Testimonials about Mike Cleland

Our company engaged Mike to help facilitate improvement workshops for both our sales and recruiting organizations. In both cases Mike proved to be an exceptionally valuable resource, and by engaging Mike we not only identified the right solutions, but were able to develop a plan to implement them much more effectively. Specifically, Mike’s workshops were exceptionally effective at driving collaboration, and getting the management team on the same page on what improvements need to be made.

We were so pleased with the results of the workshops we also have Mike closely involved with implementing the improvements. His involvement has been invaluable. Working with our with a senior level management team, Mike’s ability to ask poignant questions helped further clarify our approach and was crucial in increasing our placements by over 30%.

Our investment group needed greater visibility into our staffing interests and engaged Mike to conduct a detailed assessment of an operationally complex organization. Exceeding already high expectations, Mike’s assessment was a fact based and insightful report that provided clarity on the issues as well as powerful recommendations to strengthen the organization. In addition, Mike provided metrics reporting that not only that gives us visibility into results, but also into critical leading indicators. These measures give us a greater understanding on the state of our investments, and a higher level of confidence that the right improvements are being made.

I engaged Mike to help me create our very first onboarding plan. Having a solid onboarding plan has made a huge difference to the success of getting people up and running on our team. We hired 4 new managers in 2011 each with resounding success, much of which we attribute to our plan. Mike’s experience in the staffing business as well as his ability to recommend specific tasks and goals for incoming managers was crucial to the success of our engagement. We will continue to use Mike to help us fine tune our management processes.

Mike facilitated workshops for each of our three business units and in each case we walked away with a greater understanding of the issues they are facing and identified improvements to address them. Mike’s workshops challenged our managers to look at their business differently and the process helped to develop creative solutions together that they would unlikely have developed on their own.

We also engaged Mike to develop the metrics we use to manage the organization. The exercise of creating the performance measures helped management get on the same page, increased our visibility, and more importantly, established performance expectations for our business units.

Mike Cleland assisted me in developing a solid strategic sales plan to relaunch a geographically distributed staffing sales team into a Fortune 50 global account. In less than 3 weeks, the plan was completed and rolled out to the team, with complete buy-in from all involved sales professionals. No whining! Mike's input, guidance, and suggested approaches helped me create a plan that was factual, practical, and aggressive but attainable. What better characteristics could you ask of any strategic sales plan, much less one designed to guide sales efforts into a $40b company? I have other areas of need where Mike will be helping me soon, so I will be a repeat customer. I strongly recommend Mike to anyone needing a true business partner.

Mike is an intelligent and focused leader. I worked with Mike for 10 years and have seen him mature and progress from a Branch Manager to President of the IT Division. He has a passion for aligning all aspects of a staffing company with its strategic vision - sales, recruiting and support. Mike also understands how to lead and motivate local and remote teams by setting clear objectives, managing to them, and giving ongoing feedback. Finally, Mike has consistently led successful organizations because his straightforward style earns him the respect and support of his staff.

I had the opportunity to work with Mike in both an operational capacity as well as in supporting mid-range strategic planning efforts. Mike has a very in-depth knowledge of the processes and potential pitfalls associated with running and growing a staffing organization - as well as a savvy for breaking down the operational elements into manageable pieces that better allow for optimization. Mike is a strong leader and a creative thinker. I look forward to the possibilities of working or partnering with Mike again in the future.

I have had the pleasure of working with Mike for the past 9 years. During this time, Mike has worn numerous hats and has acted in a very unselfish manner to provide the best results for the company. Mike has taken on huge responsibilities in relocating his family to start up new branches as well as most recently driving the organization as the President of Information Technology. As President, Mike was responsible for the successful creation and implementation of a new company strategy as well as overhauling the sales process. Mike understands how to align company operations for proper execution of new strategies and processes. Mike is very diligent in his efforts and methodical in his manners to drive success for the team and personally. I would recommend his services to any organization that needs assistance in creating or enhancing focus around their operations.

