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Business Challenge:
Step-Up from Vice President of Sales to Vice President/General Manager.
- High-performance sales executive promoted to take on Vice President/General Manager responsibilities.
- Tasked with leading the company's largest division and turning around a fledgling start-up division.
- Executive requests coaching support as part of her new role.
- Challenged to develop more robust leadership skills that go beyond her subject mater expertise in sales.
- Faced with tremendous industry consolidation and product commoditization.
How Break Through Consulting Helped:
Information:
- Conducted quantitative assessments including 360, personality and Myers Briggs.
- Conducted customized qualitative interviews.
- Interviewed the Executive for a self-assessment.
- Shadowed the Executive observing her in team meetings and in peer interactions on a global level.
Insight:
- Discovered that the Executive's fast thinking and rapid decision-making were considered a strength. However used in excess, this strength could leave others feeling left out and unheard
- Realized that she valued execution and action over communication and collaboration. This Executive needed to delegate responsibility and allow her team time and space to solve business problems.
- Recognized that she needed to work on her communications given a more diverse constituency.
- Found that she needed to manage up - highlighting her team's achievements to upper management.
Innovation:
- Focused on developing more robust leadership skills in operations, by systematically drilling down through her P&L with the CFO until she understood every nuance
- Practiced slowing her pacing, deep listening and questioning in interactions with her internal team.
- Learned to communicate "the nugget" to senior leadership.
- Handed over team meeting facilitation to one of her senior team members so that she could be more present and observe her team at work.
Impact:
- This Executive's turn-around division finished the year profitably and will be spun-off as an independent company.
- Team members felt heard and more empowered in their roles.
- The Executive's senior team followed her example and exhibited improved communications and leadership.
- Developed strong operational skills, transitioning comfortably from sales leader to general manager.
- Experienced renewed energy and increased confidence in her new role.
- Developed a more standardized product set to decrease the cost of manufacturing the division's commoditized products.
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