Case example - team

Preparing a financial services leadership team for difficult market conditions

The client context:

The client CEO ran a large and successful part of a major UK financial institution. The leadership team had many solid, long-standing members and they were all very loyal and supportive to the CEO. However, the industry was entering the looming credit crunch and the business needed to continue to perform well despite greater resource constraints and uncertainty about the market. The CEO wanted to prepare the team for the challenges ahead, particularly to improve their ability to set shared priorities and make difficult decisions together.

How we helped the CEO and leadership team:

We started by assessing the effectiveness of the team with a thorough diagnosis. We interviewed the leadership team and ran a team excellence survey. We then produced a detailed set of findings which helped the CEO and leadership team to see in detail the strengths and weaknesses of their team work. We then held a series of debriefs with the HR Director, the CEO and the whole team to decide on the improvement goals and supporting programme.

During the programme, we:

• Helped the team to hold a series of productive discussions to set their shared direction and agree and launch work on collective priorities
• Guided the CEO in modifying the groupings within the team to boost speed and effectiveness of decision-making
• Coached the team in a series of workshops and regular team meetings to help them improve the effectiveness of interactions and their ability to make collective decisions.

Results:

The CEO and the team were better prepared for the increasingly difficult external environment they faced. Early on, they identified the likely issues they would face and planned for how they would respond to various challenges, so they were better prepared. As a result of setting their priorities, they began working on preparatory measures proactively and were able to make better responses to urgent requests from the executive board. The CEO reported being better prepared for meetings with other divisional heads because of the robust conversations the team had had. The team also presented itself in a more coherent way to others. Team members commented that participating in the programme left them much better prepared to face the challenging external environment. This meant they could make better choices in a difficult time, benefiting the whole organisation.

Please do contact us if you would like further information or to discuss how we could support your organisation.