We help CEOs and tech executives turn silos and confusion into clear priorities, aligned decisions, and collective results

Leadership team offsites  |  C-suite advisory  | 
Executive coaching

Patrick Lencioni’s frameworks for executive teams, since 2015

Start a conversationTake the self-check
Michael Sullivan presenting Cohesion, Clarity and Cadence to a room of leaders

Partial client list

See all 55
  • Alation
  • AllStripes
  • American Society of Civil Engineers
  • Asper AI
  • Autonomic
  • BellRing Brands
  • Carbon 3D
  • Cerus
  • Chime
  • City of Dana Point
  • Crunchyroll
  • Fractal Analytics
  • Francisco Partners
  • Humaculture
  • Hyperfine
  • In My Shoes
  • InfluxData
  • Legatus
  • Litera
  • Lumen Academy
  • MarVista Entertainment
  • nvision Glass
  • Pair Eyewear
  • The Plex
  • Premier Protein
  • Procore
  • Purdue University
  • Pure Storage
  • Quantcast
  • Red Robin
  • Reno Aces
  • RobbJack
  • Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Petersburg
  • Sacramento SPCA
  • SeekOut
  • SIM San Diego
  • St Agnes Home
  • Sumo Logic
  • Yolo County DA
  • Zendesk

Results

Fortune 50 technology company

$6M-a-month conflict resolved in 7 months

Situation

IT and security fighting daily

4 VPs refereeing every fight

“Worse than a terrible marriage.”CIO

Intervention

Interviews with leaders and engineers on both sides

Took the VPs out of the meetings

One day together, in person, one issue at a time

Impact

$6Ma month saved, estimated, for a $121B company

0 VPs needed: their teams settled issues themselves

“I really thought we couldn’t bring these two teams together. You guys did.”CIO

Architectural glass company

Leadership team 50% more effective

Situation

One branch with no projects

4 of 5 behaviors in the red on our first assessment

“Completely disconnected.”The CEO

Intervention

Drafted the rally cry with the team, and scored progress every week

Reassessed the team before every offsite

Four offsites, and weekly tacticals until the team ran them

Impact

$3.1Msigned by that branch, 35% over last year

0 of 5 behaviors in the red four months later

“That whole thing triggered the turnaround.”The CEO

Healthcare provider

Losses on care cut in half in one year

Situation

$1.69M lost on care the year we began

Team assessment 3.37 of 5, all five behaviors at medium

“There were little cliques, and there wasn’t that trust.”The CEO

Intervention

One goal at a time: agency staff, margin, staff retention, residents

Reassessed the team before every offsite

Weekly tactical, led by us, then handed back

Impact

$830Kof that loss closed in one year, for a $9.6M-a-year organization

Team assessment 4.10 of 5: trust, commitment and results now high

“They feel that they can trust me and trust each other.”The CEO

What clients say

“Michael delivered a meaningful and measurable impact on how we communicate, set priorities, and collaborate across departments and diverse personalities. As a result of his coaching, we have seen clear improvements in cross-department communication, goal execution, and overall team cohesion.”
Scott EaganPresident and CEO, nvision Glass
“Michael Sullivan is a passionate and trusted advisor. Over the years, he has led multiple workshops at FOX that delivered tremendous value across the enterprise. From my perspective as a senior technology executive, Michael’s impact on our leadership culture was clear: he is, most of all, an exceptional teacher.”
Garrett BossCIO, Laserfiche, formerly EVP, FOX
“Michael has an extraordinary understanding of what it takes for executive teams to work effectively and the role each individual, given their unique character, can play. From personal concerns to organizational dynamics, his coaching method provides clarity and direction to senior executives lonely at the top.”
Mrunali Majmudarthen Chief Practice Officer, Fractal Analytics

Our experience

The record

11years of this work
90leadership teams
150executive offsites
1,700leaders worked with

Our clients

31CEO clients
25clients over $1B revenue
82%repeat client work
14engagements with one Fortune 50 client

Top five times clients reach out to us

What it costs

  1. 1

    Infighting between two senior leaders cut quarterly results, and now their teams won’t work together either.

    $6Mper month
  2. 2

    Your leadership team has turned over 20% in six months, and the people who are left are waiting to see who goes next.

    $420Kper leader
  3. 3

    Your AI initiative spans several divisions, and the board wants to see ROI this quarter.

    $5-20Mper AI build
  4. 4

    Your best technical leader just lost two senior engineers, and you need him to become a people leader before you lose another one.

    $130Kper engineer
  5. 5

    You have re-orged twice in the last eighteen months, and nothing’s working.

    $22Mper year

Where does your leadership team stand?

