Leadership team coaching is a specialized form of coaching that transcends individual sessions and workshops, focusing on the dynamics, interactions and collective performance of an entire team or organization. A fundamental aspect of this type of coaching involves breaking down organizational silos. Coaches promote heightened trust, open communication, knowledge sharing and cross-functional teamwork, starting by instilling a collaborative culture within the CEO’s inner circle (the senior leadership team), and then cascading it throughout the rest of the organization.
An integral part of leadership team coaching is a thorough blend of discovery and upgrading the business operating system. This process helps executive teams identify structural or relational obstacles that hinder trust, collaboration, communication and strategic alignment. Leadership team coaching aims at substantially reducing misalignment and conflict in an organization, thus increasing effectiveness in execution and strategy setting, ultimately increasing the enterprise value of the business.
Sergiu Simmel— Leadership Team Coach at Get Business Momentum Inc., advocates for this holistic approach. He emphasizes that effective coaching develops and enhances the effectiveness of top executives as a cohesive unit by upgrading their business operating system.
Building Stronger, More Collaborative Teams
Sergiu engages closely with the entire team, facilitating discussions, teaching them proven concepts, tools and disciplines, providing real-time feedback and aligning everyone around shared goals. He offers immediate insights into team dynamics as they unfold, addressing conflicts on the spot to foster enduring working relationships.
His hands-on, experiential approach transcends traditional workshops and theoretical concepts, focusing instead on applying lessons directly within the flow of work. This methodology takes both a long-game approach while simultaneously delivering quick results and growth, allowing executives to activate their learning journeys, refine their strategies and enhance performance through collaborative, real-time experiences.
In leadership team coaching, Sergiu models the right concepts, tools and disciplines at the right time for the right purpose the right way. Thus, he cultivates an environment where team members learn to collaborate more effectively. This approach ultimately leads to improved business outcomes by encouraging teams to balance enterprise-wide requirements with their departmental responsibilities.
A Journey of Leadership and Growth
A Life-changing Decision
In the spring of 1981, after six failed attempts that had started during his high school years, Sergiu finally secured permission from the Communist Romanian government to visit his family in the United States. His uncle, aunt and cousin had left Romania 15 years earlier and settled in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.
Sergiu embarked on this ‘vacation’ with no intention of returning, having just completed his fourth year at the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest School of Computer Science, one year short of graduating.
A New Beginning in Minnesota
Upon arriving in Minnesota, Sergiu miraculously landed a programming job, leveraging his software background and enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Minnesota. He earned his degree, which opened doors to broader opportunities in the high-tech industry and led him to the Boston area.
For the first decade of his career, Sergiu immersed himself in technology, working for various start-ups. During this time, he observed firsthand how small to midsized companies form, grow, struggle, and sometimes fail. These experiences highlighted the critical role leadership and culture play in a company’s success.
From Startup Founder to EOS Implementer
Driven by a desire to create something of his own, Sergiu co-founded his first startup, a database software company, in 1991, followed by a technology-based services company in 1994. Two decades later, this company serving the financial industry grew into a $32 million business before being acquired. Sergiu’s ventures taught him that while success is correlated with the quality and usefulness of the product or service, it depends more on the quality of leadership and the culture leaders foster.
He reinforced this lesson during the turnaround of a struggling decade-old software company in Cambridge. Subsequently, Sergiu went independent, serving as a Fractional Chief Products Officer for several SaaS companies, where he continued to see the transformative impact of strong leadership.
In 2012, an accidental turn of events led Sergiu to the book Traction and to EOS Worldwide—a start-up coaching company at the time. The system for operating an entrepreneurial business resonated deeply with him. Passionate about helping others avoid the mistakes he had made, Sergiu became one of the earliest EOS Implementers.
Since then, he has dedicated his career to guiding leadership teams to 10x’ing their business, helping them achieve this faster, easier and with more joy than they ever thought possible, all through upgrading their business operating system to EOS®, Pinnacle, Scaling Up and 90os. As they say, the rest is history.
Measuring Success Beyond Financial Metrics
When Sergiu began working with leadership teams in 2013, he quickly noticed a pattern—CEOs and their teams were overwhelmed, stressed and often unhappy. Their days were consumed by constant firefighting, leaving little room for strategic thinking or personal fulfillment. However, as they started to internalize the concepts of a structured business operating system and embrace its tools and disciplines, a remarkable transformation occurred. Their professional lives improved drastically, and they rediscovered joy.
This newfound joy led to increased effectiveness, productivity, fulfillment and cooperation—a complete 180-degree shift. Sergiu realized his mission was not just to teach, coach and facilitate the upgrading of their business operating system. His passion was to enhance their lives, helping them find balance and joy while substantially increasing their business value. That’s where he found the highest satisfaction and inspiration.
