Case Studies

Examples of our one-to-one coaching work

Case study: Facing reality; focusing on your strengths

Our client, a senior executive in a research and consultancy company, was keen to take the next step on his career ladder with promotion to the Board. Although he was seen to have the potential for such a move, there was unlikely to be an opening in the short term, as the company planned to do an IPO in 2-3 years time, and the current directors were not expected to move before then. Our client felt frustrated and blocked and couldn’t see how to progress. Our first step was to help him accept the reality of his situation, and think about how he could work within it. We encouraged him to look at his development laterally rather than vertically, and focus on those skills and competencies he could work on to improve performance in his current role, as well as be better prepared for the next move whenever it came. Our 4 stage signature coaching model enabled him to build a deeper understanding of his core motivation, and also provided a template to plan his development areas and measure progress during the 9 month programme. Our special talents model helped him focus on his strengths and identify opportunities to put them to good use. He was also able to isolate areas where he could improve his competency, including strengthening his impact and presence, communication style, stakeholder management, influencing skills and delegation skills. Feedback from peers, team members and the top team was sought at the outset of the programme and repeated towards the end. This showed the client that he had made significant progress in the areas identified, and he concluded that, had the hoped-for promotion come before his coaching started, he would not have enjoyed the success he had originally envisaged.

Case study – keeping the lines of communication open

Following a change of role, our client, a healthcare executive, was asked to lead a high profile project. Although the project was completed successfully and on time, feedback after the project suggested that some stakeholders had not always felt confident that this would be the case. Our client was disappointed by this, and wanted to ensure this problem was not repeated in other projects he was leading. As we dug deeper into the issue, it became clear that the underlying problem was a lack of communication. While our client had very strong technical abilities in areas such as planning, process and delivery, he was less comfortable with his inter-personnel skills, including building rapport and managing upwards. As a result, he was not communicating with his stakeholders on a regular basis, and in the absence of any news, they had either forgotten about the project, or become worried that it was not progressing. We worked with the client to build his stakeholder management skills and, in particular, develop a more proactive approach to communication on his other projects. We set goals for increasing levels of contact with key people, using a range of both formal and informal interactions, and used a profiling tool called Insights to help him understand the communication needs of people with very different personality types, and needs, to his own. Feedback from his boss and other senior executives showed that this more outgoing and engaging style was having a significant effect on their levels of confidence, and trust in his ability to deliver.

Get going case study Overcoming fear and taking action

Following a major change in their market place, an engineering client faced a dramatic shift in role. From being sole provider of certain services to their business, they were required to take on a more strategic role, overseeing delivery through a range of different suppliers, including competitors, in order to maximise value for the company. Whereas in their previous role they had complete control over delivery of the service, now they had to collaborate with, and influence, third parties in order to get the job done. The loss of direct control was hard for the client to adjust to, and was leading to confusion and slow decision-making. We started by helping the client to map out all those things they needed to work with and influence in order to achieve their goals. We evaluated the relative importance of each relationship and how well established it was, and looked at what the client could do to move each relationship from where it was now to where it needed to be. We used a range of tools to help the client learn new skills such as rapport building and active listening, and develop a more affiliative leadership style. By taking each stakeholder in turn and looking at the specific actions the client could take to build that relationship, we helped them become more confident working with and through others, rather than doing everything themselves. Decision-making speeded up, and ultimately the client found that being able to step back from day-to-day delivery and plan ahead rather than simply react to events, was less stressful.

Examples of our team coaching work

Get together: improving our relationships

Our client, a mid-sized professional practice, was finding it difficult to drive revenues up beyond the level they had stayed at for four years. Product, branding and positioning strategies had been tried, but progress remained elusive. We were asked to run a two-day off-site Board event to help them address the challenge. Before the meeting we carried out individual interviews which revealed that trust between board members was relatively low. During the meeting we used a series of exercises to encourage ever more open conversations between individuals, all within a framework of a model which looks at three aspects of trust: contractual (“I believe you will do what you say you will”); communication (“I believe you are being open and honest with me”) and competence (“I believe you are up to the job”). The process helped them identify exactly where trust was lacking, and created a real desire to understand better each other’s vision for the business. A burden was visibly lifted as it became clear that there was a shared, but until then unspoken, belief that the goals set some years before were no longer right for them. The planned meeting structure was altered on the fly so the team could go where they needed to, and work on a new vision for the business. As they did so, trust was restored quickly and deeply, and instead of operating in their own silos, each now felt free to help and get help from the others. Most importantly, the team felt that this compelling new, shared vision was the missing ingredient that would finally enable them to break through the glass ceiling.