Ten questions, two minutes, instant score

Two requirements for success

Smart

No longer differentiates

  • Strategy
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Technology
  • Operations
  • Sales

Healthy

Last remaining advantage

  • Minimal politics
  • Minimal confusion
  • High morale
  • High productivity
  • Low turnover

After Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage

Our approach

Cohesion, Clarity and Cadence as one weekly cycle

Politics → trust

Cohesion

Overcoming five dysfunctions of a team

Five dysfunctions of a team: Trust at the base, then Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, Results at the top

Confusion → direction

Clarity

Answering six critical questions

  1. Why do we exist?
  2. How do we behave?
  3. What do we do?
  4. How will we succeed?
  5. What’s important now?
  6. Who must do what?

Death by meeting → decisions

Cadence

Transforming meetings into rapid execution

Four meetings: quarterly offsite review 1 to 2 days, ad hoc strategic 2 to 4 hours, weekly tactical 60 to 90 minutes, daily check-in 10 minutes

From Patrick Lencioni: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Advantage and Death by Meeting

We run itWe coach youYou run it

Your whole organization, measured

Our offerings

StartSet
baseline
Q1Unify
leadership
Q2Create
clarity
Q3Cascade
to leaders
Q4Roll out
org-wide

Flagship

12-Month Engagement

Four 90-Day Sprints

Strategy executed

A two-day offsite each quarter
Six clarity answers
Meetings led, then self-sustaining
Executives deliver clarity to all staff

Start a conversation
  1. 1AssessLeadership team and organization
  2. 2DebriefWhat we found, ranked
  3. 3CommitThe next 90 days

Rapid response

30-Day Diagnostic

Baseline assessed

Organization and leadership assessment with debrief

Five domains, 90-day commitments

Start here
Five dysfunctions of a team: Trust at the base, then Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, Results at the top

Rapid response

90-Day Sprint

Leadership unified

Executive offsite: trust, conflict, roles, and the six-month objective

We lead weekly tacticals, not just teach them

Start a conversation
Leadership team
Their team
Their team
Their team

Six answers, one level down

Continuing

Next-Level Leadership Teams

One quarter per team

Alignment multiplied

Direct reports run this with their own teams: offsite, tacticals, six answers, one level down

Start a conversation
  • Developing the leadership team
  • Managing direct reports
  • Having difficult conversations
  • Running great team meetings
  • Communicating repetitively to employees

Continuing

Executive Coaching & C-Suite Advisory

Monthly for 6+ months

Confidential advisory

Five responsibilities a leader cannot abdicate

Start a conversation

Managing risks, delivering results

What usually goes wrongHow we prevent it
Canned program

Consultants focus on their framework rather than your bottom line

We co-create to 100% with you, building every team exercise on your real business issues

Offsite fades

Two good days, then old habits return
No one uses the playbook

We run your tactical meetings until your team does
Playbook on every desk, used in every meeting

It stops at the top

Your leadership team aligns, yet nothing below them changes

Your executives deliver the six answers to their own organizations

Someone else delivers

A senior partner sells it, but a junior associate delivers it

The person who sells it leads and delivers every session

We cannot measure it

Everyone says it went well, but nothing proves it did

We score each level at the start and at the end
You see what changed, and how much

Who you work with

Michael Sullivan

Michael SullivanLinkedIn

CEO and Founder, Sullivan Practice

Serving executive teams nationally
Fluent in English, Italian, Spanish

Certifications, licensure

  • Certified Working Genius facilitator
  • Certified Myers-Briggs practitioner
  • Trained Co-Active professional coach
  • MA Counseling, Philosophy, Theology

I lead and deliver every session myself.

Rebecca Sullivan

Rebecca Sullivan

Director of Operations

Rebecca runs the operations behind every engagement: scheduling, travel, offsite logistics, contracts and invoicing.

Before Sullivan Practice, she spent ten years in public schools, including New York City, where she ran state testing and launched a grant-funded program.

Education, certification

  • MA, Hunter College
  • Certified school leader
  • Fluent in English, Spanish

[email protected]

Executive forum

Every other month, we host a 45-minute executive forum

Next: Thursday, November 12, 2pm Eastern, with Garrett Boss, CIO of Laserfiche, formerly EVP at FOX

Nov 12Jan 14Mar 11May 13

Register
Executive forum invitation with Garrett Boss and Michael Sullivan
Michael Sullivan leading a weekly tactical meeting with a leadership team

Where we go from here

  1. 1

    Executive forum

    45 minutes, every other month

    Register
  2. 2

    A confidential call

    Bring your hardest team issue
    Leave with a clear next step

    Start a conversation
  3. 3

    30-Day Diagnostic

    Organization and leadership assessment with debrief

    Start here