A high potential assumes responsibility for a $20MM business unit
Transforming Underdeveloped Talent into Leadership Success
Situation:
A global healthcare service provider was evaluating their staff as part of their succession planning. No one person was rising to the top – and their top candidates had significant drawbacks. One person was in the competitive set and didn’t have significant issues but the team had no strong opinion about them as a leader. They acknowledged the person was extremely competent and excellent with clients but they didn’t believe they “had what it took” to lead the company.
The company engaged us to work with this employee to see if they could become a viable candidate to run the company.
Solution:
The employee viewed every situation from the Client’s perspective—therefore all their communication and approaches were completely team-oriented obscuring their specific contributions to the solutions. This made the employee beloved by their team and Client but invisible to the power players in the organization. Additionally, the employee had given no thought to personal presentation and dressed extremely casually and very “young”.
The employee really wanted to run the company and believed that they could create an environment that would be an excellent place for people to thrive. This motivation was leveraged as we worked through their personal discomfort in putting themselves at the center of attention.
As a first step, the employee identified their leadership “brand” and evaluated whether their daily demeanor supported this positioning. The gaps quickly became clear. To gain quick momentum, a visual strategist was brought in to align the employees’ personal style with their leadership brand. Concurrently all communications the employee produced were analyzed for tone and manner to determine if the proper leadership tone was being employed. These two activities brought strong positive response from management and this validation provided the impetus for the employee to assume a more “front and center” role in both internal and external meetings.
The key assumption the employee was making was that if they put themselves first it would negatively impact the work output. Once they saw that this was not the case—and in fact people welcomed them in this role—the limitations they placed on their behavior were released.
Result:
The employee was put in charge of a $20MM business unit in order to prepare for an even bigger role in the future.
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