He Was That “Go-to Guy” Who Was Not Recognized In The Company

Name: Daniel

Client Position before Griffin Dunn: Director of Operations

Client Position after Griffin Dunn: Chief Operating Officer

Industry: Biotechnology 

Company Stats

• Start up

• Post Series B Round

• 35 employees

Client Needs

• Building executive presence

• Aligning with his co-founder

• Building confidence with senior executives and colleagues who were older and more experienced

• Exercising his management authority  

Scenario 

Daniel was the “go-to guy” for the company, but he had a problem with executive presence. This showed up as him consistently not being recognized and compensated for his efforts. His hard work resulted in the company opening up new facilities and setting up their first bioreactor; but, because he had not aligned with his co-founder, he was often the last to know that his efforts were often in contradiction to the company’s plans.

As a result, he was being perceived as a doer but not a leader.

Intervention 

We worked on developing his executive presence, his approach to managing people and developing his skills to recognize issues that the company might face in the future. We also developed forecasting skills and helped him make difficult decisions with long-term goals in mind. He also underwent a process to improve personnel management and team coaching and improved his organization’s design to create the right systems, processes and teams to achieve the company goals.

Outcome 

As a result of Executive Coaching with Griffin Dunn, he was promoted to COO. He also greatly improved his relationships with experienced executives both in and outside his field of expertise and created functional and effective systems. He learned to make decisions and leverage his leadership position to better serve his team. He also developed a better and more proactive relationship with his co-founder allowing them to aligned and cooperate with each other.