Success Stories
A Team of Executives Learn How to Influence and Earn New Respect and Huge Profits
A division of a large financial management company is routinely congratulated by top management for exceeding performance. It has brought in the most profit for 2 years in a row. Others around the company think of the division as a role model. In company-wide presentations, the teams' leaders are referred to as examples of how to succeed.
Just a few years ago, this division was a fledgling arm of the company. They started doing business in a market the company hadn't entered before. The leader of the division believed they could become the industry leader in this market, and wanted the support of company executives to get there. The company executives, however, were doubtful. Executives routinely questioned their decision to enter this market and the divisions' value to the overall corporation.
After much frustration, the division leader called us looking for help. He was confused - after all, his people had great ideas, great strategy, and great talent. He had started this venture with high hopes and a strong belief that his division would succeed, and quickly. They were making progress - and although it wasn't as fast as he'd hoped - they had some brilliant plans and strategies for the upcoming year. How come they weren't getting the support they needed from management?
We boiled the problem down - we suspected the divisions' leadership team lacked the ability to sell their ideas and articulate their achievements to company executives.
We started an in-depth assessment of the communication skills of the team. They were highly competent and had excellent business and technical skill. But as predicted, they struggled in communicating with people outside their division. They couldn't articulate what they needed to about their achievements. They needed to raise the bar on meetings - leaders felt they were stale and haphazard.
We worked with each team member to develop their own unique presentation style. They developed the skill of telling the story of their achievements. And we discovered something interesting. Before meetings, each team member would quickly scroll through notes to review what they wanted to present. However, they spent no time actually standing up and practicing their presentations.
There was a general consensus among them. They thought that because they were presenting material they had developed, they didn't need to practice. We quickly changed their mind about that, through videotaping and feedback. We gave them techniques for preparing, polishing, and practicing presentations. We held numerous meetings before important presentations, to make sure they practiced and got it right.
The ability to boil down information into talking points the executives could understand and appreciate was invaluable to the team. Executives began to hear of the true achievements and profit from the division. Shortly after we ended coaching, the division leader called us to say management had given him his largest budget to date - rather than reducing his staff and budget like they had originally planned, his division was growing in size. The communication assessment and training of his division's leadership team was undoubtedly the driving force they needed to build their business.
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