Developing Business Leaders
The story that follows illustrates how my leadership development work often unfolds.
A prominent construction company was seeking an opportunity to develop its individual board of directors. They provided a fairly open agenda, and the coaching work commenced. Each director was working towards his own objectives. In the course of my work, I make use of the Enneagram personality profile (see www.enneagraminstitute.com), and it turned out that 5 of these 7 directors were all 7s! I could see th
isks – failure to address sticky interpersonal issues between themselves and their employees; not being sufficiently focused on the at this degree of similarity in styles could make for a wonderful happy team who all like each other very much, but that there were some r |
This lead to our doing a Team Personality Workshop in which they had the opportunity to get to know more about the colleagues seated around the table, and understand how this mix of personalities showed up in the personality of the team and the typical behaviours evident in the team. They also understood exactly what strengths this mix of personalities gave the team, as well as the risks because they were all so similar. The result of this was significant improvements in the way team members worked together because they were able to meet their colleagues in terms of their style. Interestingly, there has been some turnover in that team, and they have a much better mix of personality types now.real business priorities, and a tendency to miss out on the learning offered in each of their projects because of their “moving along swiftly” approach to life.
Both the personal coaching and the Team Personality workshop revealed that, while they were all strong operators, they were not strategic thinkers, and had not built strategy and the execution thereof into their way of working. As a result, they found themselves winning tender work that gave poor margins, and were frustrated that they weren’t winning the kind of work they wanted… but what work did they want? They were being asked to deliver on particularly stretching targets, which they were unlikely to achieve if they didn’t start doing something different. They also had a nagging suspicion that they wanted to be pursuing more cross-border work, but were somewhat overwhelmed by the thought.
We then took the team away and did a facilitated strategy workshop in which they were able to very clearly answer the following questions (with thanks to A.G.Lafley and Roger L.Martin and their book, “Playing to Win”):
Both the personal coaching and the Team Personality workshop revealed that, while they were all strong operators, they were not strategic thinkers, and had not built strategy and the execution thereof into their way of working. As a result, they found themselves winning tender work that gave poor margins, and were frustrated that they weren’t winning the kind of work they wanted… but what work did they want? They were being asked to deliver on particularly stretching targets, which they were unlikely to achieve if they didn’t start doing something different. They also had a nagging suspicion that they wanted to be pursuing more cross-border work, but were somewhat overwhelmed by the thought.
We then took the team away and did a facilitated strategy workshop in which they were able to very clearly answer the following questions (with thanks to A.G.Lafley and Roger L.Martin and their book, “Playing to Win”):
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We implemented the habits of a weekly WIGs (wildly important goals) meeting (with thanks to ….) and monthly afternoon strategy sessions where we continue to tackle each strategic issue with a view to continuously progressing the execution of the strategy, as well as checking whether our assumptions still hold and our “theory of success” is bearing fruit. We make adjustments to the strategy regularly because of what the team is continually learning.
As a result of these processes, the team is now winning the work it wants at good margins; it is pursuing its cross-border strategy in a very focussed and selective way, and each of its directors continues to develop their strategic think skills and habits. They have a healthy order book, and are well on track to delivering results that exceed targets.
“Belinda prompts us to think more deliberately around what we are doing, what we should be doing, where we are aiming and what our roles are to achieve this. She promotes a different way of looking at some of our problems, stimulating discussion and thinking, which in turn knits the team together. In my personal coaching she challenged me to question what I believed to be important and helped me adopt reflection as a means of continual improvement.
Belinda has become an integral part of our executive team and her input has been invaluable in mapping out our future success.” (Managing Director, Construction Company)
As a result of these processes, the team is now winning the work it wants at good margins; it is pursuing its cross-border strategy in a very focussed and selective way, and each of its directors continues to develop their strategic think skills and habits. They have a healthy order book, and are well on track to delivering results that exceed targets.
“Belinda prompts us to think more deliberately around what we are doing, what we should be doing, where we are aiming and what our roles are to achieve this. She promotes a different way of looking at some of our problems, stimulating discussion and thinking, which in turn knits the team together. In my personal coaching she challenged me to question what I believed to be important and helped me adopt reflection as a means of continual improvement.
Belinda has become an integral part of our executive team and her input has been invaluable in mapping out our future success.” (Managing Director, Construction Company)