Danielle Kennedy runs a leadership development consulting firm, Kadima Leadership, as the lead consultant and executive coach. She does executive advising, consulting and training, going into organizations to educate them on tools, frameworks, processes to implement.
Kadima Leadership’s goal is to understand where an organization wants to be from a cultural perspective, identify where they currently are, and then help them figure out how to close that gap for that cultural transformation.
The Challenge
Danielle originally reached out to BELAY while doing a capacity-planning project to determine what needed to happen over the next couple of months.
But when it came to clients with whom she would need to interact with on a much more frequent – and often daily basis, she admitted to feeling a lot of anxiety that there would be no way she could get it all done alone.
“There’s no way I can make all of this happen alone,” she admits to telling herself.
She knew she needed to look for someone to help her. She conducted three informal interviews and within 10 minutes of each, she knew they weren’t the right fit. They didn’t have the right skill set or the right cultural mindset.
She needed someone who could authentically “speak her language” and be comfortable learning and growing in her space. And that’s when she learned about BELAY.
The Solution
Danielle reached out knowing that in just a few short months, she would be traveling as many as three to four days a week and with countless things that needed attention while she was on the road and with clients.
Then, BELAY found Brittany. Danielle committed to the onboarding process, established good communication and meeting cadence and slowly let Brittany into her world.
Danielle admits that initially, trusting the process – and Brittany – proved challenging but she did it. She knew she had to.
“It’s a lot of trust that (clients) give me,” Danielle explains. “And sometimes, I have a hard time releasing that level of trust to someone else that they don’t have that same relationship with.”
Now Brittany manages so much of the client communication, the reminder emails and all of the follow up that is needed before and after each client meeting. Simply put: Brittany owns it all.
The Results
At the end of each day, Danielle and Brittany go through whatever was on the calendar that day.
Danielle will use her drive home to debrief Brittany about her day – feeling the burnout from the day – while Brittany types and asks questions.
They go through every action item, every necessary followup. They talk about an idea Daniella has to make sure it is implemented – and that has given Danielle time and, arguably most importantly, peace of mind.
“[It’s] been really nice,” Danielle explains. “[She] took a load off my shoulders. She’s really helped alleviate a lot of stress and has allowed our clients to have a better experience because of it.
“And when you trust someone and you don’t have to think about it, it just gets done. It’s a beautiful gift.”
The biggest win – Danielle had a client tell her he could “see the difference in her level of service since bringing Brittany on.”