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How
Fast Can You Be Up to Speed? | Creating
Board Awareness | The
Executive as Learner
Team Reconnect
How
Fast Can You Be Up to
Speed?
Career
transitions may take many forms including turning
around a business,
assuming responsibility for a high-profile, complex project,
ascending to a new role with a broader scope, starting a new
venture, or working internationally.
Background: In each case, the
leader involved
has to manage not only this business but also their approach
to their new challenges. How effective the leader
is at accelerating
their transition into the new role is critical to
their long-term
success. This vice-president was moving from an
operations position
based in the field to a strategic planning position based at
the corporate headquarters.
Challenge: She wanted to know how
to best prepare
for the upcoming changes and how to accelerate her
transition,
leveraging her skills and abilities to their
greatest advantage.
Results: In order to be a
competent and contributing
leader as soon as possible, the transitioning vice president
worked through our Leader Acceleration Plan. Using
this process, Jennings Earnhardt consultants and the client
developed a customized transition plan. The plan considered
the vice president’s particular situation, her assessed
abilities and expertise, and the status of the
corporate climate
she would be entering. Based on our findings, we composed a
detailed plan for ease of implementation. Subsequently, the
client worked intensively over a three-month
period, receiving
targeted coaching throughout that period. Through
this defined
process, she was able to quickly adapt to the
culture at corporate
headquarters, connect with influential support
coalitions, and
have an immediate impact in her new position.
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Creating
Board Awareness
Clear
and consistent governance practices are critical to
the success
of a board of directors.
Background: The chair of the
nominating committee
of the board of directors for a small private
company was concerned
about the dynamics of the board and management relationships.
In assessing the opportunities and potential candidates, he
recognized that the board needed an infusion of
expertise, energy,
and objectivity. Because this was a private venture and the
founder remained the active CEO and chair, the
board had evolved
very little since its inception.
Challenge: The nominating
committee chair wanted
to inform the board chair that change was critical
to the board’s
future success and to influence the form and
substance of that
needed change.
Result: The first step we took, as we worked
through the Board of Directors Leadership Program, was
to survey the existing board regarding the members’ views
on its effectiveness. Using information extracted
from those surveys,
we met with the executive committee of the board and reviewed
the findings. Following discussion, we made a presentation of
the findings to the full board and facilitated the discussion
that arose. Through this process, the chair of the nominating
committee was able to bring the idea for change up through the
board in a non-threatening way and to gain buy-in
from the board
leadership before involving the entire board membership.
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The
Executive as Learner
Significant
studies have provided critical information on how
successful leaders
learn, grow, and change.
Background: These studies differ
from other studies
that target performance reviews of what a leader does or what
qualities they possess to do their job. In
researching how successful
leaders learn, grow, and change, the emphasis for
leadership shifts
from being a “doer” to being a
“learner.”
Following a 360-degree assessment in which he received specific
performance feedback from direct reports, peers, supervisors,
and other superiors, this director realized that his
communication
style was not successful with the people around him. While his
skill to drive results was acknowledged, they
reviewed his capacity
to build and maintain relationships as weak and
ineffective.
Challenge: This inability to work
effectively
within social systems was the barrier to his
ascendance in the
organization.
Result: Derailment was what this
director could
expect if his behavior did not change. Through our
Executive
Leadership Coaching engagement, we isolated the specific
behaviors that accounted for his associates’
perceptions.
Once we had identified the needed behavioral
changes, we worked
to address those changes. Over the course of the
coaching process,
the director learned about when, where, and why he
reacted ineffectively.
Most importantly, he learned to first anticipate
the undesirable
behavior and intercept it, and subsequently he replaced the
unproductive behaviors with authentic and
influential new behaviors.
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Team
Reconnect
Teams
vary strikingly in how they handle all aspects of corporate
communication including meetings, decision-making, conflict
resolution, and division of responsibilities and tasks.
Background: A satellite office for a large
management and technology consulting company was struggling
to build a sense of team, shared goals, and mutual
understanding
among its associates. The difficulty was grounded in the fact
that a sizeable contingent of the associates
traveled constantly,
and therefore, spent little face-time in the
satellite office.
The resulting uneven communication regarding customer needs,
job requirements and associate responsibilities
caused friction
within the team.
Challenge: The team leader wanted to rebuild
commitment and collaboration within her team.
Results: We stared our Team Leadership
Coaching by interviewing members of the team
to determine
their concerns and insights around the identified
communication
issues. Using the Myers-Briggs instrument, we then designed
a half-day interactive presentation that created a
common language
within the organization and a means to understand better one
another’s individual communication styles.
This approach
to building teamwork proved very effective in breaking down
barriers between different functional areas.
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