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An international media company with over 10k employees recognized the need to develop its high-performing senior women to improve retention, increase their consideration for future advancement and strengthen their internal professional network. In partnership with the most senior woman in the company, herself a C-Suite executive, a comprehensive program was developed to combine concrete skill building with an exploration of leadership challenges. The program contained 360 feedback and individual executive coaching in addition to peer coaching and support.
Over several years, as successive cohorts of women participated,the program came to be known as a prestigious and highly impactful development experience. Women leaders who participated in the program were quick to support the nomination of their colleagues to future sessions, and a strong alumnae network grew across the company. Building on this success, the company launched a similar program for high-potential women at the Director level to provide leadership development opportunities earlier in women’s careers.
A financial services firm with approximately 100 employees began to grow quickly, and many of its initial employees had to shift from being individual contributors to managing teams of direct reports. In partnership with the CEO and Head of HR, a set of competencies was identified to support these people in management roles. A program was rolled out to develop skills such as effective communication, giving productive feedback, and managing difficult conversations.
To increase the impact, the program combined four half-day classroom sessions with structured practice of the new skills on the job between sessions. Participants were organized into small cohorts that met periodically with an executive coach to discuss how skills were being applied in their actual work, and to foster peer-to-peer coaching and support. Many of the firm’s leaders also worked with coaches to reinforce skills learned in the program and focus on their individual development. To support its ongoing growth, the firm runs this program annually for new managers and continues to deepen the learning with one-on-one executive coaching.
A large organization invested to replace 10 different legacy systems with Microsoft 365. The initiative affected 10 centers and reached 17,000 internal users. To prepare for anticipated challenges such as staff resistance to the new system, budget overruns and shifting milestones, the CTO invested in developing leadership competencies through one-on-one executive coaching for several executives, and in team building programs based on principles of change management.
The team programs helped enable leaders to be flexible in a changing process, to learn from breakdowns, and to gain practical tools for different needs. The executive coaching served to support leaders as they applied the new tools in real work situations, providing frameworks to help them determine the best solutions based on their individual strengths and leadership styles. Supported by the combination of training and coaching, the CTO’s team remained effective during times of intense pressure and managed a successful rollout of the new enterprise architecture.
A Federal Department hired a mid-sized consulting firm for strategic planning and process improvement work, and to serve as a general contractor to implement the strategies. Soon after, an act of Congress changed reporting lines and responsibilities for several Agencies within the Department. The consulting firm hired our coaches to provide executive coaching to help managers through the transition; specifically, to help with conflict, communications and change.
Based on the situation, the coaches blended a proven model for outcomes of change with a model for emotional responses to change, creating a framework for the engagement. The coaches all had experience supporting global clients and people working abroad in new situations. They helped their clients tap their own thinking to set goals and priorities, then kept them accountable for achieving them. In parallel, senior leadership understood and could reference the change framework when monitoring progress for the office’s overall goals through the reorganization. After an initial 12-month engagement, the coaching was considered a valuable success and our firm was hired to continue coaching services for another year.
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