Leadership Effectiveness Assessment

Fortune 500 Retail Goods Company
The Request

To work with the manager and small team of special projects staff to resolve conflicts, increase teamwork and leadership effectiveness.
The Context

The HR manager and director of this work group were involved in the resolution of the difficulties in this work unit, so the conflicts that were present were very visible to senior management and threatened the careers of some of the key players in this group. There was dissension and competitiveness within the unit, challenge to the manager, polarizing of staff and general dysfunction and disharmony.

The Challenge

The goal for this work was to support and coach the manager to understand some of the dynamics of the situation, identify which she could influence and work towards improving her own effectiveness. The other goal was to get the rest of the team to discuss the "undiscussible" (those things which they had previously avoided) in order to focus on creating a future that was better than their current situation. Part of the challenge was to do this in a highly political environment where many of the team members had access to powerful resources outside the group.

The Approach

It was necessary to keep the HR manager in the loop with this work because he was the official "objective" arbiter of success of the work. So, it was necessary to satisfy his needs as well as do the work with the manager and the team.

The manager of the unit needed to know that this intervention was a means of support for her rather than an indictment of her leadership. We worked together to identify goals for the group and her own concerns. The team members also had to be convinced that doing work to rebuild the team and deal with past conflicts was a goal worth the effort. Each team member was interviewed to get her perspectives, input, concerns and goals.

We spent 2 days in an offsite setting discussing the issues that had caused the conflicts and planning ways to avoid them in the future. The team focused on style differences and gave feedback on perceived effectiveness. There was also time set aside for humor and fun.

I continued to provide coaching and consultation to the two leaders of the group over about 9 months to reinforce and support the changes necessary to keep the team functioning effectively

The Results

The team began to deal with the issues from the session. There was more participation in decisions and communication within the team. The most dissatisfied team member left the organization; the manager got additional management training, and was promoted to director. The unit is extremely successful and well regarded by the organization.

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