During his time of personal development and coaching at Landmark Worldwide, Sergiu coined the phrase ‘restoring joy in humane performance’ to capture this focus on the human side of the business and the effectiveness of work. This balance is crucial for when leaders and their teams find joy in their work, their performance and productivity soar, creating a positive cycle of growth and fulfillment.
By emphasizing this humane approach, Sergiu helps leaders create cultures where both business and people thrive, measuring success not just by financial metrics but by the well-being and satisfaction of those who contribute to it.
Transforming Team Dynamics
Sergiu accentuates transforming team dynamics from expectations to agreements. Expectations are uni-directional, with one person imposing demands (“I expect YOU to do this“). Agreements are bi-directional, fostering mutual understanding and commitment (“You and I agree on this result by this time“).
Sergiu notes that this shift, while appearing minor, is profoundly powerful. Agreements create clarity, accountability and collaboration, making organizations more effective and adaptable. By focusing on agreements, teams navigate change with confidence, aligned towards shared goals. This approach enhances productivity and builds a resilient, cooperative culture, enabling teams to thrive during transitions and beyond.
Developing Empathetic Leadership Skills for Success
Sergiu believes humans play two interconnected ‘games’: the outer game of scaling a business and the inner game of being a leader, of scaling oneself. He asserts that neither can succeed without the other. The outer game involves strategic, technical and operational aspects, while the inner game focuses on personal development, team flow and emotional intelligence.
He teaches clients to master both games, linking the operational and human sides of business. He emphasizes that effective scaling requires strong, empathetic leadership and a positive, trust-based culture. By balancing these aspects, he guides clients to develop skills for managing complex challenges and nurturing teams, ensuring sustainable growth aligned with core values. This approach helps businesses, and their people thrive.
The Holistic Approach to Business Growth
Sergiu has mastered Business Operating Systems like EOS®, Scaling Up, 90os, and Pinnacle, which provide robust and proven frameworks for scaling businesses. He complements these with Kolbe™ and Predictive Index™ (PI) assessments to uncover team members’ behavioral patterns. These tools support a data-based approach to leadership development, with frameworks supporting business strategy and execution and assessments focusing on personal and team dynamics.
Every team Sergiu works with undergoes this assessment process, often gaining surprising new insights. This deeper understanding fosters empathy, enhances communication and strengthens collaboration. By integrating these frameworks and assessments, as well as critical thinking techniques, such as red teaming, Sergiu’s coaching addresses the technical and human aspects of business growth, empowering teams to achieve remarkable results in a supportive environment.
The Core of Creativity
Sergiu believes leading and coaching teams are in essence all about managing and directing energy—for both teams and businesses, as well as for their stakeholders. He views creativity as discovering new, simple patterns that help businesses progress smoothly. Sergiu’s appreciation for aesthetics drives him to seek elegant solutions for his clients, aiming to be their ‘Chief Simplification Officer.’ He values clarity and efficiency, all in support of effectiveness, striving to create a well-running organization where streamlined processes and clear communication lead to harmony and productivity.
By integrating aesthetics and creativity into his coaching and leadership, Sergiu helps clients cut through complexity to find innovative, straightforward solutions. This approach not only enhances business functionality but also brings joy and fulfillment to everyone involved, highlighting the beauty of a well-coordinated, thriving organization.
The Power of Purpose
Sergiu explains that he achieves success by always remembering his overarching why. This purpose is consistent across all areas of his life, whether it’s business, friends, family, community or country.
While some aspects may hold more importance than others, they are all subject to the same why. Sergiu constantly strives (and sometimes, in all honesty, fails and fails miserably) to stay true to his purpose, no matter what he does.
Sergiu loves making his clients laugh during their sessions, just as much as he enjoys making his friends or daughters and especially his grandsons laugh. That’s how he wants to be remembered by all.
Integrating Generative AI in Advising Strategies
Sergiu acknowledges and embraces the fact that we live in highly transforming and transformative times, impacting many levels, including his profession. As a lifelong learner, his curiosity often outpaces his ability to absorb everything he wants to.
Recently, he rediscovered an amazing ally—Generative AI. He is incorporating it everywhere—in what he teaches, how he coaches, how he facilitates and what he advises. Sergiu is highly motivated to make a continuously increasing impact. Using Generative AI alongside other classic concepts, tools and disciplines is exactly what he needed to achieve this.
Embracing Setbacks as Opportunities
Sergiu’s advice is simple and almost trite: Always return to your purpose. Why did you decide to do this? Is that still true? If it is, keep pursuing it.
A setback or challenge is relative to a goal or aspiration. A setback is not intrinsic to the event; it’s a gap. To loosely quote Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach, focus on the gain (from where you were before), not the gap.
