When they first get there, do you help them overcome those fears or do you just let them know that it’s completely normal?

David Belden: The best way of overcoming all of it is for me as a facilitator – or anyone working with me as a facilitator – is to make sure we are as vulnerable and as empathic as we expect anyone else to be. One exercise is to present a five-minute story about a truly transformational event in your life, something that happened to you that changed the way you saw the world.’

Of course, I have to illustrate with a story of my own. I have plenty of stories about really stupid things I’ve done in life that somehow worked out, but more importantly, taught me very important lessons.

Do you hit the road and visit the businesses directly or do they come to you?

David Belden: I usually go to the business directly, but businesses today are more geographically diverse, so people come to a common location. Often it is the headquarters of the company or an offsite location. One of the companies I’ve worked with had people in Europe, Asia, the United States, and Latin America. People came in from all over the world to participate in this program.

How do you help organizations, the businesses themselves, overcome obstacles of cost and time and help them to see the value in your Leadership & Self-Discovery program?

David Belden: I was in corporate life before I founded ExecuVision International. Something I learned early in my career is that there is no cost; there is only investment. Every investment must have an ROI (return on investment). I look at every investment in two dimensions. One is time and energy, the other is money,

The most significant dimension to look at is how much energy we’re going to invest. And there must be a return on that investment. If I’m going to invest the dollars, I’m going to invest the time and the energy there needs to be a truly substantial return on that investment. We’ve measured outcomes in the health care field, showing a 17% increase in efficiency. Just imagine if everyone on the executive team were 17% more effective, what would the result be to the bottom line?

That’s the only way we can really measure this. I mean, we take people out of their daily work, we’re developing them, so they are thinking much more strategically. We have people who are actually participating in the leadership and the growth of the company rather than merely waiting to take instruction.

Of course, the clients who are very willing to give testimonials on their results certainly believe it has been worth it and they would do it again. In one company, we started with one cohort of 16 people and then came back to do a second, third, and fourth cohort because it was so valuable to the future of the company.

Can you share an example of how you helped a client within their organization once they’ve participated in your program of Leadership & Self-Discovery?

David Belden: I had done some retreats with the executive team of a client that various people from the company attended. This client was a family-owned, second generation business. Not a small business but doing about $160,000,000 a year in revenue. It is a really well-run company and, as in most family-owned businesses, everyone had become a de facto family member.

This company accepted a several hundred million-dollar investment. Their intent was to take the model that had been so successful locally and go to other markets. That of course, required a completely different way of thinking because one of the many wonderful things about this company was the culture.

Everybody was co-located, they saw each other frequently, they had all kinds of social and community events. The most important thing for the company was to maintain that culture. And the question then is, ‘How do we maintain a culture like that when we are no longer co-located?’ We began redefining the organization and looking at it – working very, concentratedly on figuring out the most efficient and best form of organization was while at the same time developing cohorts of potential leaders, people who were good managers or good team leaders and developing them into visionary leaders for the company.

We’ve worked with that company for over three years. For most companies, our engagement is between 18 and 24 months. With this company, we continue our relationship because they continue to grow and expand. They have more and more aspects that they want ExecuVision International to help them with.

It has been a wonderful partnership in their growth. All our initiatives are discussed with the board as well to make sure that we are strategically aligned, because one of the other aspects of ExecuVision International is that we do not focus on strategic planning. We focus on strategic alignment, making sure that all the stakeholders are aligned on the objectives. Our work is really three aspects:

Leadership development of current managers who are becoming leaders.
Strategic alignment, making sure that teams and groups are aligned around outcomes
Individual behavioral transformation coaching to help people make some personal decisions about how they’re managing their future.

I saw you have a title as Professional Outsider. That is very unique. I want to know what has inspired you to become a Professional Outsider?