Executive Coaching

case history

Case History: Business Etiquette Grooming

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ISSUE:

A senior manager observed undesirable behaviors in a talented, newly promoted IT manager. She realized the need for action after overhearing conversations among the new manager’s peers about how often they were embarrassed by his behavior, including the way he ate, dressed and generally presented himself in the company of others.

INDUSTRY:

Global Consulting Organization

SIZE:

Regional Division

CLIENT:

IT Manager

SOLUTION:

The senior manager’s initial request was framed to reflect the sensitive nature of the work involved as well as to create a safe environment for the client to consider “style and presentation coaching” as simply one step in a professional development plan. Our work involved live-action coaching in common business situations (meetings, dining, traveling), videotaping situational role play, wardrobe counseling, shopping sessions, and customized as-needed seminars. The process was designed to introduce, model, stamp, and reinforce desirable behavioral changes. Throughout the process, outcomes were measured by the client’s self-evaluation, scheduled feedback sessions involving trusted peers and the senior manager.

RESULTS:

The client reported getting similar positive feedback from peers and senior staff members about how much he had changed for the better. The senior manager reported noticing his self-composure and being impressed with it. To the coach, he wrote: “There were things I just didn’t know or didn’t know enough to ask how I could do it differently. A big burden has been lifted because I no longer feel so uncomfortable all the time. Now when people ask my opinion, I don’t worry about whether I am going to say the wrong thing. I handle myself much, much better. Our work helped the client to narrow the gap between where he was and where he and his leader wanted him to be as a talented new manager.”

Case History: Strategic Leadership

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ISSUE:

Senior executive is overly involved in tactical initiatives and not getting traction on strategic issues.

INDUSTRY:

Health Care – regional system

SIZE:

15,000 Employees

CLIENT:

Senior Executive

SOLUTION:

Executive coaching with client to identify what is internally and externally contributing to the tactical orientation and begin shifting to a more strategic focus. Extensive use of 360° and interview based feedback to pinpoints causes and provides the basis for creation of a clear change plan. Implementation of the plan was monitored by the coach who insured ongoing feedback and reinforcement of practices leading to a more strategic focus.

RESULTS:

Client has learned how practices that made her successful earlier in her career are inhibiting her current success. Newly identified behaviors, reinforced through feedback and coaching, are replacing older, less productive habits. She is sorting out the strategic from the tactical and delegating most of the latter to her direct reports. Increased awareness and self-management of these behaviors have allowed her to focus more on strategic issues. Simultaneously, this process has created the opportunity for increased empowerment and development of the next level of management.

Case History: Team Building for an Organizational Change Effort

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ISSUE:

The division is undergoing a mandatory restructuring and decentralization, anticipating personnel growth of ten-fold in the next 12-18 months. The senior team wants to meet the challenge by laying a solid foundation of principles which will guide them in working together during this period of rapid and dramatic changes. The senior executive of the organization wants to self-assess his skill-set for the leadership tasks ahead.

INDUSTRY:

Information Technology, Federal Government

SIZE:

Senior Management Team for Telecommunications Division

CLIENT:

Five Senior Managers and Nine Direct Reports

SOLUTION:

In conjunction with the client, a series of steps were designed to analyze the individual players and their respective roles in the existing and desired organizational structures. The first effort was to guide the leader and the team through a three-day, remote-site exercise that would result in a set of operating principles by which the organization and its people would undertake the change process.

Demographic data along with background information and a questionnaire informed the design of a series of team-building, immediate feedback, and trust-building exercises. The three-day working sessions were built on small group work, and reviewed in a facilitated plenary session. Two coach-facilitators, a woman and a man led separate portions of the group work. After completing a full day of team building exercises, the next two days were filled with intensive “outcome” oriented processes. A healthy set of operating principles resulted from the exercise.

Two week after the off site working sessions, interviews were held with three people whom the senior executive identified as “believer, neutral, and non-believer” regarding the implementation of the change process to be guided by the operating principles developed and unanimously adopted by the senior management team.

RESULTS:

The coaching assistance to the senior executive was fruitful and reassuring in that the skill-set that included leadership, loyalty, vision, communication, and dedication, were self-assessed and group assessed with high marks. The senior management team ended the three-day working sessions with a renewed sense that they “are a team, and we can do this together”. A well conceived and unanimously adopted set of operating principles will serve as a guide to all of the division’s employees as they carry out their responsibilities, whether serving customers, developing internal relationships, or engaging in problem solving. Clearly understood action items were assigned to each member of the senior management team, and a “process-overseer” was identified by the senior executive to hold each member accountable. At the conclusion of the three-month process, the levels of cooperation and optimism had never been higher.

Case History: Merging Senior Managers from Different Cultures

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ISSUE:

This prominent university had merged two of its computing arms, that had distinctly different cultures, under a new CIO. The CIO realized that the cultural differences, exacerbated by individual and gender-based stylistic differences, were impeding his ability to create a highly-collaborative senior management team.

INDUSTRY:

Education

SIZE:

Major University

CLIENT:

Team of Twelve Senior Managers, IT Department

SOLUTION:

We designed a process to simultaneously coach the individual managers in their own leadership development while coaching the group to act effectively as a leadership team. Initially, a number of participants displayed skepticism and anxiety about the process. Good briefing and clear ground rules created participant safety and trust which replaced their doubt. The process utilized a computer-based, feedback instrument to gather individual data from subordinates, peers, customers and superiors. Specific profiles with developmental recommendations were generated for each participant. Individual coaching occurred monthly for the next six months to work on developmental needs and integrate specific efforts into real-time performance.

The coaching team consisted of a male and female coach. Care was taken to minimize a coach working with both a manager and subordinate and to maximize the value of different gender perspectives, experiential background and chemistry. This assured that each participant made as much progress as possible. The two coaches also designed and facilitated a full-group meeting every 6 weeks to address issues of collective importance.

RESULTS:

The team coaching process lasted 15 months. There was significant individual growth, better matching of individuals to roles, visible improvements in peer relationships, improved leadership behaviors and greater self-responsibility for relationship dynamics. The leadership team gained a greater trust in each other and itself. Many of the critical projects to which the institution was committed progressed with far less friction and were successfully implemented. The individual and group developmental processes reinforced each other and created a common vocabulary for the senior management team to utilize as it guided the organization forward.

Case History: Leadership Development, Athlete to Executive

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ISSUE:

After suffering a career halting injury, a former professional athlete was hired to manage a staff of six in a small department within a financial services firm. Although he is a quick study, and extremely disciplined in his work, he was having difficulty feeling comfortable in his role, communicating his vision, establishing staff routines and procedures, and generally asserting himself as a leader in that environment.

INDUSTRY:

Financial

SIZE:

Mid-sized Business

CLIENT:

New Senior Manager

SOLUTION:

We focused the work on two issues: leadership development and employee performance/management. In addition, we agreed to integrate practices related to maximizing productivity and minimizing stress for long-term success.

RESULTS:

Several years later, the client is still performing confidently and successfully after only a few months of coaching. In his quest for continuous improvement, he periodically identifies opportunities for further development and returns for additional coaching. He has proven to be a wise investment for his company, maintaining high retention among a loyal staff and a department frequently cited for performance excellence.