Testimonials
Read about the VALUE ADDING EXPERIENCES that others have had working with Executive Team Leadership, LLC President and Coach, Doug Russell:
John Arends, Design Manager
Freescale Semiconductor
Coming from a design background, Doug baptized me into the real world of Program Managagement. Doug coached me on how to build a schedule, track a schedule, and use the schedule as a tool to manage risks and issues to deliver to a committed plan. Doug's ability to synthesize complex problems, his communication skills, and his ability to build effective teams were invaluable in my success, education, and growth into a capable Design Manager.
Keith Kwasney, Director,
Corporate Program Management Operations, Intel Corporation
I have personally witnessed Doug Russell turn around a dysfunctional team to a "well oiled machine" contributing to the flawless execution of a flagship product for the corporation. People are having fun driving great results because of Doug's balanced coaching approach.
Brian Branson, Director,
Libraries and Memories, Freescale Semiconductor
When I took on the role of Design Manager for a team of 60 some odd semiconductor design engineers,I was more or less like one of them...that is...I thought and behaved like an engineer, in the sense that circuits and invention and simulations were more important to me (and us) than meeting commitments.
Not long after, Doug was hired to inject what I now call 'professional PM' skills into our team, and drive us to plan, execute, track, mitigate and ultimately deliver on our promises. It would be an understatement to say that the team was skeptical of -- in their words -- having to do 'extra' work, but Doug partnered with myself and the team quite successfully to convince them that indeed, acting with a PM mindset was not extra work, it simply *was* the work. In the end, the team rallied around this new way of working, re-inforced by the positive feedback they started receiving when their results not only met the stringent technical requirements, but were also predictable in schedule and cost.
Through this transformation, Doug was able to re-inforce the 'what' and 'how' of the new methods, but also the 'why', which was instrumental in seeing the transformation through to a successful conclusion. I can state without a doubt that this was a watermark experience for me in my young management career, and I have driven many successful projects since that time using these tried and true principles across large, complex organizations.
Sasi Balaji, Enterprise Architect, Intel Corporation
Working with Doug was a very positive experience for me. My observations were that as lead of the Risk Management Core Team, which managed and governed the methodology and tools for the corporate platform office at Intel, he had to deal with a wide range and variety of customers and he executed flawlessly. His people skills and logical reasoning in addition to his technical knowledge exceeded expectations, which contributed well to success of the mission of the team."
Bob Carroll, former Motorola Operations Section Manager, is now a writer in the field of Organizational Design. His work has appeared in the National Productivity Review, the Journal of Organizational Excellence, The Irish Journal of Management and the American Society for Training and Development.
I hired Doug Russell as an assistant Project Leader upon his receiving his MBA degree from Duke University. He quickly became one of my most important, and successful, champions of the High Performance Productions Teams that I was attempting to establish. Later as a Program Manager, Doug was instrumental in the creation of our first High Performance Engineering Design team.
Mike C., Senior Staff Engineer, Major Semiconductor Company
"I learned a lot from Doug about building teams of engineers. He gets very individualistic engineers to work together by listening to their concerns but being firm about what the organization needs. I was amazed."
"Doug's coaching has been invaluable in helping me to articulate what is important to me as I move into the next phase of my career. He got me to drop my narrow focus on past accomplishments to see other areas in which I can apply my skills."
Bill Ledbetter, Jr., Owner, Imageclectic.com
(previously Director, Freescale Semiconductor)
Doug has an intense passion to see his team succeed, and invests himself entirely to see that happen as a part of any team he is on.
He loves to work with groups focused on a common purpose, giving direction and coaching oriented to the needed outcome. Doug and I have worked together on several teams, ranging from 20 to 50 engineers, within a larger organization working to deliver multiple projects on time and with first-time success. He was instrumental in helping each team achieve their goals by bringing a new level of discipline and focus. I highly recommend Doug to any team needing to move to the next level of accomplishment.
