Sadaf Shaikh is the founder and president of Caras Consulting, a Toronto-based boutique consultancy focused on helping business leaders create a high-performance culture within their organization while focusing on people and processes. As an executive coaching culture strategist, Sadaf provides her clients with sharp insights on people and situations, provides honest feedback guidance, and tailors business-focused strategies that have saved or made her clients millions of dollars since her firm’s founding in 2017.
Recently, our own Michael Neuendorff talked with Sadaf to find out just how she’s been able to change the business culture of her varied clientele.
Michael Neuendorf: You went from a career in HR to leadership coaching and consulting. Why did you make that change?
Sadaf Shaikh: I’ve always dreamed about having my own business and I knew it was going to be some type of consulting business. What pushed me to start my own consulting business was in 2017 when I’d reached all my goals professionally in HR, but I wasn’t happy. I had a three-hour commute every day. I would see my children for like 90 minutes every night, and most of that would be spent rushing them off to bed so I could log back onto the computer. I worked most weekends and then one day I found myself logging on during a vacation in India to do work. That made me stop and think: “There’s something wrong here.” And that was it. That’s when I decided, after gaining 10 years of deep experience in HR, that there was no better time for launching my own consulting business.
Michael Neuendorff: For so many people that’s a compelling reason to start their own business: to have the ability to choose when you work, how hard you work, and when you want to take time off. That flexibility is very enticing.
Sadaf Shaikh: Yes, and there’s flexibility in who you work for too. When you’re working for a company, you work exclusively with that company’s leaders and you’re working for that singular organization. However, in consulting, I knew that there’d be opportunities to help multiple leaders, multiple businesses, and gain experience in multiple industries.
Michael Neuendorff: Absolutely. Now the focus of your boutique firm is on culture change. What drove you to select that as your primary service offering?
Sadaf Shaikh: During my years in HR I saw the tremendous influence of business culture on company performance. When I started in HR, I saw how much influence our department had over the business because we were hiring the people who actually made the business run. Our little five-person department was bringing people into this multibillion-dollar organization who were going to help our leaders achieve company goals. As I moved around to different companies, I saw how different companies operated and what impact their culture had on their results and how well they performed.
So, I started looking more into that and I found that “culture” is basically how a company works, what its internal processes are, and how it designs and enforces those processes. The way leaders respond to events and setbacks and successes all create the culture. If I could help leaders see how their business culture could directly impact their results, that would be the foundation for a great consultancy. And that was the main reason why I picked “culture.”
Michael Neuendorff: Business culture is a big topic, and some coaches just aren’t willing to take on such a big initiative within a company that has that level of impact. I think it sets you apart from other coaches in that way.
Sadaf Shaikh: Yeah, but when you realize that all culture is rooted in internal processes and how people perform or work those processes, it makes it so much simpler. You work to change processes. There are so many case studies of companies that, by changing just one small thing, implemented a cultural shift. It’s always about finding that one internal process, that one thing, that’s going to have a ripple effect.
Michael Neuendorff: On your website it says that you’ve saved or made your clients millions of dollars. That sounds like a really great selling point. How is that resonating with clients?
Sadaf Shaikh: I think it’s intriguing because most people don’t know how to quantify coaching or consulting results into dollars. I’ll give you an example of what I’ve done along these lines.
A few years ago, I was working for a corporate client who had acquired a new business division. It wasn’t a great acquisition, and there was a particular leader in that division who was getting a lot of complaints. They engaged me to go in and investigate and do a cultural assessment to see what exactly was happening there. So, I went in and met with this leader in question and a few other people to really find out what the history was and what had been going on. And I discovered that this whole division was like the Wild West because there was no direction from the head office as to how to operate post-acquisition. They were still doing it the old way.
My recommendation to the CEO was: “let’s restructure, designate somebody from your head office to oversee the division, and install somebody on site to set strategy and guide this problematic leader instead of just firing him,” which was the initial plan.
They did that and they made the restructure work. About a year later, they sold that division for way over what they had initially bought it for. And the reason was that the leader who we salvaged turned it around once he had the right support in place. He was also able to provide a lot of input and insight to potential buyers that elevated the asking price. My recommendation made the company millions of dollars they wouldn’t have otherwise seen. And that’s what I mean by quantifying the results of your consulting work.
