Services - Success Stories
Co-Leaders Seeking to Better Leverage Individual and Shared Leadership
The Situation
Co-leaders (now equal Partners) of an investment firm wished to identify and resolve issues that could be preventing them from managing the business more effectively and leading their team to stronger performance. We were engaged to help them leverage their complementary strengths and sort out the personal and professional issues that were limiting their ability to become more effective leaders and to achieve the growth objectives of the business.
What We Did
Through testing, individual interviews, and observations of the partners in action, we conducted a comprehensive leadership and role assessment. The assessment revealed that the relationship between the leaders, which had started in a prior organization as a mentoring relationship (Partner A mentoring the younger, less experienced Partner B) had not yet evolved into a partnership of equals despite their being co-leaders in the new venture. The process also revealed distinctive profiles of each Partner:
| PARTNER A WAS VIEWED AS: |
PARTNER B WAS VIEWED AS: |
- Engaging, enthusiastic
- Visionary; painting ideas in broad pictures, assuming others can envision the details
- Upfront about own views/thinking; liking to see "all cards on the table"; often viewed as aggressive in tackling issues
- Taking quick, decisive action; a risk taker
|
- Reserved, deliberative
- Analytical; painting ideas in specific details; frustrated by others who overlook that an idea is not the same as a plan
- Drawing out others' thinking without revealing own; seeking consensus; often viewed as passive in debating issues
- Methodical in decision-making; exploring issues in-depth
|
The Results
- Through individual coaching over a three-month period, we raised the Partners' awareness of their distinctive strengths and assisted them to strengthen their skills and be more flexible in their repertoire of behaviors for greater leadership effectiveness.
- Through joint coaching over a six-month period, utilizing a negotiation model, we assisted the two Partners to address both professional and business objectives:
- Nancy Yahanda acted as a neutral observer in successive joint Partner interactions.
- Both partners explicitly granted her the mandate to "stop the action" and coach individually and collectively in the moment.
- The process involved surfacing the behaviors of each Partner and identifying how their actions negatively impacted their efforts to work effectively together.
- The Partners began to more formally divide their roles within the organization as best suited their strengths and began to be viewed by others as more equal leaders in the business, each with unique strengths, experiences, and leadership styles.
- Each Partner signed written commitments to the other to continue to engage in long-term change and growth in specific leadership behaviors.
- Over time, the two Partners began to engage in more open, substantive dialogue, with the result that issues were tackled in a timely and effective manner and key decisions or situations were not left unresolved.
- The Partners committed time and effort individually and jointly to developing next-level leaders.
The Outcome
Over a twelve-month period the Partners' efforts had a significant visible, positive impact on the growth and success of the organization, while at the same time improving morale and decreasing turnover.
To obtain these results see our Partner Coaching Services.
