A significant chunk of this senior marketing executive’s career had been at a large established medical device company. She, let’s call her Melinda, had established a level of credibility and trust within her organization to a level where her decisions were rarely challenged. When her boss left to take a C-level role at another company, Melinda soon after followed him.
A few months into her new role, she concluded that the marketing operations around the globe were well off from where they needed to be. In her well established leadership style Melinda began a change effort to evolve and improve her unit’s structure and strategy. Two months in to the change effort two key executives quit abruptly. Their exit interviews were not kind to Melinda. Both executives also hinted that more would be heading for the door if nothing changed in Melinda’s behavior.
Her HRBP urged Melinda to engage an executive coach. The 360 results noted her expertise and operational savvy. It also showed an immediate need for Melinda to:
Working with her OLG coach, Melinda spent four months addressing these gaps in her leadership. Early on, he created action steps which included
After four months her boss and HRBP declared that Melinda “Had done a 180” to her leadership style.
Cadence of coaching interactions: weekly to begin and then bi-weekly, with prep and/or debrief calls scheduled, as needed.
Resources used during the coaching engagement: Meetings with the coach, presence experiments e.g. balancing advocacy with enquiry, and some articles reading articles, watching Ted Talks and doing role-plays.