Upskilling Leaders
The Challenge
A large investment company was confronting a generational shift that required the three executives a level down from the founders to run the company after the founders’ retirement in two years. The executive team had been operating in a somewhat siloed manner and needed to expand their ability to work collaboratively in making and communicating important decisions, setting goals and keeping themselves and others accountable for the company’s strategic objectives.
The Approach
We began by interviewing each executive to understand what would be required in their new role and what aspects of the role they expected to be most challenging. Based on their responses, we developed a highly customized 6-hour program focused on three objectives:
Developing a servant leadership mindset
Adhering to a decision making framework and communication strategy
Adopting a goal setting framework and process that would help their staff prioritize and be accountable for their assigned work
The program we designed for this group was highly experiential with ample time to interact, connect with one another, talk through individual challenges, and coach one another. At the beginning of each module, we introduced a framework to guide the group’s thinking, then gave the opportunity for the participants to practice the framework through activities and role plays. Our approach also allowed the participants to learn from one another by sharing their own stories and coaching one another.
The Results
This group has found new and better ways to collaborate with each other, have helped their direct reports develop clear goals and accountability metrics, and have experienced increased confidence in stepping into their new leadership roles. Given the success of the program, they have asked the group.io to create a similar development experience for the next level down of leaders to weave these learnings into the fabric of the culture they are trying to create.
