From Bob Ledford, AECOM

I hired John Hurlbut to help me in my new role at AECOM as Chief Operations Officer of the Americas both as a “1:1 Coach” and to help me with my Leadership Team.  With 20,000 Employees and $4 Billion in Sales, we finished 2017 with an uptick in net profit and zero turnover in key P&L level Management.  These results exceeded the expectations of our Senior Leadership and reversed a negative trend to begin the year.

We accomplished this first through improvement in my focus and secondly in organizational processes.  John helped by asking some powerful questions about how we approached the business and really learned the fundamentals quickly enough to help me prioritize and see what was working and not working.  His genuine curiosity and ability to anticipate the cause and effect of our Managers and their results was a real benefit.  His unique perspective and confidence in his process made it easy to work with him and led to a true collaborative effort that was ultimately all mine.

Using tools John brought to the table helped me structure very specific Action Plans for my Direct Reports that were extremely effective when it came to execution and holding them accountable.  He did a great job of being inquisitive and direct while at the same time keeping us on task with a result in mind.  His insistence that measurable action was the only acceptable result was what made the difference in the end profit picture.

The improved results of my organization were also a result of a higher engagement level of my direct reports.  As a result of my working with John it became clear to me that my communication of the real clear goals and objectives we worked through had a very positive effect on my people and they responded very well.  John and I discussed elements of Recognition, Respect, Trust, Empowerment, and Relationships as foundations for improved engagement.  It also helped in lower turnover in general and resulted in none in key areas.

Perhaps the best contribution from John was his regular, consistent, and brutally honest means of holding me accountable to what we agreed to.  We had scheduled follow up with clear expectations that Action Plans would be executed.

Bob Ledford
Chief Operations Officer
Americas
AECOM

From Aaron Howell, Northwest Lineman College

I chose to work with the Principal of Optimal Performance Group, John Hurlbut based on the qualities I find critical in a Coach and business partner.  He brings a tremendous passion and what I like to call his own “secret sauce.”  He has a personality that people gravitate and open up to- while at the same time can feel safe and energized with. His integrity and work ethic are present in all aspects of his work.

Our work together entailed a lot of planning time and ultimately the execution of an off-site Managers Meeting that was very productive for my team and myself. At all times I found the relationship to be Co-Creative with mutual respect and trust. They encouraged the process to come from my team and myself while always keeping an eye on the agenda and stated goals of the project. They did everything they said they would do and more.

John Hurlbut is an excellent communicator with his use of strong questions and excellent listening skills. He routinely confirmed the direction we were heading and helped us build on ideas through reaffirmations, interpretations, and more questions while keeping us on task at the same time. He is articulate, entertaining, and at the end of the day produced very focused results we had identified as goals together.

The activities John put together for the Team to work through were very engaging and exactly what we needed to accomplish our stated goal. He managed to accomplish team building and full participation from all participants. We identified our core values and the entire Leadership Team had a hand in the outcome. The result is complete buy-in as we roll these out to all our employees.

We have a long-term goal of achieving much more with John’s guidance and are excited to continue to utilize his Coaching to take our Team further.  I welcome any questions you might have to further discuss the skills and attributes John brings to a Leadership Team.

—Aaron Howell, President
Northwest Lineman College

From Travis Schow from Micron Technology

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 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 to lead us through a multi-day “New Team Orientation” and “Strategy Development” workshop.  John 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 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 John if you have a need for team building, executive coaching, strategy development or leadership development.

—Travis Schow, Micron Technology Inc.

From Mike Weiland, General Sales Manager at Archie Cochrane Ford

Sales are up! Optimal Performance Group has helped our Leadership and Sales Team become a positive driving force and the customers are impressed.

The Optimal Performance Group’s Principal John Hurlbut has been working with our vision, leadership, front line employees and our metrics and process.

John Hurlbut is without question a great guy and brings an immense amount of experience and talent to our table through his workshops and presentations.

He has helped us create a new dynamic with our sales teams and processes. Employees are more engaged, which has had a direct and positive approach to our customers.

—Mike Weiland, General Sales Manager
Archie Cochrane Ford

From Pat Whitmer, Director at Pat Whitmer Creative Capital

The strategies we learned from Optimal Performance Group’s approach to Leadership, Teamwork, Coaching, and Engagement  has proved to be mission-critical.

Working with a team of “creative types” we quickly learned that the same recipe for metrics, team playing, and motivation simply didn’t apply across the board. One of our biggest discoveries through Optimal Performance Group’s time with us was the gaps in our positive approach to individual team members when it came time make beneficial performance reviews and pave the road forward. Optimal Performance Group said “you don’t need a complete overhaul, you just need a tune-up.”

An now our team is more content, the individual members engage far better with each other, the projects and most importantly our customers.

—Pat Whitmer, Director
Pat Whitmer Creative Capital