Advantages

Over my years in business, I have learned to hire people to strengthen your weakness and build according to your strengths. While I am not necessarily a “process builder,” I am a natural-born leader. I constantly look for ways to help drive the business to greater and more profitable success.

I first learned about MAP through an Entrepreneurs’ Organization event. One of MAP’s clients had spoken about MAP, specifically about how it had helped him with his leadership skills, and increased his company’s efficiency and profitability. It was so clear to me that I would be a good fit for MAP’s offerings. I signed up the very next day. We had a good business model in place, but let’s face it: There is ALWAYS room for improvement. As they say, in business, timing is everything, and we were also seriously thinking about making a big change to our company offerings. This approach gave us the ability to implement laser-focused processes that also drove accountability.

My MAP Senior Consultant who is certified through Team Coaching International, was paired with our team. She was the perfect coach for Advantages – she really taught, demonstrated and implemented processes. Through the Team Coaching Methodology, she demonstrated how a team is much more than just a group of people who wants to score a goal. And while in our hearts we had always known that, the alignment among team members wasn’t anything like it is now. This is a truly dynamic system with spoken and unspoken rules, vision, blind spots and expectations. While individuals must be personally coached, the team itself needs to be coached in an objective way, as if it, too, is a living, breathing entity.

Through MAP, my Senior Consultant brought her personal coaching finesse and her professional abilities to the table. She has melded that with very effective management strategies. She has the unique ability to understand what needs to be done and is relentless about finding the right way to accomplish whatever challenges are before us. Unlike other types of business coaches, she is “one of us.” She’s not an outsider, but an insider, who is integral and vital to our team. We actually consider her a team member. Treating her as a team member drives undisputed results, which further enable the success of this company. Her coaching and our ability to embrace and implement change, has evolved into a much more profitable, productive and diverse organization. In a tough economy, we took a big gamble and introduced a second business model under our company umbrella. In fact, our company had always been product-driven, yet we’ve recently expanded by rolling out services and changing our business model.

In terms of my own professional growth, I was able to laser focus on what I am good at doing, help implement the necessary processes that drive accountability and manage growth. With our MAP Senior Consultant’s coaching, my leadership skills have greatly improved.

And have we grown? Numbers don’t lie! With Team Coaching Methodology in place, Advantages has increased profitability within the first six months of 2010, doubling last year’s overall profits. It’s taken serious discipline and commitment. We have had to make tough decisions to achieve our goals, but we are on the right path. Also, I can honestly say that Advantages is a very unified, cohesive organization. We are focused on the right goals to achieve change and are truly a high-functioning team.

Fran Biderman-Gross
CEO/Chief Strategista
Advantages
The company that helps other companies get noticed.