Recommendations
David Purdy, President, Psychological Consultants, Inc.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Steve Lux for over 30 years. At various points over the years, I have been his consultant, his client, and his special project partner. I have found that he possesses uncanny insight into effective leadership functioning. He understands why some leaders succeed and others fail, with a particular appreciation for entrepreneurs and their unique success factors. In conducting interviews, he asks penetrating questions, followed up by subtle probes. A careful listener, he hears not only the response but seeks to fully understand the full picture, especially the nuances. He then communicates his findings and recommendations with clarity and conviction. He is a logical and perceptive problem solver, but most importantly, he is a wise counselor.”
Sarah Paxton, Co-Owner, LaDifference
Top qualities: Personable, Expert, High Integrity
“Steve Lux is a consultant who knows how to get personal and stay professional at the same time. His experience, history, and insight helped me look into our business needs – and my personal goals – with greater clarity. Steve also brings ‘humanity’ to his consulting role. He understands that for a small business you cannot always separate the “need to” from the “want to” from the “wish I didn’t have to”… and he walks you through the steps needed to prioritize each category. I highly recommend Steve Lux if you need to break down how you’re doing business now, how you could be doing business better, and you wish you were doing business in general.”
Maggi Beckstoffer, Owner, MBM Marketing
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert
“Steve has been helping me explore and respond to the evolving facets of running my business for 5+ years. His questions, insights, suggestions, thoughtfulness and professionalism have helped me gain and maintain perspective on existing challenges and situations as well as be prepared for unexpected events. I can’t recommend Steve enough – if you’re looking for someone to counsel, support, advise and challenge you to be an even better business owner, partner or leader.”
David Hajek
Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
“I had the opportunity to work with Steve on a continuing basis in his capacity as a consultant to Atley Pharmaceuticals since 2003. Steve is an unusually perceptive individual who is able to look at the entire picture of a business and make the necessary connections between the various elements of that picture to help a management team diagnose and then correct business issues. Steve challenges company management to look beyond the easy answers and to truly dig deeply for the root causes of problems in the business, even when by doing so the managers may find some level of discomfort with the process. He is good at not “letting you off the hook” when the problem is deeply rooted in the culture or difficult to face. Steve is a compassionate and genuine person who thinks about the totality of a business decision and its impact on all of the stakeholders involved. Steve thinks deeply, questions precisely and acts decisively. He is a student of our culture and history and an individual from whom a lot may be learned.”
Wayne Nystrom
Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
“Over the past 25 years as the CEO of various business ventures, whenever I’ve been stuck, frustrated or trying to avoid a looming crisis or conflict — I’ve called on Steve Lux for his wisdom, candor and counsel. He’s exceptional at cutting through the BS (from anyone), understanding critical human factors involved in business decision-making, and charting practical and pertinent courses of action. I’ve always viewed Steve as a valued business partner who just didn’t happen to have any equity in the business. I recommend him without reservation.”
Gerald Peters, Owner, REO Enterprises, LLC
“I have worked with Steve for over 20 years. Over those years he has provided advice and counsel to me personally and professionally. We have collaborated on projects. He has been, and continues to be, a source of inspiration. I have worked for Fortune 50 companies and been a start-up entrepreneur. I have worked for and engaged some of the nation’s most well respected consulting firms. Over the course of that experience, Steve stands out as a unique professional. No one, in my experience, possesses his combination of insight, problem solving and implementation skills. Steve never approaches his work with a rubber stamp or a “one size fits all” methodology. He comes to each engagement with a wide view of the challenge. He digs deep, exposes the crux of every issue and provides decisive direction. He can also “get it done” – standing by his clients through successful implementation of their plan. He will address your stated problem and questions with clear crisp counsel. More importantly, he will identify the questions that you should have asked. He sees beyond the obvious and frequently bring the client to a completely new understanding of their business. Steve is tough but empathetic. He is never mean-spirited but he is rigorous and tough. He never lets his clients escape his scrutiny with a facile answer or a superficial response. He is particularly adept at resolving intractable problems involving conflict among key members of the client organization. I value and look forward to my ongoing relationship with Steve.”
Charles Pearson, Owner, C.S. Pearson, Jr., PC
“Although Steve Lux and I knew one another for years earlier through his volunteering through the Virginia Society of CPAs, I first worked directly with him through a mutual client during the early 1990s. During this engagement, Steve had the unenviable challenge of determining which, if any, members of management did not synch with the rest of the Company. Through his tremendous understanding of interpersonal dynamics, he was able to determine that there was not only a problem, but the individual responsible for engaging him was the source. Marching through the inevitable conflict, Steve was able to rationally convince this person he indeed was the problem’s source and why, and his best course of action would be to leave the Company. This individual did so, continuing his career, remaining in touch and grateful to Steve for helping him see through the clouds daily operations sometime hide. Since then, Steve has been both a friend and a professional ally. Even through some tremendous personal hardships endured and through some wonderful new opportunities enjoyed, there has never been one minute when I did not fell Steve’s influence. He has helped me stay on course, even when I felt I wanted to pursue different directions. He has helped me discover and focus on my core qualities and values that define me and my business. Within the past few months, Steve has mentored me with our new mission statement and with developing new expectations of our goals and objectives. Yet, his common theme for over thirty years: who we are drives what we will be. Still true after all these years.”
John Messersmith, Managing Partner
Kalbaugh, Pfund and Messersmith
Top qualities: Great Results, High Integrity, Creative
“I highly recommend Steve for any business seeking to improve its processes, its culture and its bottom line. Steve has been instrumental in assisting my firm and his advise has always been intuitive and spot on. He actively listens and the recommendations are very specific to our people, our clients and our business.”
Michael P. Drzal, Esquire, LeClair Ryan
Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, High Integrity
“I have known Steve personally and professionally for decades. During that time, I have referred Steve to some of my best clients at critical junctures in their development, in each case at a crossroad that could make or break a company and its founders and determine the future path for good or ill. On each such occasion, Steve has brought to bear his unique combination of quantitative skills and keen knowledge of organizational dynamics to successfully guide key decision makers to sound conclusions based on an unemotional assessment of the facts. I would not hesitate to refer Steve into mission-critical situations and highly recommend him. ”
Harry Garmon
The Bookkeeping Department
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, High Integrity
“I have known Steve for over forty years and, in that time, have been a client, been a business partner, a referral source and, most of all a friend. When explaining to others how Steve works as a management consultant I use the phrase “Corporate Shrink”. His process is not dictated by any dogma other that the intense pursuit of the actual facts of the matter at hand. Like a psychiatrist, he isn’t judgmental in the process of acquiring insight, but like a psychiatrist he doesn’t flinch from showing the client the complete and total truth. Many management consultants work from a prescriptive play book which assumes that all problems can be fit to a particular solution. Steve digs for the root causes and then works with clients to effect workable solutions. ”
Andy Thornton, Co-Owner
LaDifference
Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, High Integrity
“We have worked with Steve for almost a decade now. He has been business consultant, `psychologist’, marriage counselor, mentor, sounding board and much more. Steve is a great listener, absorbs all the details well and has the uncanny ability to wade through the `muck and mire’ and help one arrive at solutions that are clear and cogent. He is empathetic, quirky, always curious, has a great sense of humour and is very analytical. He is gentle but doesn’t sugar coat reality and won’t let you off the hook until you have faced the issues at hand and chosen to act appropriately. I would highly recommend Steve and anticipate using his services and partnering with him for years to come.”
