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Success Stories

We truly believe that business is created by actions – not words on a wall. We practice what we preach. Sound cliché? See for yourself.

Case Study

26 Person eCommerce Company

Succession Planning & Leadership Development

The Challenge: Existing founders were getting ready to retire. The next generation of leaders had ideas that were very different from the existing leadership. Some of the ideas were great, and some could easily risk bankrupting the company.

The Solution: Focusing on connection, process, and:

  • Creating a 3-year transition plan.
  • Defining key roles needed and mapping existing staff.
  • Defining actionable vision, mission, and values and align that with the staffing plan.
  • Creating a process for building executive leadership capacity incrementally without putting the business at existential risk.
Benefits: Growth improved from 0% to 30% plus annual growth rate with the first return to profitability, all while increasing salaries by 30%.
Pat, CEO: “Before we engaged with Travis and Human First Works, our approach to leadership was ‘do you get things done?’ After engaging HFW, we knew we needed to align our strategy with our people. That required redefining roles and clarifying many processes. Now we’re well set up to continue growing, but more importantly, to continue developing the team going forward.”

Case Study

WeHealth.org

Support Solving the Health Crisis

The Challenge: Building a virtual organization to stop COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic with privacy-protecting smartphone applications:

  • Global staff working remotely.
  • Unknown sales cycle with public health organizations and unique communities.
  • Being below market competition — typical of an early-stage startup.
  • A need to keep the organization as flat as possible.
  • Aggressive business goals.

The Solution: Supporting the CEO in building the team:

  • Coached CEO around critical personnel decisions.
  • Helped define Vision, Mission, and Values for the organization.
  • Envisioned and facilitated the creation of a leadership meeting to create effective decision-making.
  • Coached key individuals & teams across the org to recognize latent interpersonal and interdepartmental issues.
  • Created Sales Compensation Plan.

Benefits:

  • Coached several junior people as well as uniquely talented senior persons into greater confidence and ability to move the organization forward.
  • Helped the CEO identify key problems / obstacles and work through them.
  • Supported creating the vision, mission, and values of the organization.
  • Improved all team meetings and regular leadership stand-up for better cross-functional communication.
  • Edited job descriptions and provided help with recruiting.
  • Offered ideas for resolving technical and personnel issues in engineering.

Sameer Halai, CEO: “I needed help to develop a productive and lean organization – my goal was to find deeply skilled coaches in multiple business areas who had an attentive ear for critical issues and provided solid recommendations. The Human First Works team posed the right questions, gave practical guidance, and are a pleasure and bright spot in my day to work with them.”

Case Study

Donor Network West

Growth Plan

The Challenge: Traditional healthcare non-profit, 350 persons, 24/7 operations, and overwhelmed with incomplete projects:

  • Technically skilled staff needed management / leadership training.
  • Staff burnout because of overtime.
  • Recruiting / retention challenges.
  • The leadership team was not cohesive.
  • A recent acquisition was largely unintegrated.

The Solution: Supporting the review of all parts of the business. Finding quick and longer-term improvements — mapping out multiple plans, prioritizing the leadership team:

  • Defined values for the organization, which are still being leveraged.
  • Skilled up technical talent with customized 18-month leadership training. Built an internal mentorship program.
  • Re-prioritized projects. Assigned optimal contributors and completed them.
  • Roles crisply defined with clear required & optional skills.
  • Defined processes that make case handoff streamlined, reducing overtime and staff burnout while maintaining compliance.
  • Provided data for board reports.
Benefits: Consistent leadership practices, more important cross-departmental projects completed, and satisfied and focused teamwork across the new and acquired organization.
CEO: “In the past 3 years, our organization has gone through two significant changes. First, we acquired a new line of business that nearly doubled our operations. The challenge was integrating that new business group into our operations and culture, as it was the consolidation of three different companies, all doing the same work but in different geographical regions. To manage this new operation, we brought in a new leadership team whose management approach was very different from its predecessors. The business we acquired was also subject to different government regulations than our core business, although many of the processes used are similar and can be consolidated. Both changes brought sizable challenges to our organization operationally and culturally.”

Case Study

Bell Investment Advisors

Reviving a Future

The Challenge: Traditional leadership organization was being challenged in multiple ways — unhappy leadership, staff, and clients:

  • Needed a new approach for staffing.
  • Needed clear role definitions.
  • Needed a more efficient way of servicing clients.
  • Needed actionable organizational values.
  • Needed support in sales.

The Solution: New organizational values and structure helped determine who fit and who didn’t in the future of the business:

  • The pairing of different talent levels worked extremely well to reduce the workload of senior advisors.
  • Role definitions made supporting and even replacing critical contributors easier when necessary.
  • Individual coaching of senior salespersons improved productivity.
  • New branding improved client acquisition.
Benefits: The CEO transition and succession planning worked well. Client satisfaction improved, and attrition dropped by 20%. New staffing met client expectations significantly better. Expense per customer improved, increasing margins. Significant referrals increased.
Bonnie Bell, Co-founder: “What happens when you’re the boss, and you don’t have all the answers? This is what we were asking ourselves about three years ago. Now we know the answer: hire a business coach! Rebecca Young got right there in the trenches with us — head to head, shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart — and led us, step by step, to the other side of a complex set of challenges and circumstances. Now we are clear, restored, energized, and love coming to work every day. We have the right people in the right jobs, doing the right tasks, all working together with a shared purpose — like we wished it could be —, and our coach is only a phone call away when we need her. She’s like Adjunct Faculty now.”

“What happens when you’re the boss, and you don’t have all the answers? This is what we were asking ourselves about three years ago. Now we know the answer: hire a business coach! Rebecca Young got right there in the trenches with us – head to head, shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart – and led us, step by step, to the other side of a complex set of challenges and circumstances. Now we – the “bosses” – are clear, restored, energized, and love coming to work every day. We have the right people in the right jobs, doing the right tasks, all working together with shared purpose – like we wished it could be. And our coach is only a phone call away when we need her. She’s like Adjunct Faculty now.”

Owner – Investment Services Firm

“In the past 3 years, our organization had gone through two significant changes. First, we acquired a new line of business that nearly doubled our operations. The challenge was integrating that new business group into our operations and culture, as it was the consolidation of three different companies, all doing the same work but in different geographical regions. To manage this new operation, we brought in a new leadership team whose management approach was very different from its predecessors. The business we acquired was also subject to different government regulations than our core business, although many of the processes used are similar and can be consolidated. Both changes brought sizable challenges to our organization operationally and culturally.

In addition, the medical communities we serve consistently put increased pressure on our organization to be extremely efficient to minimize fee increases. Our patients’ lives literally hinge on our ability to execute flawlessly while keeping cost containment at the forefront.

In working with Rebecca Young and her team, we have:

  • Streamlined and consolidated business functions resulting in improved productivity and efficiency.
  • Integrated the new division, its processes, and its people effectively.
  • Kept costs to our clients stable through productivity gains.
  • Devised a project management process that has created focus in our high-pressure and urgent environment.
  • Removed cultural blocks enabling our people to be excited about working together.

 “I am extremely pleased with the outcomes we’ve achieved with Rebecca’s coaching and guidance over the past 18 months. She has been a huge asset to our company and me personally.”


CEO – Healthcare Company

Case Study

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We strongly believe in working in partnership with our clients. As your project / program progresses, we are there to answer questions and assist with stumbling blocks as they arise. We will be beside you dodging pitfalls and jumping hurdles, even bandaging your knees if you fall.

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