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Dr. Nancy Yahanda is a three time winner, Top Ten Executive Coaches awarded by The Boston Herald and Women's Business

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"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal. "
Albert Pine

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Services - Success Stories

A Fortune 500 CEO and COO Partner to Strengthen Their Dual Leadership

The Situation

Recognizing how the interactions of senior leaders were impacting the broader organization, the Board of a Fortune 500 company invited the CEO and COO to engage in joint leadership coaching following a period of successful individual coaching for both. The Board hoped to identify and resolve issues in order to enhance the key leaders' abilities to manage the business effectively and lead their senior team to stronger performance.

What We Did

Building on individual comprehensive leadership assessments, observations, and testing used for individual coaching, we gathered specific data on the leaders' interaction styles by observing them in action and conducting additional interviews with key leaders and Board members. It was clear that both leaders were accomplished and highly respected, had significant industry experience and a solid understanding of their business, and were able to inspire others to greater achievements. The assessment revealed distinctive differences as well:

The CEO was viewed as: The COO was viewed as:
  • Thoughtful, strategic thinker; known for careful planning aligned with the broader vision
  • Instinctive and action oriented; known for timely, decisive action under pressure
  • Drawing out the thinking of others more than revealing his own - a consensus builder; taking time to explore issues fully
  • Analytical; methodical in decision-making; able to explore issues in-depth
  • Detail oriented - able to execute effectively
  • Known for making the "tough calls"; upfront about own views/thinking; less focused on exploring others' thinking; aiming for a "quick grasp" on the issues

The Results

  • Individual coaching had already targeted development areas and each leader had made significant gains toward building his individual leadership strengths; this engagement focused on addressing the issues that emerged as part of the CEO - COO relationship itself.
  • Through joint coaching over a six-month period, we engaged the leaders in raising their awareness by holding up a mirror to their behaviors and being the "truthteller" in the room so each could see how he was contributing to creating challenges in the relationship. New insights emerged from awareness of the assumptions each made about the other's decision making and communication styles.
  • It became clear that in different ways the leaders had each been holding back in order to protect what both viewed as a valued and strong relationship; over time, these tendencies unintentionally began to undermine their efforts as each began to feel that the other did not fully trust him.
  • The CEO and COO reaffirmed their commitment to key goals and objectives from the business perspective and identified what each needed to do individually and together to achieve these goals.
  • Each leader agreed to provide constructive feedback to the other on a more regular basis - they came to realize the importance of surfacing the "undiscussables" between them; they also identified where each could experiment in operating differently to ensure they achieved their shared objectives.

The Outcome

As a result of these changes, the two leaders, by working together, successfully completed a significant acquisition; specifically, they learned to be complementary in their approach, balancing the CEO's strategic thinking with the COO's experience at driving execution in order to map out an effective approach to leading the acquisition, an approach that proved so successful that the organization adopted it as the model for future strategic discussions regarding acquisitions.

To obtain these results see our Partner Coaching Services.