CASE STUDY
Overcoming an HR Plateau
with Total Apps Inc.
About Total Apps Inc
Total Apps Inc. provides Advanced Payment Processing Solutions including Merchant Account Services, a Payment Processing Gateway, and advanced eCommerce and Social Commerce Solutions. From Video Checkout systems, to Twitter Payments, and Voice Checkout, the Southern California technology company prides itself on custom tailored solutions. For over a decade, Total-Apps Inc. has worked closely with clients in diverse industries to minimize risk and increase profits on average 10-30% per year.
THE PROBLEM
Top Leadership and Misalignment within the Organization
As with any organization that’s experiencing rapid growth, chaos can often manifest within the structure of the business and begin to expose issues that may or may not have existed previously.
Total Apps has regularly lived on the INC 5000 list for fastest growing private companies in America. During their rapid move towards the top of their industry, Total Apps saw a need to restructure their top leadership in a way that would better handle the growth, and position the company for success in the coming years.
Unfortunately, changes at the top, combined with the peripheral issues that can follow rapid growth, created a perfect storm for Growth Chaos that caused a misalignment within the organization and trickled down through the company.
As chaos tends to do, this shift created a downward force on the rest of the team causing misalignment in priorities, reduced efficiency as a whole and placing stress on the internal relationships within the business.
Although clients may not have felt the impact of these changes, the culture within Total Apps was suffering, and senior leadership felt there was a need to bring in external support to take a look at these issues and build a plan to get the company back to good health.
The Approach
XQ always starts with a people approach first. We believe progress begins with the human aspect of any business. To begin our work with Total Apps, we ran assessments on the CEO, and 2 Executive Directors to gauge behaviors, driving forces, EQ, and business acumen. It was revealed that most misunderstandings were taking place due to behavioral conflicts, and lower than average EQ (Emotional Intelligence). Acumen also revealed areas where the executive group began to misinterpret one another, and it caused lots of wasted time in facing business challenges.
- Assessment of leadership behaviors, motivators, soft competencies and emotional intelligence
Most misunderstandings were taking place due to behavioral conflicts.
“Nothing else can capture personalities like the XQ products. They always bring you right to the edge, but never over the edge.”
Nancy Andrews, CEO, Total Apps
A NEW HIRING SYSTEM
The Solution
XQ Innovation developed a personalized program based on the first round of assessments with Total Apps leadership. The plan included a hybrid coaching program for the CEO, consisting of part personal growth, part situational business coaching as well as a coaching program for both Executive Directors that focused on communication and people-based soft skills.
- Coaching of key staff in productivity and communication
- Strategic planning and coaching to align staff to the overall goals of the business
- MindTrek Program with Dr. Ward for all 3 Executive Directors
Client Testimonial
SUCCESS
The Results
In working with Total Apps to design and implement a proactive, specialized leadership training program, XQ is proud to have contributed to an environment of happier partners, higher employee engagement and better morale at the company overall. Our training assisted Total Apps in the selection of new hires, encouragement of current employees and some pretty incredible business outcomes.