Embrace the Way of The Corporate Streetfighter™

Has your career stalled and you don’t know why?

Do you have a plan for your career?

Do you have good ideas, but feel that no one is listening?

Are you moving from job to job without a clear direction?

Are you having difficulty getting your team to follow the corporate strategy?

Are you a C-Suite executive that is having difficulty with your board of directors?

Dr. Litwin coaches C-Suite executives and high potential individuals to bring them to the next level. He will guide you through the process to ensure that you are thoroughly prepared to address issues in your present situation as well as laying the groundwork for your future. Jeff’s coaching methods are designed to give professionals on every wrung of the corporate ladder strategies for overcoming the obstacles in their way and achieving what they want in their careers and life.

Did you ever notice how many of your bosses are better at managing up than managing you and the other people that work for them? Have you ever wondered how a boss that spends little time managing their teams has achieved their current position? Well, the answer is twofold.

1. At some point in their career, they have done something that expanded a company’s horizons or made them more money.
2. Their ability to manage up has their bosses thinking that they are doing a great job.

Dr. Litwin has seen this many times in his career, but yet managing your relationship with your boss is something that is rarely discussed. Whether it is your first job, or you are a CEO working with a Board of Directors, knowing the proper way to present to, and inform your boss is a key to your success. After all, management decides your compensation and your promotions, so whatever you may think of your bosses, helping them achieve their objectives will help you achieve your objectives. Jeff can show you how.

Are your teams functioning as a single unit or are they divided? Are they focused on the corporate goals and strategy or on their own agendas?

Whether you are a C-Suite executive or a division head, it is essential that your team focus on the priorities that are most important to you and to the success of your business. Dr. Litwin has had extensive experience bringing management teams together. Whether you have recently acquired a company, added new executives to your team, or are having disagreements on how to best grow your business, Jeff will help bring the team together to focus on the issues important to the success of your company.

Family Businesses present a unique business model. In addition to the usual challenges of dealing with the “boss”, the “boss” is now dad or mom and that brings with it a host of additional emotional baggage. The more that adult children are involved, the more challenging it can be.
There are several permutations of a family business. To name a few:

1. The parent desperately wants at least one of their children to take over the business, but none of them have an interest or they do not want to deal with the parent in a business situation.
2. Only one child braves joining their parent in the family business. This situation can get complicated as the parent might have a family trust that treats all the children equally as far as equity and voting rights in the business.
3. Several children are in the family business and they all think they should be the next CEO. Have you seen the TV show Succession?

Whatever the current situation is, it is important to remember that public corporate civility is essential to keeping the organization stable. When multiple children are involved, keeping the peace and, therefore, ensuring a good working culture for all the employees is extremely important for the long-term survival of the business. Dysfunction at the top will undoubtedly trickle down to the workers at the company resulting in the loss of talented individuals and devaluing the business.

Dr. Litwin’s coaching can get to the core of what both the parent and the children hope to achieve. He can assess the situation in an impartial manner, achieving common ground for planning purposes.

Are you hitting your sales targets?

Did you promote a high performer to a VP position and subsequently learn that they are a better individual contributor than a manager and leader?

Can your sales leaders mentor their teams?

Are you tired of hearing excuses for lack of performance and lack of accountability?

Dr. Litwin works with sales professionals to strategically evaluate why they don’t have more opportunities, why they win and why they lose. By analyzing the size of the sales funnel, win/loss rate, contacts to meetings ratio, and attention to detail, Jeff refocuses the sales team on what is important to win.

Some of the common themes he addresses are:

• Understanding the difference between price and value.
• Teaching new sales leaders the difference between being an individual contributor and managing a team.
• Making sure that the sales people you hire are a fit for what you need at the current time. Do you need hunters, account managers, or both? Are your current people in the right roles.
• Using your subject matter experts (SMEs) to their maximum capability. Are you missing large deals, because some sales people are bringing SMEs to a lot of small deals? Do you bring SMEs to meetings only to have your sales person do most of the talking?
• Learning to stop selling when the deal is won.
• Selling by bringing value to a customer; essentially selling by not selling!

During my career we acquired several businesses in Europe and Japan. I watched as our company tried to impose American culture on the companies they own globally. The people working in those companies had a local and corporate culture that was very different from ours and this often resulted in friction and failure.

I take great pride that I have earned the trust and respect of my international colleagues. One of the most important things you can do is listen. It is essential to create an open environment, even though the people in some cultures are not used to speaking up. It is also important for leadership to be neutral in their decision-making process to dispel the belief that certain locations are favored over others. Appearance of neutrality is not sufficient!

It is important to keep an open mind when working globally. Do not assume you know how to work with and motivate people in different cultures and instead learn to be sensitive to the culture where the business is located.

Dr. Litwin’s coaching can help you to apply your cultural learnings to your management style. It is not enough to try to learn about culture, you must use what you have learned to get the most out of your relationships. It is important that you are sincere in these efforts, as people will know if you are just going through the motions or if you are truly interested in hearing about their concerns.

Are you planning to buy a business? Dr. Litwin has worked with several top Private Equity firms and can help you to understand what to look for when acquiring a company. As an experienced operations executive, he looks at the operational structure of the business as well as the finances to help identify the strengths and weaknesses of a potential acquisition.

Are you planning to sell a business? Having been involved in the acquisition or sale of over 30 businesses, Dr. Litwin can help you optimize your business for sale. Jeff will evaluate your business, and your story, and he will advise you on what steps you can take to obtain the best possible deal for you, your family, and your employees.

Some people are born to lead and others to follow.  Some are great at managing processes, but not people.  Some are great at getting the work done, but not at inspiring the team to new heights.  

What are your qualities?  The best executives are leaders that encourage and inspire their teams to do more than most of them thought possible.  And, in getting to that achievement, opening their eyes to what is possible and what more can be done.  

We are all wired differently and are blessed with different skill sets. Dr. Litwin can help bring you and your team to the next level.

Change is hard for almost everyone, but if you do not adapt, your job results and your career may suffer.  Whether you have a new boss, your company has changed its strategic vision, or your company has been acquired by another entity, it is important to focus on delivering results. 

Getting mired down in corporate politics or pining for the old days will not bring you or your company continued success.  Dr. Litwin has been involved with over 30 acquisitions and he can help guide you to the best approach in order to be heard, but also to be viewed as an asset to the company.

Dr. Litwin speaks at colleges to help prepare students for the process of building a career after graduation. The topics of his talks include:

1. The 3 I’s of Starting Your Career – Initiative, Informationals, Internships
2. Mastering the Job Hunt – Resumes, Networking, and Interviews
3. Navigating Your Career Path – From Job to Career