Aligning the top team to their vision and strategy

Facilitated structured workshops to allow the top team of a electricity sales division of a European electricity company to create and agree a new strategy. Through the process, which included scenario development and development of strategic principles, key participants developed deeper common understanding and alignment. The team went on to agree a set of core values and an HR strategy to support the strategic plan. The division reached its profit and margin goals 1 year ahead of its 3 year business plan.

Aligning new teams after major change

Designed a mixed programme of team workshops and individual 1:1 coaching for the Finance Department of a London-based European Bank. The objective of the programme was to create a new integrated team culture and approach following the merger of two separate divisions. A key output was building a team identity that is client focused and a centre of excellence in the bank and move away from “silo” behaviour. Team workshops focused on developing a common goal for the whole new team and raising the leadership skills of the management team. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator ( MBTI) was used in both the team events and in 1:1 coaching to increase team awareness of influencing styles and communication issues.

A plan to develop the whole division was implemented as well as individual development plans for the management team members. The results were recognised across the team’s internal clients including the feedback “I don’t know what those guys have done but they’ve moved from being difficult to partners you can do business with” The team went on to be asked to take the lead for several major programmes running across the Bank in London and internationally. They are now cited as the role model other departments now follow and their leader has been promoted to a significant wider role.

Improving the performance of a dysfunctional team

Working with an Executive team managing a Directorate of a major transport company, introduced a programme combining a mixture of team and individual coaching. The team faced difficulty in making clear decisions and maintaining commitment and cohesion as decisions are implemented. The team also faced significant issues around work sharing and allocation within the wider group against a constantly changing set of external demands.

After an offsite designed to help the team create a better decision-making process and apply it to significant group-wide issues, one team member told us “From my point of view I thought this was a real breakthrough workshop and I think we made two years' progress in two days.” The team went on to develop and implement a new work scheduling, budgeting and reporting process focused around external and internal customer needs. Despite very significant obstacles to this change, it has increased management focus and accountability for work programmes and improved customer focus.

Resolving high conflict situations

We worked with 2 companies in the pharmaceutical delivery industry who had a long-running contractual relationship that had gone wrong. Both companies had a strong commercial incentive to develop and manufacture a specific new device in a certain time-frame but open, trusting, cooperation between the two development teams was essential to make this happen. At the request of the two Commercial Directors, we were asked help resolve the conflict that was a continual threat to their success – and potentially the survival of one party.

We started by talking individually with all the key stakeholders in each company to establish the root cause of the conflict and the desire to change. From these interviews we designed a workshop process and agreed that with the Commercial Directors. In the workshop we created an atmosphere of personal openness, re-built rapport and established a compelling goal all could buy into. The teams then jointly worked out a new process for working together, new agreements about certain behaviours and an action plan with clear responsibilities. The result was significantly better working relationships with individuals reporting little or no conflict from then onwards. The new device was designed and produced to plan.

Improving team performance in multi-cultural teams

A group of senior Back Office Managers in different countries within a European Investment Bank needed to bring together their respective local teams to form one global team supporting the global Front Offices. There were issues of culture, teamwork and duplication of various services. One of the catalysts for the change was the introduction of a new global IT system.

We worked with the country team leaders to identify what was currently working well and what needed to change. This created a strong commitment to the change process and the energy to become a global service provider. Our work with the team involved some of the following:

establishing common vision with new roles and responsibilities
better appreciation of cultural differences
effective communication across different time zones, languages and cultures
building their team-working skills and capabilities

The result was the team delivered all its challenging business targets and is seen as a positive example to the rest of the organisation in how to make global integration work, particularly resolving cultural dilemmas.

Identifying and then reaching decision on ‘blocked’ issues that have become “un-discussible” – “exposing the elephants in the room”

Using our Special Talents Model, we worked with a team of 17 people who act as an industry representative body. Using the model each person identified their own specific talents and things they were excellent at as well as those things they had difficulty doing and were poor at. They then received feedback on these from their team members. A comprehensive action plan was agreed whereby some areas of work were re-distributed amongst team members so that people could do more of the work which they had specific talents for and enjoyed.