CASE STUDIES

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
The new CEO was seeking to create a highly effective executive leadership team with his direct reports, stepping-up to focus on strategic rather than operational issues.

SOLUTION:
– A 2-day facilitated program including a team diagnostic.
– The team worked on the purpose, charter, goals and commitments and agreed on the process and behaviours through which to hold each other and the team accountable.
– “Fire-side” chat with a former Director and Chairman to help the team understand what is needed to step-up to work like a Board and to understand the Board’s expectations of the senior leadership team.
– Each member of the team undertook coaching to work on their individual development goals aligned with the team’s overall objectives.

RESULTS AND OUTCOME:
The goals were achieved with the executives working well as a top team, collaborating, sharing and breaking down silos.
The team redesigned its workspace moving to open plan with team members sitting with each other thus further positively impacting relationships and communications.
The outcomes of the program, with enhanced team effectiveness and emphasis on working on higher order strategic rather than day-to-day operational issues, also led to an empowering of the next level of leadership to deal with operational matters, creating a virtuous circle with the different levels of leadership directing their energies to their respective areas of accountability for best organisational outcomes.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
The CEO sought to change the culture to a more engaged organisation, with people at all levels working together with higher levels of relationship, trust and collaboration.

SOLUTION:
An Integral Coaching and Leadership Program delivered over several years comprising:
– 5 workshops: coaching & leadership, feedback, courageous conversations, requests & promises, and rebuilding trust.
– Peer coaching circles.
– Individual coaching commencing with the CEO and top team through to team leaders and senior operational personnel.

RESULTS AND OUTCOME:
The program was judged a major success with a new common language and behaviours embedded throughout the organisation with enhanced relationships and positive organisational outcomes impacting commitment, engagement, trust and collaboration, also leading to improved productivity and related commercial benefits.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
This major bank’s Executive Leadership Team wanted to take stock of leadership talent in order to plan for succession.

SOLUTION:
The top two levels of the bank’s leadership, numbering several hundred senior executives, undertook a bespoke series of assessments with debriefs by accredited coaches with industry experience. Optional individual caching was offered as follow-up to assessment debriefs to assist executives to work on specific development goals.

RESULTS AND OUTCOME:
The assessment program provided the Bank with requisite data as part of succession planning as well as offering participating executives valuable input into their personal development plans.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
A development program to build solid management bench strength within and across the different businesses. To stretch and develop participants to cope with levels of ambiguity, increase their leadership flexibility and enhance their capacity to build resilience while performing under pressure.

SOLUTION:
An integrated executive leadership development program over four months, co-designed with the client and the US-based Center for Creative Leadership encompassing:
– Each participant completing CCL’s 360º tool and assessment processes de-briefed by SMG coaches. – Two leadership forums conducted by CCL.
– “Fire-side chats” from key divisional leaders.
– Team coaching with an SMG coach.
– Stretch, real-time projects developed in an action learning environment with an SMG coach assigned to each project team, with delivery expectation at Board level.
– Individual coaching by SMG coaches.

RESULTS AND OUTCOME:
The program met its goals resulting in a range of benefits for participants including:
– Enhanced leadership capability.
– Enhanced personal effectiveness.
– Building networks and greater collaboration across the organisation.
Top talent exposure to Divisional and Group CEO’s and top Divisional teams also enhanced the organisation’s succession management process.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
The organisation is a long established, divisionalised business providing a diverse range of services across a number of customer facing sectors. Due to rapid growth and a new leadership team, the CEO sought an intervention to help define and clarify the role and purpose of the senior management team, along with adoption of behaviours that would create a high performing top team with impact cascading throughout the business.

SOLUTION:
– A deep needs analysis followed by 360 and psychometric assessments.
– A series of customised workshops focused on building, embedding and sustaining specific team competencies.
– One-on-one executive coaching.

RESULTS AND OUTCOME:
The program met its objectives with the intervention having a very favourable impact on the team as issues were surfaced and dealt with and behaviours necessary for a high performing team embedded, with outcomes cascading through the business enhancing overall organisation functioning.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
In order to retain its market position, the CEO recognised the organisation’s Divisions needed to engage in greater collaboration. The business also needed to demonstrate more creativity and innovation and there was a requirement for the application of more contemporary leadership skills and staff empowerment.

SOLUTION:
– A series of 5 facilitated workshops, co-designed with the client, delivered over 6 months on topics designed to build more contemporary leadership practices.
– 360 assessments to surface development gaps.
– Individual coaching to work on specific development goals and to support workshop outcomes.
– A supportive complementary program of workshops for senior managers to create alignment of expectations and outcomes with the top team.

RESULTS AND OUTCOME:
The program resulted in increased collaboration and agreements on individual and team accountabilities. New leadership behaviours and better quality, more robust and authentic conversations meant, amongst other benefits, improved relationships and enhanced creativity and innovation. Importantly, it enabled the Divisional leadership team to concentrate on their more strategic role supporting the CEO in leading the business with senior managers concentrating on managing day-to-day issues.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:
Operating in an increasingly saturated market, the organisation determined that the only opportunity for growth was through enhanced customer service and innovation. It was recognised that this required a change in leadership behaviours and paradigm, including enhanced cross-business relationships and collaboration.

SOLUTION:
An Integral Leadership Conversations program to embed a new way of leading, encompassing coaching, feedback and courageous conversations together with peer coaching circles.

RESULTS AND OUTCOME:
The program has been judged as extremely successful with outcomes including:
– Building a coaching culture throughout the organisation.
– Building relationships across the business where these did not previously exist.
– Capacity to engage in different levels of conversation for powerful outcomes.
– Leaders stepping up into higher order responsibilities.
– Leaders asking rather than telling, freeing up valuable time to engage in leading rather than doing.
– More focus on inter-divisional service
– Managing the person not the problem, cognisant of the cognitive, emotional and somatic.
– Cases of personal transformation.