Coaching and mentoring for companies in change
We mentor managing directors and leadership teams through acquisitions, mergers and changes in how a company is run, and we run full-day workshops for the managers who have to make the change work.
When companies come to us
For small and mid-sized companies: privately owned firms, joint ventures, and local companies inside international groups. Typical situations:
- You acquired a company, or two organisations mergedTwo cultures, two ways of deciding, duplicated roles, and key people unsure where they stand.
- The way the company is run is changingFrom centralised to functional, from a line organisation to a matrix, a new owner, a new parent group or a new business model.
- A joint venture or a unit of a larger groupLocal management answers to more than one owner or head office, and the rules for who decides what are not clear.
- Growth has outrun the structureThe founder or the MD still decides everything, managers wait for approval, departments work in silos, or good people leave.
Coaching and mentoring
Our main offer is a coaching programme that runs alongside the change itself, so decisions get made with someone who has been through them before.
One-to-one
For the MD or owner
A confidential sounding board for decisions on structure, people and the pace of change: what to change first, who should lead what, and how to keep the business running while it changes.
Team sessions
For the leadership team
Working sessions with the management team on shared goals, roles and decision rights, and on how the team settles disagreements and holds itself to account.
Topics we work on
- Where the organisation stands. Which stage of growth the company is in, which crisis is building, and what the next structure needs to look like.
- Structure and governance. Roles, reporting lines, decision rights and management forums; when a centralised, functional or matrix set-up fits, and how to move between them.
- Integration after an acquisition or merger. The first 100 days, one leadership team, one set of rules and processes, and keeping the people you cannot afford to lose.
- Working with shareholders and head office. Aligning owners’, corporate and local expectations, reporting, and a smooth handover when the managing director changes.
- Culture and values. Which behaviours the change needs, and how shared values show up in everyday decisions, not only on the wall.
- Leadership and delegation. Letting go of control without losing oversight, accountability, and management meetings that end in decisions.
- Managing the change. Sequence and pace, communication, handling doubt and resistance, and early results that build trust.
- Goals and measures. A small set of shared goals and KPIs, such as safety, quality and productivity, and a review rhythm that shows whether the change is working.
A typical programme
- Start: diagnosis and goalsConversations with the MD and the leadership team, then a written summary of where the company stands and the goals we agree to work on.
- 3 to 6 months of sessionsA session every two weeks, in person or online, with short calls in between when a decision cannot wait.
- Close: review and hand-overWe review progress against the goals and agree what the team carries on with on its own.
The shape is agreed with you. A workshop day often works well as the start of a programme, to give the whole management team a shared language.
Workshops
Full-day, practical workshops for managers on the soft side of leadership, built around exercises on your own organisation rather than generic case studies.
Six stages of growth, each ending in a crisis, drawn in studio colours.
Full day
Organisational development
For MDs, senior managers and HR directors. How companies grow, why each stage of growth ends in a crisis, and how to lead the organisation into the next stage.
- The ideal and the real organisation: leadership principles and corporate culture.
- A worked transformation: the starting point, shareholders’ and employees’ expectations, barriers, and the approach of shared values, shared goals, sequence and pace.
- Greiner’s growth model: six stages (creativity, direction, delegation, coordination, collaboration, alliances) and the crises between them (leadership, autonomy, control, red tape, the limits of internal growth, identity).
- Workshop 1: map where your organisation was five years ago and where it is today.
- Workshop 2: name the crisis you face now, its cause and the way out, with three actions, an owner for each and a 90-day signal of success.
Participants take away the handout, the A4 worksheet and their team’s own action plan. In Serbian or English.
Two axes, four styles, drawn in studio colours.
Full day
DISC for managers and teams
For team leaders and their teams. How people differ in pace and focus, and how to use those differences instead of fighting them.
- The DISC model: two axes and four styles (dominance, influence, steadiness, conscientiousness), and where it comes from.
- A short self-assessment questionnaire and how to read your own profile.
- Each style up close: what drives it, what it needs, and how it behaves under pressure.
- Communication: recognising another person’s style, adjusting pace and focus, the same message in four versions, and preparing a real conversation.
- Teams: a map of your team, natural tensions between styles, working in pairs, and two agreed rules for working together.
- Leadership: how to lead each style, the strengths and blind spots of your own, and a personal plan.
A discussion tool for teams and pairs, not a test for hiring or selection. Participants take away the handout and an A4 workbook with their profile and plan. In Serbian; English on request.
How a workshop day runs
- About five hours of contentInput, discussion and workshops, with coffee and lunch breaks.
- Up to 15 participantsSmall enough that everyone works on their own team and organisation.
- At your company or off-siteIn person at your premises or a venue of your choice, or online. We travel.
- Goals agreed beforehandWe agree with you what the day should achieve, and adapt the examples and workshops to it.
Who leads it
Coaching, mentoring and workshops are led by a senior practitioner with more than 20 years of leading transformation at every level of a company, including as managing director of two companies taken through it. MBA (University of Sheffield) and the INSEAD Strategy Execution Programme.
The advice comes from running companies, not only from studying them. We don’t name clients, and everything you tell us stays confidential.
You meet the practitioner in the first conversation; a CV and references are available on request.
How to start
- Email us a few lines: what kind of company you are, what is changing, and what worries you most.
- We reply within two business days (Central European Time) to agree a time for a free 30-minute first conversation, online or by phone.
- If it fits, we propose a mentoring programme or a workshop day in writing, for you to review.
Or write to office@quiethoursstudio.co.