Case Studies
Building leaders of the future
through leadership assessment and development
CASE STUDY 1
Executive Leadership Coaching
Polly is new in her job as President of a successful financial institution. Although she has done most of the job tasks, and led a large team before, the time demands are suffocating. She is very efficient, however, her team is whining and have not been taught to take the lead on their projects. They are tentative with her as new leader, holding back from making decisions and taking risks, until they get a better understanding of her leadership style and learn to trust that she is there to support them. She senses they are criticizing her behind her back, rather than giving her advice and asking questions to support her new initiatives, which are much more demanding and fast-paced than the previous leader, who had been there many years. Polly senses a rift is growing between her and her team, and she doesn’t know how to earn their trust and help to motivate them around her new vision.
She contacts an Executive Coach, who helps to investigate the existing issues, capabilities of the team, and their motivations through a “jump start” analysis by interviewing each team member confidentially. She then shares candid feedback with Polly, conducts a 360 leadership assessment to identify strengths and blind spots, and initiates a coaching program for six months. At the end of the term, Polly has learned how to show her support for her team, identify their specific needs, coach each team members and their particular strengths and weaknesses. Polly becomes much more comfortable leading her team, and her team appreciates her knowledge and guidance.
CASE STUDY 2
Leadership Assessment Case Study
Building your workforce of the future
Dr. Liang met with clients who felt that their overall leadership skills in the organization were lacking. For example, our managers don’t know how to motivate others; they don’t think strategically; they miss deadlines and don’t hold others accountable. How can we get them to be more proactive and think like leaders instead of managers? Linda used a leadership competency dictionary to identify the core 8 to 12 leadership skills, not only for today but also for the future. She led them in a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and then used visioning to identify leadership competencies of the future. Supervisors were surveyed to determine what leadership skills their teams needed to develop. An action plan was created to identify high potentials, who might already have these skills, and development processes (training and coaching) needed to develop these skills. Results: The team created a measurable strategy and goals and a timeline for achievement. Once held accountable, the team began producing results.
CASE STUDY 3
Diversity & Inclusion Case Study
High turnover among women and minorities
A fortune 100 company was concerned because they noticed that they had high voluntary turnover amongst women and minorities, which resulted in losing top talent and increasing recruitment costs. There was also a retraining cost, as the loss of employees also created a void in institutional knowledge. Organizational Resources assisted using the following approach:
- Compared historical workforce composition with present day workforce composition
- Analyzed the cost and reasons for turnover amongst all subgroups
- Identified and interviewed top performers who voluntarily left the organization that left for reasons that could be impacted by the company
- Recommended changes to the current processes to assist in retaining top talent going forward
CASE STUDY 4
Organizational Research Case Study
Arising Conflict Issues
Dr. Liang was contacted regarding rising tension between two individuals who could not seem to get along. Both highly educated doctors, they seemed to be vying for individual power with little respect for each other. The Director of the Medical Practice was concerned that this conflict would affect the customers and, also their ability to work together.
The individuals involved seem to shrug their shoulders, admit they don’t like each other and just tolerate each other.
We interviewed the leadership team, clarified their respective work roles and their requirements for working together and coached the Director of the Medical Practice as well as the two individuals. Helping them to realize that there was a positive benefit to each individual to learn to work together, and that there were job requirements they were not fulfilling, helped them to realize the necessity for cooperation and teamwork. Over time, the two individuals learned to work with each other and a more cooperative work environment was achieved. The Director also learned coaching skills to help hold each one accountable and to provide feedback on what each individual was doing to contribute to the conflict.
In this case, we use a three-pronged approach:
- Interview leaders, co-workers and subordinates or use assessments to determine core issues
- Choose assessments to match problem areas: Leadership competencies, communication style, conflict style, emotional intelligence.
- Meet with coaches to establish rapport and set coaching goals
- Provide coaching on a regular basis to improve behavior
- Check-ins with supervisor to determine progress
CASE STUDY 5
Individual Coaching Case Study
Tony is a terrific at sales, hard driving and productive. However, as a new Sales Manager, he is struggling with helping his team to meet their goals. His sales reps say he doesn’t coach them, is abrupt and only spends a minute with them on the phone, during which he spends the time talking and not listening or coaching. The company wants Tony to succeed on his new job. Therefore, we gave Tony a couple of assessments, the DiSC profile to find out his communication style and the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis to find out his leadership competencies. Tony was given feedback on his skills and he created goals to work on, things like listening, building relationships with his team, interpersonal skills, etc. We taught Tony that it is not about changing who he is or his leadership style, but development is about shifting your behavior a bit to be even more successful. We pointed out how learning these skills would help Tony’s entire team succeed. The result: after six months Tony learned how to be a better listener, how to use his abilities to coach others, and how to develop relationships with his team resulting in even greater levels of success for both Tony and the company.
CASE STUDY 6
Workplace Conflict Case Study
Leadership Team conflict and lack of vision
Dr. Liang encountered a leadership team that was fighting and arguing at each meeting. The lines of authority were fuzzy, and often individuals felt like they had control over some of the other departments in the decision-making process. Linda initiated a customized 360-degree assessment of the leadership team. She interviewed each team member in-depth to discover what their issues were. It was essential to have an outside person conduct the interviews, to obtain a candid view of what was really going on. Although she kept feedback anonymous, she shared the overall feedback with the entire leadership ream. Each individual leader received candid feedback about their leadership skills and abilities from their own team members. In addition, six visioning sessions were held with the team, to set a strategy and identify individuals responsible for implementing portions of the strategy. These sessions were supplemented by individual coaching for each team member. The result, team members began to get along better, a clear strategy with lines of authority was developed, and one member was promoted to a leadership role, which assisted in reducing the conflict.
Schedule a leadership conversation with us today!
please contact Dr. Liang at 847.712.9002 or linda@orgresources.com.