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Overview
The organization operates in an historically hypercompetitive market, which was getting more competitive by the year. Brand management and market reputation were fundamental elements of their overall business model and customer value proposition.
Their market was undergoing dramatic changes on several fronts – from the impact of new market entrants, to enhanced technology, to increased regulatory scrutiny, to changes in consumer behaviour, and pressures on talent attraction and retention.
Their progressive, internationally experienced CEO made the bold decision to recruit a new senior executive from outside of the industry and wanted to take proactive steps to set this new executive up for immediate success. The essential premise was to inject new life, and an outside marketing perspective, into the company and senior leadership group. But, with no specific industry experience, the challenge for the executive was to establish credibility, impact, and influence right out of the gate.
The Solution
The CEO, having worked with The Beacon Group previously and having had positive experiences with Executive Coaching in general, sought an Executive Coach who could support the new Executive in all aspects of the role; including building personal leadership capability, elevating team performance, shaping strategy, and driving the business forward.
There were several immediate challenges.
First – ensuring the Executive was comfortable with our Coach and understood this engagement as an important part of their own success and future development.
Second – establishing fit and rapport with our Coach such that the relationship could be built on trust and had the potential to serve both the needs of the Executive and the company
Third – anchoring the work around specific focus areas and generating a Development Plan that could be used to track progress and measure success.
Phase I – Setting the Foundation
Our first step was to meet with the CEO to fully understand what outcomes they were seeking and in what timeframe. As the “sponsor” for this engagement, it was important to make sure the CEO was a full and active partner on the coaching journey. The formal briefing followed an interview process that had been conducted by our Coach to establish scope and ensure specific, tangible and measurable deliverables could be identified.
Phase II – Framing the Work
The next step was to meet with the Executive who would be coached. Once again, the structure of the initial meeting was set according to the “discovery” model which our Coach has perfected over time. There were two objectives for this meeting.
First – to begin establishing trust and rapport by using a number of carefully considered probing questions.
Second – to have the Executive outline, in their own terms, what they would like to achieve
Using the information from Phases I and II, our Coach developed an Executive Coaching Roadmap and shared it with both the Executive and the CEO to ensure 100% alignment.
Phase III – Establishing a Baseline
Best practice and years of experience both show us that establishing a hard set of measurable outcomes is an important part of any successful Executive Coaching program. To do this, the Executive was put through a rigorous, proprietary 360° Feedback Assessment. Inputs were collected from multiple sources and the data was analyzed and shared with the Executive and the sponsoring CEO.
Phase IV – Focusing on Outcomes
Using the insights from Phases I, II and III above, the Executive Coaching program was initiated in the form of 1-hour virtual meetings spaced two to three weeks apart. Each session was focused on a specific target area that was identified and agreed upon ahead of time.
In parallel, the Executive was required to complete our sixteen-course online Leadership Training Curriculum to underpin their ongoing leadership journey. As part of this process, they also completed a series of readings and assignments, all tied to the themes of the online curriculum, and all components were debriefed with our Coach as part of the regular meeting cadence.
Phase V – Measuring Progress
Executive Coaching is about accelerated professional development, new skill development and behaviour modification, and there is no substitute for unbiased, fact-based feedback to measure progress in this relationship. After 8 to 10 months of Executive Coaching, we conducted a second 360° Feedback. In addition to measuring progress, this helped us craft a personal Development Plan that carried on once the formal Executive Coaching agreement had concluded after a typical 12-month period.
The Result
After just three months, the CEO reported the Executive tangibly applying new knowledge and skills in both one-on-one interactions and around the C-Suite table, along with noted improvements on the second 360° Feedback results. Through the Executive Coaching process, the Executive was able to establish a “personal brand”, deliver on both personal and team goals and objectives, and assert a newfound influence and impact on the organization.