00_FUTUROSITY

Sometimes, the only thing that needs to change for everything to change is your point-of-view.

Listen. These are challenging times. Things are changing at an ever faster pace, and not always the way you want them to. Or maybe you feel stuck. You wouldn’t be here if you were satisfied with the way things are.

So let’s get started. I’ll introduce myself in a minute, but first, let’s see your business card.

The Business Card Exercise

Got that business card? Turn it over. Now, write down exactly what you want. What are you looking for? I’m not talking about a solution. You didn’t come here for executive coaching or a strategy session or a team building. Those are just possible solutions. I want to know what you want to create. If it won’t fit on the back of a business card, you’re not clear enough. If you’re not clear about what you want, you’ll probably end up with something else.

Step Two

That business card is Step One: Know what you want. If you know what you want, I might be able to help you.

Here’s Step Two: Find the right person to help you. But how will you decide if you’ve found the right person? It seems like an obvious question, but why not give the mouse a break and think about it for a minute?

My name is Robert Ellis. I’m passionate about helping individuals, teams and organizations get from where they are to where they want to be.

I help people become inspiring leaders, strategic thinkers, confident presenters, and persuasive salespeople.

I’ve worked with numerous companies, including 3i Group, Apple, Deutsche Bank, GE, Robert Mondavi Winery, Microsoft, Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, and SAP.

But you can read more about me in my bio. I’m more interested in talking about what I can do for you. Why don’t you jump ahead and read about how I can help you achieve your goals?

01_Coaching

One of these days, if it hasn’t happened already, you’re going to realize that the key to your success so far is precisely what’s keeping you from getting to the next level.

You’re already successful or you wouldn’t be here. But maybe you’re taking on a new challenge and you’re looking for support, or you have concerns about the very people you normally confide in and need a confidant who can listen objectively. Maybe you’re stuck for ideas and need a sounding board. Or, you recognize there’s a gap in your skills.

One of these days, if it hasn’t happened already, you’re going to realize that the key to your success so far is precisely what’s keeping you from getting to the next level. Perhaps your manager has already given you the feedback that something needs to change.

I can help you build the skills you need to be more effective in your current position, or to prepare you for future challenges. I can help you address performance issues and blind spots that may be holding you back. Support you as a leader, clarifying your vision, helping you with decision-making and problem-solving, and help you support your team.

I’m the guy that can look objectively at what you’re doing and tell you when things don’t make sense, call you out when you’re being a jerk (and who here doesn’t know what it’s like to work for a jerk?), or provoke you to think about things differently and get out of your comfort zone.

Hey, why wait until there’s a problem to make things better? Name one successful athlete that doesn’t have a coach. You want to raise your game to the next level, right? So why don’t you have a coach?

02_Strategy

Most people—most companies—spend the majority of their time, money and resources reacting to change. Being strategic is about creating a future that you choose.

Check out the Futurosity Continuum above. Here’s what it means:

Most people—most companies—spend the majority of their time, money and resources reacting to change, solving problems as they arise. For most people, it’s a big deal to face the future and try to anticipate some of the problems and head them off before they get here—to be proactive, in other words.

When you get clear about what you want—your vision and your goals—and begin to invest your time, money and resources in creating what you want, you suddenly find that opportunities begin to come your way. Some of these opportunities are on purpose—consistent with your goals—and some are distractions. But if you set your compass on your own true north and take plenty of action in the right direction, you’ll begin to create a future of your own choosing. That’s being strategic.

Strategy is thinking about the steps it will take to create a future of your choosing—and then taking massive, disciplined action. It’s not about trying to predict the future. It’s about creating the future.

I can help you and your team refine your strategy, create a plan and implement it. I’ll make sure you're thinking strategically—about the bigger picture and the longer term (the day after tomorrow?!)—so you don’t get caught playing catch up.

So look at your business card again. Are you looking to put out a fire? Or creating your vision?

03_Teams

A team is a group of people who are on the same side, pulling in the same direction to accomplish something greater than they could achieve individually. But how do you get a group of individuals with unique personalities and competing needs to pull together in the same direction?

Your team is critical to your success. If your team isn’t performing, nothing gets done. And most problems on a team aren’t technical problems, or even a lack of resources. They’re people problems. People aren’t getting along, they’re pulling in different directions, there’s a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities. People don’t know where they’re supposed to be going or what’s most important.

Your team may be in a rut and needs to be inspired again. Or maybe your team is coming apart at the seams and needs an intervention to clear the air, come together and get back on track. Maybe you’re starting a new project and want to kick start the team, or maybe you’re new to the team and want to cut the time it takes for them to accept you and start pulling with you.

