Case Study - Develop

Challenge

In this example, the focus is placed on a particular manager and how our Executive Coaching program has impacted on his leadership behaviour.

As a leading provider of early childhood, child protection, affordable housing, retirement living and aged care services in Queensland, this not-for-profit organisation support in excess of 22,000 clients annually in urban, rural and remote localities. They operate 137 services through more than 2,300 staff and over 600 volunteers.

One of the Service Managers had recently been promoted to a role of greater responsibility and was not performing at the level required by the organisation. One of the service lines in particular was at risk of failing its accreditation which would have dire financial ramifications for the organisation. The Service Manager was struggling with lifting their leadership style to their new level which manifested in poor time management, ineffective delegation and heightened anxiety and stress due to the perceived pressure on them. The relationship with their manager had begun to unravel as a result of the situation.

Methodology & Approach

Our methodology followed our process described in the previous example. We met individually with both the Service Manager and their manager to scope out the areas to work on. This resulted in jointly setting goals to achieve among all three parties with specific actions on how we were going to achieve these goals and monitor progress. A document was then created that captured the agreed way of going forward.

From this robust scoping process, the Executive Coaching program began with a personality assessment using the OPQ (Occupational Personality Questionnaire) which provided insight into their relationships with people, feelings, thinking style as well as their most natural leadership and subordinate styles. The information from this assessment was used as the basis to develop a specific development plan focussing on behavioural skills training to improve their leadership ability.

Regular one-on-one sessions were held over the next six months with one of our Executive Coaches. They have also had monthly supervision meetings with their manager who provided them with written feedback on how they were travelling over and above that provided in the Executive Coaching sessions which kept communication open between all three parties.

Some of the skills that were enhanced during this process included:

• Time management and setting a new time management system;
• Planning skills to shift behaviour from reactive to strategic and also how to use the strategic time constructively
• Leadership and mentoring capability to upskill and empower their staff rather than doing excessive hands on work themself or simply “giving answers” through an autocratic style.

Outcomes

Over the six months of Executive Coaching a steady improvement was noticed. One year later they now have greater responsibility; more service lines and an increased work load. They have reported being more effective and feels that things do not slip away from them.  Their manager recently described their work as “extraordinarily well”.

They have recently re-engaged with us on another Executive Coaching program at the bequest of their manager and themself to drive their performance to the next level. Called our High Potential program we are now working closely with them to capitalise on the foundation they now have to become one of the top leaders in the organisation.