Mike understands the IT Services business. This along with his ability to map out a strategy and then to operationally implement it has served him. I would welcome the opportunity to work with Mike again.

During my time working with Mike, I found him to be an extremely supportive leader who enabled his team to execute on the company's strategy by empowering us to make decisions and supporting us when needed. Mike is extremely experienced in the field of human capital management and has the ability to flawlessly link strategy and operational execution. This set of skills enabled him to be highly effective in leading our business through a series of market-driven shifts. He is one of the most intuitive executives I have worked with and he typically thinks out ahead of the curve to steer the organization appropriately. One of Mike's greatest assets is his intellect. I found him to be very receptive to fielding and debating new concepts and ideas. Although Mike is clearly an out of the box thinker, his decisions are always well grounded in facts and supporting details. Mike's management style encourages creativity and collaboration, but he also pushes his leaders to stretch beyond their comfort zones to reach a higher bar. It would be my pleasure to work with Mike again. Any organization would be fortunate to have him on-board in a leadership capacity.

From a business perspective, Mike combines strategic and holistic thinking with a keen ability to make the ideas and concepts operational at an individual producer level. From a personnel perspective, Mike epitomizes servant-leadership in that the best interest of the organization, team and individual is always placed ahead of his own. Taken together, Mike is one of the strongest, well-rounded business leaders with whom I've had the pleasure to work. He helps the people around him achieve more than they could have accomplished on their own. He challenges people to explore ideas, be imaginative in their approach, be detailed in their execution and be diligent in pushing forward to the next duty at hand. Mike thrives on the excitement of new ideas, incongruities and possibilities, but he balances that by remaining mindful of logistical constraints and being methodical in his problem-solving process. These skills help him thrive in operational planning and project implementation. Bottom line, I cannot recommend any person higher than I can recommend Mike Cleland.

Mike hired me as a recruiter in 1998, and over the next two years we were very closely to achieve our goals. Mike's level-headed approach to life, as well as business, and his leadership style are reasons why I still hold him in the highest regard over a decade later. Mike was the sole reason I later relocated to help with the launch of a new office. Mike is very hands on, and he strives to instill the same values and work ethic into those reporting directly to him. While I have had the pleasure of working for several outstanding individuals over the years, I still consider Mike to be one of the very best.

Mike was the President of the IT division where I was working as the interim Chief Strategy Officer. In short, Mike is a skilled, highly capable general manager. During the year I worked with Mike, he led his organization through a major strategic shift in the midst of a recession. Once his strategy was set, he sequentially executed the plan by first streamlined his organization structure and then clarifying the roles of his direct reports. He followed by driving a complete go to market redesign that included re-segmenting clients and targets, improving the sales process, capturing and sharing market information throughout his entire business, implementing a set of operational and strategic performance measures-all of were reinforced by a major compensation realignment. Workforce surveys and quantified business results provided evidence that the effort was highly successful. This work clearly demonstrates his ability not only to make strategy but swiftly execute strategy within a very short period of time. An incisive, natural-born leader, Mike is a true 'problem solver' that is an asset in any management setting.

The object of all work is the production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration - Thomas A. Edison. It is as if these words where written to describe my experience of working with Mike. Over the last 20 plus years of my career I've been fortunate to have worked with many professionals that have strengths in area such as leadership, strategy, and execution to name just a few. Yet the one thing that most of these professionals have not consistently demonstrated is the ability to teach and learn from others. While working together, I consistently observed Mike working with both his peers and employees to develop executable operational and sales strategies to grow the IT Staffing Division. It is his ability to educate others to execute these strategies successfully is what separates Mike from others. It is his ability to quickly refine, tweak and adjust those strategies to ensure that they are relevant that separates Mike from others. It is his commitment to do the right thing regardless of the consequences that separates Mike from others. Finally it's Mikes commitment to having an honest purpose and his investment of perspiration in helping others to be successful that separates Mike from others. I'm proud to have worked with Mike and to call him my friend!