The
Situation
A
highly competent engineering manager, Robert, had quickly
moved up the career ladder and was newly promoted to head
up a large product development team, when he contacted me.
He had been asked to take over this team because of his reputation
for turning around projects and programs that were in trouble
and behind schedule.
However, he confided to me,
that he was aware of his pattern of leaving significant “human
wreckage” in his wake by the time he was done.
He wanted to ensure his personal success and the successful
delivery of the product. Yet he was unused to leading
an organization and thinking in terms of systems, team effectiveness
issues of how people and teams were working together, and
building strategic alliances, all of which were necessary
at this new level.
His
pacesetter leadership style projected a demeanor of certainty
that precluded him from being curious about other ways of
seeing and doing things and discouraged others from
challenging or even dialoguing with him when they disagreed
with his approach.
What We Did
We
worked on multiple levels with this Team Leader and his team,
which included executive coaching for him and his managers,
and team interventions at the levels of the cross-functional
teams and the entire organization. The first thing
we did was to conduct a team effectiveness assessment using
a structured interview, which entailed a set of interviews
across all levels. We then designed and facilitated a series
of data feedback and planning sessions to the management team,
which resulted in a team-wide team-building effort.
In
our one-on-one executive coaching, the Team Leader first took
a number of assessments which allowed him to see his natural
strengths and weaknesses, as well as to gain more insight
into others’ whose styles were different. Additionally,
through shadow observation, we were able to give him direct
feedback on his behavior so that he could see the negative
impact of his current behavior.
We
coached him to come up with alternative approaches to dealing
with his direct reports that
would be more participatory and generate more buy-in for the
challenges facing the team. We provided him some models
for understanding team development and gave him some tools
for challenging situations. We coached him to think strategically
rather than just tactically so that he could be more proactive
in his leadership rather than just responding to the fires
of the day.
At
different times we also addressed issues of work-life balance,
stress management, and created a developmental plan to build
emotional intelligence. We worked continuously on clarity
about what was important, helping him develop a coaching style
of leadership guided by inquiry and active listening, applying
questions instead of statements, and previewing outcomes of
various courses of action.
Results
As
a result of the coaching, Robert developed his awareness for
several of his management "blind spots" as well
as mechanisms for recognizing them real time, and countermeasures
to address them effectively. He was able to adjust
his management style from a dictatorial and autocratic style
to a more empowering, facilitator type style. This shift allowed
him " to slow down in order to go faster", thus
facilitating more open dialogue and information sharing with
his team, resulting in better decisions and better solutions
for problems. He was able
to build a more resonant work environment that kept people
engaged and committed despite the enormous challenges presented
by this program.
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The Situation
As
a long-term employee at a major pharmaceutical company, Anna
was the director and manager of the company’s research
division. She was approaching the end of her career,
having built a successful department from scratch. Nonetheless,
she still wanted to optimize her management of the team so
that she could situate the department and its’ work
in a way that would strengthen the group, and support the
legacy she wanted to leave.
When
Anna called me in, she had been implicated in an employee
complaint, was having difficulty delegating, was concerned
about team morale and lack of adequate career path options
to drive employee motivation. She also felt chronically
stressed and overwhelmed by all she had to do, and was not
getting the productivity she wanted out of her reports nor
the support she needed from her supervisor.
What We Did
We
first spent time articulating Anna’s strengths, limitations,
opportunities and threats so we could determine what
areas of focus would be high-leverage and high-impact in her
ability to manage more effectively. Through that process,
Anna identified several behaviors she needed to change, including
confronting unsatisfactory or conflict situations more proactively,
setting clear expectations and boundaries for her direct reports,
defining when and how to use more of a team approach, and
learning to manage up more effectively.
We
then helped her create strategies and coached her on particular
opportunities for practicing new or alternative behaviors.
We worked with expanding her communication and management
style to include more of a coaching approach in order to build
more capability and set higher expectations for her employees.
Through the coaching, she
increased her awareness of how her desire for harmony
and a pleasant work environment promoted conflict avoidance,
which had contributed to a build-up of pressure and potential
for more explosive outbursts with employees who weren’t
performing up to speed.
With
the opportunity to preview and practice a new approach to
conflict in the coaching sessions, she started to work with
problematic situations proactively using active listening,
coaching skills, and setting clearer limits and expectations.
She also began to think and plan strategically for team development.
Additionally, we coached her on how to communicate her needs
more effectively with her boss, culminating in a three-way
meeting in which we coached both of them to clear the air,
state what had been going unsaid, and agree on some new norms
for working together.
Results
As
a result of the coaching, Anna felt that the general climate
of the team improved and co-operation between people was noticeably
better. She was getting better results from the employees
who had been of concern. Her direction at work became clearer
to her, and she was able to choose tasks by importance rather
than trying to do them all at once and getting overwhelmed
by the sheer task of it.
She
was also able to make slight changes in her personal life
that had some impact on her working hours. She felt
better and less tense. One of the most remarkable changes
that occurred during the coaching engagement, from Anna’s
perspective, was that her relationship with her supervisor
improved significantly with improved communication and increased
cooperation and collaboration between them.
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Click here to learn more about
our company and its founder, Manya Arond-Thomas.
