Jesse Ficks | President of SKIS Painting
Leading Growth Through Ownership Succession
OVERVIEW
Jesse Ficks is a third-generation commercial painting contractor who is preparing for a leadership and ownership transition at his family's business, SKIS Painting. They employ over 140 people and have been in business since 1968.
OBJECTIVE
Jesse was entering a season of transition and change as he was succeeding his father as owner of the company. Jesse began looking for a leadership and business coach hybrid to serve as a mentor.
CHALLENGE
There are some complex dynamics and tough conversations that Jesse needed to have. He wanted support looking at his company from a bigger organizational standpoint so that, should he choose, he could grow it into something more. He was seeking a professional sounding board to talk things out.
SOLUTION
Futurity Resources | Executive Leadership Coaching
Futurity Resources | Strategic Business Growth Coaching
“It can be lonely at the top, and you need somebody to talk to. I really appreciated Rick’s coaching style. He’s there for me when I need to work through tough challenges and helps me find new paths when I’m frustrated.”
Jesse Ficks | President of SKIS Painting
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
When I first started working with Rick, I was still a VP and wanted to develop my relationship with the other VP before I took over as President. The VP and I started working with Rick together. Rick gave us some great tools and feedback, and the trust between us grew tremendously.
Next, Rick started working with me and my entire leadership team.
Rick guided us through the thinking and development of our leadership team reorganization and our business operating system. This is where Rick’s approach truly stands out from other business coaches. He helped us put our theoretical plan into practice with regular check-ins and showed us how to monitor progress.
I've had coaches in the past who taught a system and left me alone to implement it. Rick, however, is really great about following up and knowing when I need to be either challenged or encouraged to move forward.
RESULTS
The reorganization of our leadership team has had the biggest impact. He helped us design and implement an improved leadership and management structure.
The system and tools he uses helped us identify the data we needed to collect and monitor to drive performance. We learned to develop KPIs and create themes for strategy. Our first was “Drive To 45”. Having a theme helped us achieve our goals for 6 quarters. Prior to learning these tools from Rick, we hadn’t experienced that level of consistency.
Rick is able to identify trends within our own business and help us zero in on them to produce great results. For example, our focus on production and profitability has everyone pulling in the same direction and is making massive improvements. Had we worked alone, this type of shift would have taken us three or four years to achieve. Rick has helped us see these results in just one year.
The entire company has benefited from the work Rick’s done with our team. Each director and manager has benefited from Rick’s coaching when they stepped up into their new position. All of us have become better leaders and, as a result, we’ve seen a reduction in our employee attrition by 50%.
The momentum Rick put behind my development has given me a new level of confidence to lead the organization that I did not have before.
