As the top leader of your company, your role can be daunting. You have ultimate responsibility across the company for everything from strategy, finance, and talent management to operations and business development. As the Chief Executive, you have a lot of people telling you “Yes.”
You could probably be more successful if those around you challenged you more. Ideally, that person would be someone with whom you have a high level of trust, that is not afraid to question you about your decisions and to give you honest feedback intended to help you grow yourself and your business.
The executive advisors at Excelerant act as your business partner and confidante, allowing you to download the multitude of thoughts running through your head in a day (your strategic ideas and concerns about the future, your frustrations, etc.) and the things that keep you up at night. They help you to organize those thoughts and put them into action.
An executive advisor is your collaborative sounding board. Excelerant’s executive advisors help you to work through your own internal barriers and hesitations for change.
One of the significant challenges for many CEOs and sole business owners is working in isolation. These lone leaders work at the top of the organization, and when they struggle with problems, they are limited in who they can turn to for important discussions.
It would be a mistake to have those conversations with managers and team members that report up to them. Generally, the team will only have a narrow vision of a company-wide issue, and they will be hesitant to be forthright with the Executive Leader of the company.
As professional advisors committed to listening to you and engaging in those tough conversations with you, we are trained to listen for what you’re not saying and what’s missing for you. We are listening for the “blind spots,” those things that you can’t see – unrecognized opportunities or threats to your business.
With Excelerant, you have access to a third-party advisor who has a depth of experience with executives across a multitude of industries and regions. We don’t tell you how to run your business; we guide you to finding your own path to lead.
Quite often we have conversations with CEOs who have been tremendously successful for years, and suddenly, there comes a point in the life cycle of a company’s growth when the CEO realizes that they themselves need to develop new skills and new perspectives.
When the company grows, the leader also must grow their skills to keep that momentum and to challenge the status quo. With this self-awareness, a CEO can open themselves up to make impactful decisions and to explore opportunities for innovation.
Any one person can’t know how to run the business through all steps of a business’ existence, especially when that person is insulated at the top. A third-party advisor can provide a different perspective to a leader’s thinking and help the leader to drive meaningful change.
Some of the more common reasons for a professional to seek out the services of an executive advisor:
At Excelerant, we have years, collective decades, of working with people in similar top-level positions, and our experience is that the concerns of these top leaders don’t deviate much from industry to industry.
We don’t advise on the technical side of any specific industry, but rather, we advise on the systems, processes, interactions, and resources that affect the people side of business and act as a confidential sounding board for a leader’s concerns.
During our executive sessions, we may discover an issue where you would benefit from a specializing professional, someone with practiced training or expertise, such as a CPA, employment attorney, of financial advisor.
When a leader brings up an area where they are struggling which is not in our purview, Excelerant Professionals connect them with specialists in that area. Because we have years of experience working with a myriad of professionals, we have built a broad network of professional service resources, and we are happy to make those connections.
Many sole owners or owners of small businesses do not have an internal successor and are not prepared for an exit. Owners experience a smoother and more rewarding transition when they plan well in advance of the day that they will sell the business, merge with another company, or retire.
Excelerant offers executive advising especially for owners to create a succession and exit plan. This advising concentrates on strategizing a succession and exit plan, where your options, issues, and conditions of satisfaction are identified and a plan of action is developed. We strive to support your individual plan for achieving your goals for the transition of ownership.
The CEOs and sole business owners who are looking for advising at an executive level, don’t need a professional coach. They need an advisor for fresh perspectives and honest counsel. A strong relationship with the professional advisors at Excelerant improves decision making and long-term strategies.
Excelerant is an award-winning leadership development and human resources consulting company based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Using a unique approach, Excelerant combines expertise in training, coaching, human resources, and facilitation to solve problems with practical, executable solutions that deliver high-impact, sustainable results.