John – Transforming from technical expert leader to general manager

THE CHALLENGE

John was considered technically excellent in his field. He was ready for promotion to general manager, but had some leadership challenges that would affect his success in that position. He was losing key talent and not being collaborative with his peers which resulted in low morale and tension.

THE RESULT

After 18 months John was appointed general manager, and led a significant turnaround for the business. He became a highly respected, inspiring leader and improved the relationships among the executive team.

Our Approach

Similar to many of our assignments, we used stakeholder qualitative feedback to pinpoint the areas for development for John. These areas concerned behavioural change therefore we created a programme with John to embed the new practices. This included:

• Shadowing John as he presented to large audiences and in team meetings
• Simulating scenarios, practicing and recording for reinforcement of new habits
• Changing habits is often challenging, but John’s disciplined approach and commitment enabled him to make great progress
• Using our Stakeholder mapping tool, John was able to identify and develop improved relationships with his peers in a way that was mutually beneficial.

Outcomes

He became a highly respected, inspiring leader and improved the relationships among the executive team.

• After 18 months John was appointed general manager, and led a significant turnaround for the business.
• He became a very polished presenter
• He was able to attract and retain top talent to his organisation
• Morale improved partly due to his ability to give quality feedback, which was a new skill to him
• Rather than regarding his peers as competitors, he developed a much greater interpersonal ease with them which resulted in that executive team working well together