How Did Elim Consulting Start?
Here's a Look into Our Story.
How it All Started
Somewhere in the mid-2000’s I was introduced to the idea of organizational health by a dear friend through the writings of Pat Lencioni. Specifically the book “Death By Meeting”. As soon as I saw the title, I knew I had to read it, and it turned out to be the mother of all lightbulb moments. I had finally found words for the ideas that had been rolling around in my mind with no place to land. Since then the study of what makes for a high functioning team and a great culture has been a never-ending insatiable journey for more knowledge and greater insight.
Moving Beyond My Own Little World
As the years passed, the passion for organizational health moved from an exercise in personal development to conversations with other people about their teams and the culture of their organization, which only fueled my fire to figure out how to help others with the daily challenges of leading people, teams, and organizations.
Greater Insight...
In the middle of this slow journey to what eventually became Elim Consulting, a career change at the age of 40 (which seems really young to me now) led to an interesting discovery. It doesn’t matter who the people are, or what the industry is, the rules as to whether or not that team will function well – whether or not they will have a great culture – are exactly the same. This realization combined with a love of improving the “human system” (i.e. culture and teams) lead to another realization; helping people create great cultures where they find not only the challenge to perform, but also the fulfillment that comes from working on a great team is where I wanted to spend all of my time.
I Know What I Want to be When I Grow Up
As a result of all the study, conversations, and finally figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up, Elim Consulting was started as a resource for leaders that have this nagging idea that they know there is a better way to run teams and build culture, but they just can’t quite put their finger on what it is. If that’s you, Elim can help… and we would love to.
We all have to work, so why can’t we make work as fulfilling as possible? Although fulfillment at work is definitely impacted by what you do, it is impacted even more by the team you work with.
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I help leaders create very clear definitions of who they are as a company, how they will succeed, and how they will lead. I would truly love to help you and your organization however I can.
Paul PolK, Founder
Our Clients Say
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I have personally known Paul since 2006, and have worked with him professionally for many of those years. Professionally I have faced some daunting obstacles through several mergers and acquisitions with my company. Paul’s friendship and advice deepened my resolve to take responsibility and accountability for results-past, present, and future. Through the years, giving up, and moving on, would have been understandable. Blaming others easily explained and justified. Paul’s leadership empowered me to take ownership for current circumstances. Paul’s approach in my situation gave me the confidence that in any circumstance, my own accountability and ownership of the situation was what I should focus on. Do things to create a better outcome. This mindset has totally changed how I approach challenges in life personally and professionally.
As a banker with a portfolio of small to midsize companies, I get the honor of being on the inside of many challenges my customers face personally and professionally. I could see early on that my customers could benefit from what I was learning from Paul. Paul and I started a pilot program for our bank customers that evolved into a free, two-day off-site session for a select group of customers. The focus was on Organizational Health. The session was comprised of the customer’s key management team and focused on the company’s mission, clarity of the mission, and communication of the mission. Many of the customers that benefited from this program are included in testimonials. As you read through their testimonials you will see a common theme throughout – Paul’s work with their organization was transforming.
As a banker with a portfolio of small to midsize companies, I get the honor of being on the inside of many challenges my customers face personally and professionally. I could see early on that my customers could benefit from what I was learning from Paul. Paul and I started a pilot program for our bank customers that evolved into a free, two-day off-site session for a select group of customers. The focus was on Organizational Health. The session was comprised of the customer’s key management team and focused on the company’s mission, clarity of the mission, and communication of the mission. Many of the customers that benefited from this program are included in testimonials. As you read through their testimonials you will see a common theme throughout – Paul’s work with their organization was transforming.
-Ralph Ramsey, NorthBridge Realty Holdings
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I have worked hard to build a successful chiropractic practice over the past 22 years. I have read well over 100 books on management and self-improvement, attended over 2,000 hours of professional and personal development seminars, and worked with half a dozen professional coaches during this time. Three years ago when I met Paul Polk, we were doing okay. But money was always tight; I wasn’t even sure I could scrape up the money to hire him for our weekend retreat. And to be honest, we didn’t have much of a strategy for moving our business forward.
But those two days offsite were truly transformative. He helped us create not just a vision statement, but a true vision of who we are as an organization.
Using the tools and insights we gained from that first session in 2018, it was both easy to see the value of bringing him back in 2019, as well as much easier to pay for it because of the resulting profitability to our clinic. We just finished our fourth annual session with him, operating with both substantial profit margins and a high level of employee engagement and satisfaction, not to mention just much more fun and focused team.
Much better ROI than any other business management I have engaged in over the past two decades.
-Dr. Vince Baugher, Denton Spinal Decompression & Chiropractic Center