We recently interviewed our client, Joe, the CEO & President of his family-owned business, States Manufacturing. 

Here’s what Joe had to say about his challenge, the CTC solution, and the results:  

Challenge 

I was the CEO and president of a family owned business that has been in my family for many years. At the time that we started working with CTC, I had wanted to retire in the next 3-5 years. My goal was to start slowly stepping away from the day-to-day operations over the course of a few years while I ensured that the leadership team was in a good place to take over. 

I didn’t feel comfortable stepping out of the daily business right away because we were in high-growth mode and I felt things wouldn’t run smoothly without my daily involvement. 

One of my children, Wyatt, was working in the business at the time, and he was doing a very good job. My ultimate goal was to elevate Wyatt to manage the day-to-day operations, however before we started working with CTC, I didn’t feel it was the right time to take that step. 

One big issue we were having was that my leadership team was not working as a cohesive group. We had tried a few different tactics, but nothing was working for us. We found that people were running in completely different directions and there was a “me first” attitude in every department, rather than an attitude of teamwork and collaboration.

In addition, like any new leader, Wyatt needed some additional development to make sure he was ready for this big step before I would feel comfortable making the transition. 

I had previously seen Jan present to a leadership group, and she had talked about Creating a Culture of Productivity within organizations by improving your Time, Talent, and Technology. It caught my attention and I thought she might be the one to help transform the organization. 

Upon starting our work with CTC, I filled out CTC’s Company Productivity Assessment survey (keep reading for more on this) and the results indicated that we were leaving over a million dollars on the table with lost productivity. The biggest issue I listed for our company was: people. 

Solution: 

Jan coached me to help identify how to effectively delegate my responsibilities and improve the communication and collaboration of the leadership team. I saw benefits from the coaching and decided to expand the coaching to my leadership team.  

The first of the team to receive coaching was Wyatt, who was the logical person to step into my shoes. He had shown great talent within his department, so we now needed to make sure Wyatt was ready to take on a bigger leadership role in the company.  

Jan coaching Wyatt was the catalyst that got us started with transitioning the leadership team to be more effective.  It also gave me the opportunity to see Wyatt grow in his role, which was very rewarding.  

Jan then went on to coach the rest of the leadership team.  During that coaching, Jan worked on their personal productivity and how to help them be more effective leaders. A big goal was to focus on getting them to delegate and develop the staff so they could step out of the day-to-day and be ready to take on bigger responsibilities as I transitioned out of the organization. It was wonderful to see everyone elevate to a higher level of performance and leverage the talent on the team.  

One of the great things about coaching a leadership team at the same time is that interpersonal communication and coordination challenges can be addressed to help improve the way leaders work together.    

Another benefit to 1:1 coaching is that it gives you first-hand exposure to exactly how someone works and where all the time waste is hiding.  Jan identified areas where leadership could be leveraging technology more effectively to streamline workflow and free up their time.   

Here are two case studies for more details about how we leveraged technology and the benefits it had on individual productivity and the bottom line.  

Case Study #1 

Case Study #2 

Results:   

It is clear now that the company is no longer dependent on me being involved in the day-to-day operations. The sales leader recently commented that “the company is not as dependent on Joe as it was two years ago”.  CTC was instrumental in this change in our company. 

We have continued to have outstanding growth: 

• 46 employees, March 2021 
• 57 employees, March 2022 
• 74 employees, March 2023–a 30% body count increase in one year   

Without the leadership coaching and technical solutions CTC developed, we would not have been able to effectively manage the growth. I reached my goal and feel the groundwork has been laid to allow me to retire.  Wyatt was promoted to President, and the rest of the leadership team were promoted to VP positions. My plan is to semi-retire next year.

It’s comforting that everyone in the company knows the doors will not close when I’m not there anymore, as they all have confidence in the leadership team.  I filled out the Company Productivity Assessment again after our work with CTC was completed, and the results showed significant improvement and less waste left on the table. The biggest issue now is no longer people, but managing growth–a great problem to have! 

  

The CTC Company Productivity Assessment 

 The CTC Company Productivity Assessment is a subjective survey that measures the criteria listed below, and determines how much money is left on the table. In other words, it provides a dollar value for the time waste within an organization. 

  

The client answers the following questions using this scale:  

Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, and Strongly Agree 

 

Here are the before and after results of working with Joe and his team:   

1. Our employees effectively manage their time, aren’t distracted and stay focused on their top priorities.

• BEFORE: Disagree
• AFTER: Agree

2. Team leaders effectively manage people and keep them accountable

• BEFORE: (not evaluated, as it was not part of the survey at the time)
• AFTER: Agree

3. We fully leverage technology. Training is required on all systems and we constantly reevaluate new software features.

• BEFORE: Neutral
• AFTER: Agree

4. We streamline our workflow and have clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

• BEFORE: Neutral
• AFTER: Agree

5. We communicate well. We have effective communication guidelines, methods, and tools (i.e. effectively run meetings).

• BEFORE: Disagree
• AFTER: Agree

6. What are some of your biggest challenges?

• BEFORE: People
• AFTER: Growth

The survey then calculates how much money is left on the table based on these survey results and assuming a typical annual salary for the workplace. 

Projected Savings Results: 

 Money left on the table:  

• BEFORE: $1.273 Million
• AFTER: $424k 

Annual projected savings: $849k 

Here is the link to the survey if you would like to take it yourself!