Time and resources are at a premium. Can you really afford to take everyone away from their work and bring them together for a meeting that doesn’t produce? Can you really afford not to bring your people together and help them be as productive as they can be? I can help you design and facilitate a team event that will actually improve the performance of your team, not just be a welcome break from the daily grind.

Maybe you think your team is just fine? When was the last time you talked to the people on your team and asked them how things were going?

Better yet, invest in a One Day Agendaless Meeting and find out what’s really going on with your team. I’ll facilitate a meeting where everyone shows up and creates the agenda on the spot. We’ll address the most important items first and work them one by one. You’ll be surprised by what your team brings up and how productive you can be. In. Just. One. Day.

04_Testimonials

“Robert is an all around talented individual, always passionate, absolutely trustworthy, collaborative, caring, and one of the nicest people I have ever worked with.”

“Robert brings great insight and candor.”
—Christian Bailey

“Robert provided very useful and effective services to the management team at one of my former companies, helping us improve and focus our team dynamics. He was great to work with, very insightful, has great tools and skills, and gets very high marks from me.”
—Carl Fravel

“I worked with Robert while we were setting up our business in the US. He was a great facilitator and a great help in forming and building the team.”
—Patrick Sheehan

“The breadth and depth of Robert’s coaching skills are highly insightful and also grounded in solid business acumen. He’s supportive, engaging, and gently challenging. One of his most exceptional gifts as a coach is to ask the most appropriate question at just the right moment, and then to creatively and constructively provide feedback. He has inspired me to dig deeper and move through my own resistance so I can continue to integrate and manifest my personal and professional mission.”
—Beth Waitkus

“I had the distinct pleasure of working with Robert Ellis over the last 3 years as a contractor in diverse activities that I led. Robert has been more than an ideal partner and has gained my deepest respect in the following activities:

“a) While working as senior vice president at SAP, I was fortunate to have Robert as my executive coach for 3 months. He was deeply perceptive, an engaged listener, insightfully clarifying my strengths and challenges. In this relatively short period he helped me set intelligible intentions and effortlessly transform my working skills to a significantly higher level.

“b) In addition, I hired him to plan and moderate large team meetings and lead team building sessions that included more than 50 people. SAP is a challenging environment: employees come from multiple cultures and backgrounds and are extremely demanding and critical. Robert consistently scored the highest satisfaction results with the team and was admired by all participants for his natural leadership ability and his aptitude to combine fundamental learning with fun. My team always left these events with high energy and a strong sense of time well spent—a rare sentiment in the SAP environment.

“c) Robert has also collaborated with me on the creation of a startup I founded. His candid and succinct advice, superior knowledge, and unconditional dedication were a major contribution to my success.

“Robert is an all around talented individual, always passionate, absolutely trustworthy, collaborative, caring, and one of the nicest people I have ever worked with. Since my team, and I will always hold him in the highest esteem, I sincerely recommend Robert.”
—Ori Inbar

05_Bio

I'm a screw tapper. I look for small changes that have big leverage. If you can change one or two things that really matter, suddenly the future looks very different.

I'm an executive coach, facilitator, and trainer. I focus on the people side of business: management and leadership skills, communication skills, sales skills, presentation skills, change management, career planning, and training for trainers. In addition to delivering training, I facilitate focus group, team building, strategic planning, visioning, and creative problem solving sessions. I also provide individual executive coaching for entrepreneurs, executives, and management teams. I’m trained in Temperament theory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, as well as the FIRO-B and Social Styles model, and use these tools in executive coaching and team building.

As an independent consultant—as well as associate of several consulting firms—I’ve worked with many clients, ranging from smaller companies and high tech startups to Fortune 500 companies. I’ve worked with 3i Group, Apple, GE, Robert Mondavi Winery, Morgan Stanley, Oracle, SAP, Charles Schwab and Sun, among many others. And I’ve worked in both the United States and abroad, including Australia, Canada, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom.

I have a Bachelor of General Studies degree from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Counseling from the School of Education, University of Colorado.

I also read voraciously, surf the web too much, dabble in web design (I designed this site), have written for Macworld Magazine (okay, so I’m a bit of a geek), and study acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Somehow, these interests all fit together and make me a better consultant and executive coach.

06_Contact

You’re not seriously going to just sit there, are you? Don’t let the future happen to you. Get in touch now.

Robert Ellis
FUTUROSITY
707.879.4460

Still got that business card? Know what you want to create? Looking at things a little differently? Here’s the next step: Let’s talk.

Copyright © 2010 by Robert Ellis.
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