who are ready to rise up and successfully lead change in their teams.

Every other week, Change Consultant Sara Sheehan talks with leaders and experts to spotlight real-world stories in the change management space. You will walk away with the latest change strategies to empower your employees, enhance your creativity and communication, and establish your legacy as a leader in business.

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Contact Sarah Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Next Episode

02 - Talent Optimization

Sara Sheehan introduces us to The Predictive Index’s Talent Optimization strategy in this episode. More than just an introduction, however, Sara explains exactly why talent optimization is so critical for businesses right now and unpacks how The Predictive Index and talent optimization assists companies in driving business results.

The “people tax” is defined as increased turnover, lower engagement, lower productivity, and more. What Sara presents is the ways in which talent optimization aligns you with your people and your people with your business goals. She details the big four questions that talent optimization seeks to answer about your organization.

In this episode, Sara Sheehan breaks down how she guides clients through talent optimization via illustration or using real data garnered from their team, she reveals the top three people dynamics impacting business results, and she lays out some statistics that provide compelling reasons to pursue talent optimization sooner rather than later. She understands the modules within Predictive Index’s talent optimization strategy and can guide clients to tangible people actions for bettering business outcomes.

Resources discussed in this episode:

The Predictive Index

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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:

Transcript:

Hi there, I'm Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I'm talking about The Predictive Index and how talent optimization assists companies in driving business results. If you would like to learn more after listening to today's discussion, check out the show notes for a link to book a meeting with me. Have a great day.

Sara Sheehan: [00:00:00] Hi there. My name is Sara Sheehan and welcome to Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. And today I want to talk to you a little bit about talent optimization. And in today's conversation, I want to make sure that I am sharing with my listeners that I am a Predictive Index certified partner, and I'm extremely aligned with Predictive Index's approach and their solutions. It's statistically reliable and valid, and it takes an incredibly small amount of time to complete the behavioral or the cognitive assessment. So it's an extremely low time investment and it's extremely cost effective for clients. So bearing all that in mind, I want to be very upfront that from a talent optimization perspective, Predictive Index is who I am aligned with. And today I would like to talk a little bit about what talent optimization is and why it is so important. In terms of the conversation today, I just want to start out with the fact that every business leader bears the weight of executing a business strategy that drives results. They are charged with helping their people to execute on the mission of the business. This is harder than it seems. It's an extremely heavy weight. It can be overwhelming and stressful. People are extremely complex. Leaders are often forced to rely on their gut and finally abdicating to HR Doesn't help business leaders because HR is even further from the business strategy and they are guessing too.

Sara Sheehan: [00:02:33] So it's quite a quandary. All of the guesswork that comes in to the decisions that leaders make, creates a people tax in increased turnover, lower engagement, lower productivity, just to name a few. The people tax puts the business strategy at risk and leads to missed business targets. When there are people issues, they will show up as a people tax, an execution risk, or missed business targets every time. No organization out there is immune to this situation and the messy part of the people side of the business, but it doesn't have to be a mess. So with a talent optimization expert, you can have a clear path forward. The Predictive Index approach takes a little bit of a different point of view. It provides a lens into your business with the practice of talent optimization, allowing you to align your people with your business goals. They provide the ability to answer four big questions. Are you designing to deliver on the goals? Rather, do you have the players on the field in the right position to score in your business? Are you hiring with intentionality to support and drive the needs of the business context? Third, are you motivating your people in the ways that motivate and boost engagement? And finally, are there trouble spots under the surface that could pose as a risk to the business? With that lens, it provides you the ability to understand the whys behind the people tax, the execution risks that you have, and the misse...