Success
Stories from our Executive Services
Here
are some sample success stories in our collaboration
with clients in building executive community in
the work place.
You
will find that the first two scenarios focus on
our one-to-one assessment and coaching processes,
while the third describes a typical team building
session.
Situations
are modified from the original scenarios in order
to fully protect our clients' confidentiality:
Silence
Wasn't So Golden
Ray
(not his real name) was the head of a distribution
unit for a growing supplier of retail products.
We were called in to try to work with him to improve
his everyday communication with staff. As is our
practice, we first conducted an organizational climate
assessment and spoke to a wide range of Ray's internal
customers throughout the organization. We very quickly
learned that his communication problems were not
limited to those with his staff. He was seen as
increasingly withdrawing from executive interaction,
finding excuses for not attending senior management
planning sessions and skipping company social events.
Consequently, his organization was losing visibility
as well as credibility and Ray, despite his technical
expertise, was facing derailment and possibly even
termination.
We
began weekly meetings with Ray to get his side of
the story. We found out that he felt awkward continually
fighting against other executives for the company's
resources and felt that the large contribution his
operation made to the bottom line should have been
all the argument needed. We did an extensive executive
assessment of Ray's interests, goals, management
and interpersonal style and communication and leadership
skills using highly reliable instruments and interviews.
We then held several feedback sessions with Ray,
sharing our data and pointing out, to his surprise,
several obvious blind spots. We gave him concrete
recommendations on how he could alter some of his
management behaviors, and he began to try out these
new ways of working with people.
Shortly
after our feedback sessions, we were called in to
see the company human resources head and Ray's boss.
They reported that he was making unexpected progress,
and was able to retain a key member of his management
team who previously planned to leave the company.
We
continued our work with Ray, working on the assessment
recommendations point-by-point. He began to do substantial
reading in leadership and management practices and
he began to apply many of the coaching techniques
with his staff that we had used in our work together.
At times, the work was very painful, but Ray persevered.
Today--three
years later-- he is regarded as one of the finest
managers in the company, with that rare combination
of technical expertise and low-key, but effective
and genuine people skills. He frequently volunteers
to head up cross-functional executive teams and
has brought in a strong manager under him to run
many of the key day-to-day aspects of his plant.
To even his surprise, he is regarded as the executive
team's "thought leader" on issues of employee
development and training.
Enduring
a Rude Welcome
Kim
was a recent recruit from an east coast health care
firm, and moved to Silicon Valley to head up the
Marketing operations for a medical instruments development
firm. She had impeccable Ivy league credentials,
and her track record at the prior employer was that
of a high-level contributor whose staff adored her.
To put it simply, Kim possessed tons of charisma
and success was written all over every activity
she initiated.
Kim
was taken aback when she began to witness before
her eyes "palace intrigue", with peers
and even members of her staff sabotaging her early
projects in her new company. Staff members became
so hostile that they would continually berate her
behind closed doors, directly questioning her skills
and ability to transition to Silicon Valley's "workaholic"
culture. She had never encountered this type of
office politics before, having come from a work
culture that seemed to embrace the principles of
executive community to a great degree.
We
were called in to assess her "fit" for
her current role. Although she was initially reluctant
to participate, we won her trust and began to understand
her situation clearly. She agreed to a management
assessment, which we conducted, and she seriously
considered the recommendations in our feedback report.
Working
on a weekly basis, we collaborated to tackle her
work problems one-by-one, all the while teaching
her to employ positive political skills to advance
her agenda in the face of constant antagonism. With
the support of her boss, we helped her design effective
working relationships with all key players.
We
ultimately conducted team-building with her staff,
creating an atmosphere for her to lay out her vision
without the interference of her political opponents.
The team-building process resulted in one of her
managers transferring to another division while
the remaining staff members gradually coalesced
into a true, cohesive, working team.
Kim
still faces challenges in this turbulent organizational
environment, but she has found a way to be effective
while remaining true to her core values of integrity,
innovation, creative engagement during times of
conflict and high work standards. She is now coaching
and developing a young manager who, prior to our
work, had been one of her most skeptical staff.
Cross-Functional
Team Dysfunction
We
were contacted by a client to provide help to two
cross-functional project teams, both of which were
responsible for re-engineering the company's information
systems, one in Finance and the other in Human Resources.
The presenting problems in both cases were a lack
of trust on the two project teams. Project leaders
were the target of hostile "whispering campaigns",
with the accompanying poor cooperation from project
team members. Usually this was expressed in a passive-aggressive
way, with members not consistently attending team
meetings or when meetings were well-attended, discussions
were characterized by the project leaders doing
all the talking and members sitting quietly. Outside
meetings, rumors and intrigue filled the company
corridors.
After
conducting one-on-one interviews with all project
team members, we decided to spend a day with each
project team off-site, using David Bohm's Dialogue
technique. Simply, put, we structured an off-site
day where all participants were to suspend their
assumptions about the team, its members and their
own expectations about how successful the team could
be.
We
offered to facilitate using the Dialogue technique,
focusing on getting group members to consider four
key questions related to the project team's mission,
resources, obstacles and opportunities. We created
an environment where people could speak and be heard,
where they could listen and really hear the kinds
of messages that the everyday organizational climate
froze out.
Although
we were not at all concerned with getting agreement
on concrete action planning on that day--our objective
was the more modest one of merely opening up the
lines of communication--it turned out that merely
putting people in a safe environment unleashed a
tidal wave of creativity. During both sessions,
we were able to all agree on ground rules for project
teamwork that our clients in retrospect say marked
the turning point for success. The project teams
began to change the ways they conducted business.
Notably, they expanded opportunities for participation
and worked harder to communicate during critical
decision points.
Today
the client has a new HRIS and FIS, but more importantly,
the company made this happen through a high level
of cross-functional teamwork --and genuine executive
community--that has helped to change how project
teams function from now on.
If
you're looking for consulting support on your organization's
executive issues that is both "down-to-earth"
and "leading-edge," contact
us or give us a call at 925-264-4426. We'll
schedule a no-cost, no-pressure meeting at a convenient
time in your office. We look forward to hearing
from you!
