Case Study: Leadership Succession to Secure the Company's Future

Challenge

This high growth partner-led investment services company is facing a fundamental leadership succession challenge. The firm’s partners are retiring, and as a fall-out from the financial crisis when recruitment was a challenge, their leadership pipeline now has a significant lack of trained and experienced senior leaders needed to step in. The new head of HR had to find a way to bridge the leadership gap rapidly and systematically and saw the need to implement a leadership model and coaching protocol to make it happen.

Solution

To create a formalized, strategic solution to leadership readiness tied to their business needs, the HR head asked Bates to implement the ExPI^TM assessment as the base of a coaching program, and partner with her to build a leadership model for the firm. We started with key leadership successors, including the CEO and next level partners to accelerate their readiness and begin the roll out of the new leadership model and development process based on the model.

Outcome

Despite their initial skepticism of leadership development, the data-based insights from the ExPI^TM created rapid buy-in from the next generation leaders. The HR leader was able to provide a compelling case for coaching and its connection to sustaining the business, and the organization is already reaping the benefits of the more effective leaders they have in place.