Services - Success Stories

Taking Leadership to a New Level — and Ultimately Straight to the C-Suite

The Situation

An executive vice president (EVP) of a growing investment firm, faced with new market challenges and a strategic shift in his company's direction, recognized that he needed to accelerate his development and learning in order to more effectively face these new challenges.

What We Did

We conducted a comprehensive leadership assessment of the EVP. This process identified current and anticipated leadership and organizational challenges while also revealing the leader's current strengths and challenges. The assessment process revealed:

• Top leaders in the organization clearly viewed the EVP as a high potential leader with many strengths: providing intellectual leadership, attracting and retaining talent, driving for results, and demonstrating technical/functional expertise.
• Many peers and the top leaders had been sending out "mixed messages" regarding the EVP's style; in particular his assertiveness and ability to drive results had been praised extensively in the past, however, in his current role, leaders were increasingly expecting him to be more collaborative, partnering with others for greater impact.
• Areas in which key leaders wished he could develop further included:
  • Broadening his understanding of the organization - moving beyond his "business unit perspective" to become more of an enterprise leader
  • Adjusting his assertive, hard-driving approach to one of greater collaboration and working with and through others for greater impact and effectiveness
  • Gaining experience in a broader and more sophisticated range of influence strategies and tactics, in particular, the ability to "read" others (both verbal and non-verbal cues) and draw out their views and interests for a deeper understanding of the issues from all perspectives

The Results

The EVP and the organization took decisive action in several ways:

• He immediately leveraged and focused his significant strengths (strategic thinking and intellectual leadership) by actively participating in two cross-organizational task forces to broaden his exposure and understanding of other areas within the organization.
• Through individual coaching, the EVP focused on expanding his repertoire of leadership styles and gained a better understanding of how to apply them; in particular, he engaged in situation analysis - the art of identifying the right style/approach to fit the needs of the issue and audience, and in a short time, senior leaders noted that he was successfully balancing his assertive style with greater skill in collaborating and partnering with others.
• Over a twelve-to-eighteen month period, top leaders increasingly involved the EVP in key organizational initiatives and senior team meetings, adding scope and authority to his role.

The Outcome

The EVP maintained his focus on continued development with dramatic results and, in the three years following his commitment to professional development, he was promoted successively within the company and ultimately to Chief Operating Officer with succession potential for the CEO role.

To obtain these results see our Executive Coaching Services.