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Richard C. Harris, PhD
Boston, Massachusetts
978.502.0350
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Success Stories |
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Success
Story: Coaching for Senior Executives
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| Situation |
- President of television station in role less than
1 year
- Revenues flat
- Costs increasing
- Station ratings lagging the rest of the market
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| Role
of Coach |
- Interview direct reports
- Create coaching plan linked to business strategy
- Observe off-site planning meetings
- 1:1 phone consultations
- Sounding board regarding difficult performance discussions
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| Results |
- Executive team began to work as a team
- A major performance problem was replaced
- Ratings improved
- Financial performance of station improved
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Background
John Rogers (not his real name) is the President
and general manager of a television station in a major market
in suburban Washington, D.C. His career path had been somewhat
unconventional for a station President in that he had come up
exclusively through the engineering ranks in prior stations where
he had worked. Most station Presidents have had extensive experience
in sales, marketing, and community relations prior to being appointed
President, since these areas are an important part of the role
of President.
After meeting John initially by phone, we agreed that I would
come to the station, interview his direct reports and observe
a meeting with him and his executive team. I did this over a
two day period.
The executive team meeting focused on an ongoing problem: how
to get out of a ratings hole with the 11:00 P.M. newscast. They
seemed to be hopelessly stuck in 3rd place during this important
programming time slot and nothing the news director was doing
seemed to affect the ratings.
In the broadcast business low ratings reflect low viewership;
low viewership results in lower advertising revenues; lower advertising
revenues mean budget cuts, which can inhibit spending on things
like promotions and new technology which have the potential to
increase viewership. In short, they were in danger of getting
into a death spiral that would affect the entire station, but
it was only the news director who seemed to own the responsibility
for boosting the ratings. There was no team ownership for the
ratings objective.
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Success
Story: Bench Strength Coaching
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| Situation |
- Start-up division of a well-established company
- Senior management in new division were a mix of old
blood and new blood
- Leadership capability was inadequate to support the
company’s growth plans
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| Role
of Coach |
- Use a 360° feedback tool to focus on leadership behaviors
- Provide half-day consultations to each member of
the leadership team
- Identify organizational issues that required President
and HR director action
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| Results |
- More focused leadership performance among leadership
team
- Stronger platform from which to grow the business
- Development plans for each individual
- Greater attention to leadership team development
on the part of the President and HR director
- Executive team began to work as a team
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Background
I had been working as an executive coach
in one company for more than a year when the head of Executive
Development introduced me to the HR director of one of the company’s
start-up divisions. This division had been set up to encourage
innovation, complete with a mandate to operate semi-autonomously
from the rest of the corporation. Its mission was to find ways
to leverage the power of the Internet and to create products
and services that could migrate to the rest of the organization.
The President and one of the senior executives of the division
had come from the parent company. The Chief Financial Officer
was brought in from the outside because of his experience in
taking start-up companies public. Six other managers rounded
out the leadership team; three of these came from the parent
company and three from outside because of their specialized knowledge.
At the time that I met with the HR director, the division had
been operating for just over a year. The President spoke with
pride about the “healthy debate” that they had in their Thursday
morning staff meetings. The division had just turned profitable
in its most recent quarter, another point of pride. The view
from the top was one of a company that was well positioned to
achieve its mission.
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Success
Story: Strategy-Linked Leadership Program
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| Situation |
- Low levels of communication between managers and
direct reports was creating morale problems and the
threat of employee turnover.
- Slow growth of company was limiting the number of
promotion opportunities.
- Limited promotion opportunities kept managers from
engaging in coaching discussions of any sort.
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| Role
of Coach |
- Design a learning experience that helped managers
incorporate coaching into their regular management
practice.
- Involve senior management in the learning experience
as role models.
- Teach early pilots.
- Conduct train-the-trainer sessions to hand off delivery
to internal trainers and OD consultants.
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| Results |
- Increased number of staff members with development
plans.
- Increased acceptance of the coaching responsibility
among leaders within the company.
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Background
When Printtech Systems (not its real name)
received the results of their company-wide employee opinion survey,
one thing was clear. Employees were not satisfied with the amount
of feedback that they were getting. Follow up focus groups pointed
to two sets of concerns. First, there did not seem to be enough
feedback on performance—good or bad. Second, employees felt that
their managers were not interested in talking with them about
long term career prospects with Printtech.
I had been working for several months as an executive coach inside
Printtech, so I was familiar with the company. My contact, the
Vice President for Talent Management, introduced me to the head
of Learning and Development to see if I could help them develop
a coaching skills program for managers. As we began planning
the program, the head of Learning and Development interviewed
a cross section of managers. What he learned was that the lack
of coaching had it roots in three areas: organizational obstacles,
role expectations, and skill.
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