Meet
Dr. Craig Overmyer, DMin
I
WHO BETTER to help a
company build a team that can
grow from $5 million in
revenue and 50 employees to
over $100 million in revenue
and 200 employees than a man
who dedicated two decades of
his life to healing familial rifts?
That is the experience that Dr.
Craig Overmyer brings to his
clients as he helps them
transform their businesses into
growth engines.
Changing the focus of his
practice, Craig first began
helping family business owners
who were selling their business
or were transferring leadership
to the next generation.
Recognizing that businesses
that needed to grow beyond
their founder were often
businesses on the verge of
explosive growth—commonly
referred to as “scaling up”—
Craig and his business partner
founded Cultures That Work,
Inc. CTW is an executive
leadership training and
coaching firm dedicated to
facilitating cultural
transformation of midmarket,
fast-growth companies.
Culture is one of the most
complicated components of a
successful business. It needs to
drive the company’s mission,
vision and purpose.
Such companies need to
overcome the hidden barriers
that prevent them from
scaling up. First and foremost
is identifying how all team
members, managers and
executive leaders communicate
with each other. As Craig
explains, “It’s important to
challenge assumptions we
unconsciously form toward one
another. When the assumptions
are off track, they lead to the
three things that naturally
occur in all organizations that
impedes business growth:
friction, confusion and
underperformance.”
Partnering with Carle
Publishing, Craig is developing
a series of publications—both
in print and online—to help
educate and train executive
leaders, managers and
employees to put into practice
the execution habits necessary
for scaling up. The key is to
develop a values-based business
that provides a psychologically
safe environment for employees
to master productive conflict.
Productive conflict is essential
for cohesive teams to hold one
another accountable to achieve
exceptional customer
experiences of value, greater
profitability and improved cash
flow. Craig acts as a catalyst
who sparks cultural
transformation that can rev up
a business, driven by highly
engaged employees who are
focused on meaningful work
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and who make a profound
impact on their clients and on
the world.
Executives engage Craig when
faced with the paradox of
growth. When scaling up,
company growth creates
increasing complexity and
stress. Often, executive leaders
are sucked into the drama of
daily operations, tolerating
underperforming teams and
failing to get everyone aligned
toward a shared vision.
Executives and owners often
ask, “What can I do to scale up
without burning out?”
The answer—Craig’s “secret
sauce”—is recognizing that
only when there is mindful
leadership at every level can the
friction, confusion and
underperformance be
transformed into flow, clarity
and high performance. When
that happens, executives no
longer need to spend 90 percent
of their time on daily
operations and can focus on
learning from their customers,
studying the market, and
closing more business by
trusting their staff to hold one
another accountable to do their
jobs and see that their
customers are being served.
To achieve this goal, Craig
utilizes assessment tools such as
Cultural Transformation Tools
developed by the Barrett Values
Centre and the Productive
Conflict Assessment from
Wiley Publishing. These
assessments provide insights for
executive leaders to measure the
negative impact on employee
engagement, customer service
and cash flow that results from
cultural entropy and destructive
conflict.
Case in point, Herman Kittle
Properties, a commercial real
estate company located in
Indianapolis, provides clean,
beautiful and affordable
housing to low-income families.
When Craig started as their
coach, they had about 100
employees and 75 properties.
Jeff Kittle, the company’s
president, wanted to transform
the company culture so that
they could do even more
meaningful work and provide
more low-income families with
affordable housing.
Working with Craig, in less
than 10 years, the company has
grown to over 500 employees
and more than doubled the
number of its properties in 26
states. Through his coaching,
the executive team has monthly
learning engagements. Every
quarter they recalibrate
strategies, and every year they
hold a two-day retreat to
establish their annual priorities.
The result: Jeff and his team
have infused mindful leadership
at every level to scale up