I have known Optimal Performance Group’s Principal John Hurlbut for nearly seven years and consider him a friend and a business colleague.  We met on the fields of our kids’ sporting events and often found ourselves discussing leadership and team building on the sidelines. I quickly realized we aligned on philosophy and that I could use his coaching expertise to raise the level of my leadership team.

I work at Micron Technology and my team at the time consisted of 5 direct reports and 330 eventual reports. We worked well together, but it was clear to me we needed to improve as a leadership team in order to improve as an organization.

I hired John Hurlbut for a single day workshop with my leadership team. He organized a day of pre work where he met with each person of the team to gain an understanding of their mindset as well as the chemistry of the team. He then designed exercises that enabled us to open up personally as well as professionally with the end of goal of becoming more cohesive and aligning on our strategy. In reality, 3 days would have been better, but John’s preparation, ability to adapt, and facilitation skills enabled us to accomplish our objectives.

A year or so later I took another role leading a group of senior leaders. It was newly formed team, with a completely new mission, and consisted of very talented and experienced individuals. I wanted to be disruptive to our organization by challenging status quo and taking on a much bigger role than the group was originally designed.  I hired John Hurlbut to lead us through a multi-day “New Team Orientation” and “Strategy Development” workshop. John Hurlbut again organized pre-work where he met with each individual and used the feedback to design his sessions.  The outcome was more than I expected.  We came away with alignment, a plan, and a purpose.

John Hurlbut considers himself a coach as opposed to a consultant and he lives up to that description.  He is prepared, organized, and adaptable.  His facilitation skills are top notch and they are highlighted by his ability to know when to let the group go and when to pull them in.  He asks intuitive questions and challenges appropriately, and he guides instead of directs.

My job has exposed me to several large corporate consultants, and I would put John’s skills and knowledge (his toolbox) up against any I have seen.  The differentiator is he genuinely cares and it shows in his passion and results.   He is well read, keeps up with the trends, but also understands not to chase fads.

I highly recommend Optimap Performance Group’s Principal John Hurlbut if you have a need for team building, executive coaching, strategy development or leadership development.

Sincerely,

—Travis Schow