Michael Neuendorff: So, in that one example, you made a company millions of dollars. Now staying in that same vein, what do you find in particular gets prospective clients interested in working with you?
Sadaf Shaikh: My approach of listening carefully to them and asking the right questions. Right from the start I give them a roadmap of what our journey together would look like. I don’t tell them I’m going to send them a proposal at some future date. I tell them right away: “Here’s what I’m hearing from you. Here’s where you want to go, and here’s how we can get there together.”
I tell them exactly how we will work together, what the process will be, and what we will achieve at the end, which is usually based on what their stated goals are. I think this approach shows a few things. One: that I’ll deal with their exact situation. I know my stuff and I’m able to give them exactly what they need. Two: that I’ll give them a guarantee I’ll continue working with them until they achieve their outcome.
And I learned the hard way that in consulting and coaching your reputation is critical. If you end it with a client without them being 100 percent satisfied that they’ve got everything they could from working with you, even if they didn’t achieve the desired outcome, they’ll feel short-changed.
I think offering this guarantee plays a big part in getting referrals and building a reputation in general. When I’ve talked to other consultants and coaches about offering a guarantee, they often scoff: “Oh, but you can’t do that because clients will never be satisfied.” This hasn’t been the case. In my experience I’ve never stayed with a client more than I thought was necessary.
Michael Neuendorff: I’m actually very pro guarantee. I’ve told clients for years that I guarantee their satisfaction. I can’t guarantee that a coaching client will necessarily meet their outcome exactly as it was specified at the outset of the engagement, but I can guarantee their satisfaction in the sense that they should be extremely satisfied with the work we’ve done together.
If not, I’ll remedy it in some way, including a refund. I’ve offered clients refunds if that’s what they want. I’ve offered them additional coaching or an offer to work on something else. Whatever it takes. I think it’s very important that as coaches [and consultants] we stand behind our work and in our commitment to client satisfaction. I’m very much a supporter of that.
My guess is you’re generally working with highly targeted clients you believe you can work with. And since you’ve been there before, you understand the scope of the engagement and you’re able to plot it out right then and there. You have them consider hiring you immediately instead of waiting for days for you to get back with them. Does it sometimes happen that clients engage with you on the spot?
Sadaf Shaikh: Oh yeah. I have an almost 100 percent closing rate. I think it’s because most of the leaders I approach are at or near the CEO level and they’re able to seize the moment. If they know that somebody like me can help them reach their desired outcomes right then and there, they’ll go for it. They don’t have to say: “OK, let me run it by my team.” They’re pretty much sold on the solution I present and they’re free to act on it.
Michael Neuendorff: Wow, that’s exciting. You just shared a framework here, which I hope other coaches and consultants will pay attention to, and consider taking the brave steps you do and offer a guarantee as well. You’ve also been actively putting up videos regularly on YouTube. I know it’s been some time since you launched your YouTube channel. What have been your results with YouTube that you can share with us?
Sadaf Shaikh: I was super pumped about launching the channel because I feel video is where it’s at these days. Video is a really great way to connect with people and when they see you talking and they hear your thought process and how you project, that’s really powerful. I’ve found that running a YouTube channel is a lot of work, so I’ve taken a bit of a pause with it.
Although I got great feedback from people watching my channel, I wasn’t getting any sales out of it and I wasn’t getting any inquiries out of it either. So, I’ve taken a pause to reevaluate the subject matter that I was posting videos about, which was for small businesses. I have to question: “Is this really the right subject matter? Are the right leaders watching YouTube or should I be switching it to something else focused on leadership coaching or career coaching?” I’m not sure yet, so I’m re-evaluating all of that. But it’s a lot of fun to make videos, and a lot of work, as you know.
Michael Neuendorff: I appreciate you being so candid about that because I’ve put years of effort into YouTube, and it took years before I got my first lead that turned into business from YouTube. I can completely relate to what you’re saying and I continue to emphasize to my coachees that when you choose a platform, know that when going in you’re looking at a lot of hard work to keep putting out good content that can help people.
It seems like a smart thing what you’re doing now to reevaluate and then perhaps reformat your content and come back with more. I like your content, by the way. You’ve made a lot of great videos.
Now this gets to my next question, which is related to effort. It’s a lot of effort to run your own business. Now, the courage that you took when you left working for someone else and going into your own business can fuel you for a while, but eventually you realize: “oh my gosh, I have to wear so many hats, do so many things to run my own business.” How do you manage to stay on top of your business? What are some of the systems you use to manage your business?
