Are You Investing in Executive Development? Your Competitors Are!

Over the last 15 months, we have seen a substantial change in middle market companies: they are focusing on internal promotion of staff and setting up executive training programs. Companies are finding it is more cost effective to promote from within rather than chase talent in a seller’s market. They are also finding that it creates a healthier view for employees of their future within the firm.

Evidence across industries is clear. Deloitte has released statistics from studies stating, “A coaching culture is the practice that’s most correlated with business performance, employee engagement, and overall retention. Companies that are considered high-impact leadership organizations spend 1.5-3 times more on management development than their peers.”

We have seen companies promote long-time employees into COO and CFO positions using mentoring programs designed to grow the individuals into their planned roles more quickly. Investing $15,000-$25,000 per year with a mentoring coach is less than recruiting fees.

A recent survey from Better Buys found that employees who get professional development opportunities are 15% more engaged and have a 34% higher retention rate. And a 2018 LinkedIn Learning Report showed that 94% of employees would stay in a company longer if it invested in their career development.

This reminds me of an old story where a CEO is talking with his CFO about the need to invest more training in their people to improve company performance. The CFO asks, “What if we spend all this money and they leave?” The CEO replies, “What happens if we don’t improve them, and they stay?”?

In a 2022 Harvard Business Review article written by Erica Keswin, she states, “Organizations with a strong learning culture are 92% more likely to develop novel products and processes, 52% more productive, 56% more likely to be the first to market with their products and services, and 17% more profitable than their peers. Their engagement and retention rates are also 35-50% higher.”

We believe the data speaks for itself and where we have mentoring engagements with our clients, we see results that support the data. Because our people have been successful COOs, CFOs, and CEOs, we are skilled at mentoring leaders in those roles in middle market companies. We provide salient advice and direction and are able to share stories of what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to complex problem solving.

Our experience shows that side-by-side executive mentoring of this nature supports forward-looking behavior and the adoption of better ideas and processes. It is the attention to detail and building trusting relationships that rapidly increases the business acumen and improves the decision making of newly promoted executives.

Reach out to us and see how we can help your company achieve remarkable results.

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C Squared Solutions provides interim or fractional CFOs, COOs, and CEO advisors in nearly all industries. We mentor and advise private company officers frequently through sophisticated and experienced management experience. Give us a call or visit our website for more information and details. We have been there and done that through serving more than 100 companies, 250 years of combined experience, and having sold our companies totaling more than $500 million!

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