Build a management team
that solves the right problems.
Help capable managers carry more of the company's weight.
Growth changes what your company needs from its managers.
I help growing companies develop shared practices for collaborative problem-solving. Managers learn to understand consequential situations, work through disagreement, make sound decisions, create reliable agreements, and follow through.
Begin with the free, 15-minute Management System Diagnostic to identify where management-system friction is consuming senior-leader time and slowing execution.
Explore the Collaborative Leadership System <link>
TRUSTED ACROSS STARTUPS, TECHNICAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND ESTABLISHED ENTERPRISES
More than 30 years in organizational development, including more than 15 focused specifically on leadership development.
IF THE COMPANY HAS GROWN FASTER THAN ITS MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Does too much still roll back to you?
Your managers may be capable, committed, and technically strong. Yet you may still find yourself thinking:
“Every decision funnels through me—and it is slowing us down.”
“We keep solving the same problems.”
“When I’m out, too many things wait for me.”
“People are working hard, but follow-through is inconsistent.”
One problem may be isolated. When several appear across managers, the pattern often points to something larger.
THE PATTERN BENEATH THE SYMPTOMS
These may not be separate manager problems.
As a company grows, informal ways of leading that once worked can become inconsistent or overly dependent on a few senior people.
Problems with delegation, decisions, conflict, priorities, and follow-through are often treated one at a time. But when the same difficulties appear across several managers, the company may need a shared management system: common ways to understand what is happening, solve the right problems, make decisions, create agreements, act on those agreements, and learn from the results.
A BETTER QUESTION
Instead of asking, “Which manager needs fixing?” ask: “What shared capabilities, practices, and agreements will help this management team carry more of the company’s weight?”
THE COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP SYSTEM
Develop the management system—not just individual managers.
The Collaborative Leadership System helps management teams build a shared discipline for collaborative problem solving. It combines diagnosis, shared learning, practice, and application around consequential situations the team is already facing.
Managers use shared frameworks to understand what is happening, bring the right perspectives into the room, work through disagreement, choose a sound course of action, and turn decisions into reliable follow-through.
Explore the Collaborative Leadership System <link>
What changes in practice
See more clearly. Managers distinguish symptoms from root causes and consider the full system before choosing what to change.
Decide at the right level. Ownership and input are clearer, so consequential work does not automatically funnel upward.
Create reliable agreements. Managers turn decisions into explicit who, what, and when commitments—and follow through.
Learn and adjust. The team surfaces disagreement, reviews results, and improves without repeated senior intervention.
THE OUTCOME
A management team that solves the right problems skillfully, in fewer iterations, and without constant senior-leader intervention. Once that drag is lifted, the team gains the focus and judgment to spot the right opportunities and act on them.
"At Mighty, we saw immediate business impact from our work with Russ. Our team was able to collaborate more efficiently and communicate more clearly, saving time and improving decision-making. His work emphasized shared frameworks and language that teams can take with them long after a workshop ends."
–Jessica Shambora
Sr. Director, Product Management
Mighty Networks
How the engagement works
1. Diagnose and align. Identify friction, clarify business priorities, and align on the capabilities the management team most needs.
2. Build a shared foundation. Develop common language and practical frameworks for systemic thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and day-to-day leadership.
3. Apply and master. Practice on live business challenges, receive feedback, strengthen judgment, and turn the frameworks into everyday habits.
The Collaborative Leadership System incorporates Middle Path workshops developed by Chris Holmberg of Middle Path Consulting and facilitated by Russ Powell. Within the CLS engagement, Russ combines the workshops with diagnostic work, senior alignment, application, and mastery.
Who this is for
Best suited to growing companies with approximately 20–200 employees, an established layer of managers, and senior executives who want the management team to carry more of the company’s weight.
WHY RUSS POWELL CONSULTING
Practical development for the realities of human systems
Four principles distinguish Russ Powell Consulting’s approach to developing managers and management teams.
Problem-solving comes first. Communication matters, but it is a means—not the end goal. The work helps managers understand consequential situations clearly, solve the right problems, and help their teams do the same.
Human systems are not machines. Teams are relational, adaptive, and sometimes messy. Managers learn to consider structure and process, relationships and alignment, and individual skills and assumptions before deciding what to change.
Simple frameworks. Disciplined practice. The tools are designed to be understood quickly and used repeatedly. Managers work on consequential live situations, practice deliberately, and receive feedback—not just concepts to remember.
Move beyond either/or. The Middle Path approach helps managers recognize false choices and integrate what binary thinking pulls apart: confidence with humility, flexibility with discipline, results with integrity, and clear guidance with genuine support.
EXPERIENCE THAT CONNECTS LEARNING TO PERFORMANCE
Deep enough to see the system. Practical enough to work inside it.
Russ’s background combines instructional systems design, organizational development, facilitation, coaching, and assessment. That breadth matters because recurring management friction is not always a training problem—the right response may involve skills, agreements, structures, relationships, or all four.
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Triple-certified in Hogan personality assessments, including advanced interpretation and feedback
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Experience with organizations including Google, SAP, Genentech, Medtronic, Delta Airlines, Hilton
Worldwide, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
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Middle Path frameworks have been delivered to leaders at more than 160 organizations—from early-stage technology startups to Fortune 100 companies
"As a result of working with Russ, our leadership skills have tangibly improved. We've achieved a stronger team dynamic and a more effective approach to problem-solving. This transformation has not only boosted our productivity but also brought our team closer together."
–John La Gue
Chief Operating Officer
Trainwell
A USEFUL PLACE TO BEGIN
Find the friction consuming senior-leader time and slowing execution.
The free, self-scoring Management System Diagnostic examines seven parts of the system your managers rely on—from problem-solving and accountability to delegation, trust, and operating clarity.
In about 15 minutes, it gives you a clearer picture of which patterns deserve attention and where improvement may create the greatest practical relief or leverage.
Free. Approximately 15 minutes. Delivered by email.
Your managers do not need to become copies of you.
They do need a shared way to think clearly, lead skillfully, and solve consequential problems together.
Talk with Russ <link>
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Russ Powell Consulting — Helping growing companies build management teams that solve the right problems.
A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA
The Investor-Ready Team Checklist
In New Orleans, they call it lagniappe (LAN-yap) — a little something extra.
For founders and senior managers of growing startups, I’ve created a short checklist to help you see your team the way an investor, advisor, board member, or senior hire might see it.
The checklist focuses on the operating issues that often show up when a company starts to grow: unclear decisions, avoided conversations, too many priorities, uneven management habits, and founders who are still the bottleneck.
Use it less like a test and more like a mirror.