Sadaf Shaikh: I love systems. I’m a big process person. It’s what I tell my clients as well, because when you have a process in place there’s less likelihood of you not doing the thing that you’re supposed to. I’m also a huge procrastinator. I find it so easy to procrastinate on stuff, especially when you have your own business because you don’t have a boss. So, I feel like the more processes I have, the fewer excuses I have to procrastinate.
I’ll give you an example. I post on LinkedIn pretty regularly, and I used to find that every morning I would struggle to think about what I should write about. So, I created a bit of a framework and I said: “OK, week one, we’re going to talk about this topic, then in weeks two through four, these topics, and every Sunday I’ll create content for the entire week. I’ll do three to five posts depending on the topic or the theme. And then that way, each weekday morning, I just have to copy and paste it onto LinkedIn.
I used to find myself spending like an hour writing a post, then rewriting it. So, now when I sit down on Sunday, I give myself a maximum of 15 minutes per post. I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t even need that much time. I found that even when I spent an hour on the post, it wouldn’t look materially different from my first draft. It’s just not worth the extra time and effort. I write a draft, consider it done, and move on to the next one.
And then the other thing is, I like to outsource everything that’s admin related that I just know I’ll procrastinate about because I hate doing it. One of those things was editing my YouTube videos. If I could just batch record four or five videos for the month and then send all of those files over to an editor, that would make my life much happier. They would do the editing for me.
I hired my 16-year-old son to do my bookkeeping because it’s basically data entry. And I just trained him, and now he does it on a monthly basis. So anything that I can outsource I will. One tool that I use to keep myself on track and organized is the Full Focus Planner. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it.
Michael Neuendorff: Yes. I’m very familiar with it. It’s a very good planner.
Sadaf Shaikh: I have that on my desk every day and I diligently use it, and then I use Asana for my longer term projects and tasks.
Michael Neuendorff: So, you’ve discovered some of the keys to being successful in business is to realize that you can’t do it all and to accept your level of procrastination. I find it kind of funny that you’re a procrastinator. But the sign on your wall is “Make it happen.”
Sadaf Shaikh: And I think I need that sign. Every time I look into my desktop computer’s camera, I see it behind me. I need that.
Michael Neuendorff: You may have partially answered this question already, but I want to ask you one final question for this interview. And it’s to help newer coaches. What do you think new executive coaches and consultants should know before setting up their own independent practice?
Sadaf Shaikh: I think a big part of it is embracing who you are and working with it. I’ll give you another example. There’s this concept in business that you have to pick a niche and be known for that niche, especially when you’re in coaching, because it’s almost like a personal brand. And what I realized, and it took me a long time to realize it, is that I’m not a specialist. I’m a generalist. I always have been my entire career. I know a lot of stuff. I just never specialized in any one thing, but I like it that way.
So, when it came down to picking a niche, I just couldn’t do it. I’ve come to realize that it’s OK not to have a niche for your entire business as long as each job engagement offer is niche to that client.
You can offer, like I offer, career coaching for mid-career professionals who are looking to change their careers. It’s a very specific offer and the offer is highly needed. But then, on the other hand, I also do HR consulting for small businesses who need very specific help in setting up their internal processes. So, I’d say go with who you are, don’t feel like you need to blindly listen to the experts out there, and strive to live your most authentic life. And I think that’s the key. That, and just listening to what’s in your heart and knowing that.
Michael Neuendorff: Wow, I love that unique answer! I like your idea of being a generalist and a specialist together, as if we found another hybrid approach to life. But I never thought of it like that, because I’m kind of that way too, in that I do a variety of different things. For example, with my sales training, I focus on salespeople that are zero to five years. I do specialize in training and coaching newer salespeople versus just all salespeople. I certainly do believe in your concept since I’m living it to an extent, too.
Well, you’ve been really forthcoming and generous in the time we’ve had together. There’s been so much great information you’ve shared. It’s really no wonder to me you’re the success that you are because you have so much heart and passion for your work. On top of that you have the analytical side, knowing that your work really matters for clients and you save them or make them millions of dollars, literally. So, congratulations to you for all the success you’ve enjoyed so far, and I wish you so much more success in the years to come.
Sadaf Shaikh: Thank you so much, Michael! I really enjoyed speaking with you.
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