Case Study 5 - Leading Change, Communicating with Impact
THE CHALLENGE
Tina, a highly experienced, operations-minded Finance VP with FP&A background was hired from a Fortune 500 competitor to serve as CFO of a transport company. While she was delivering results as expected on most fronts, her overly detailed communication style was creating friction both with her CEO and colleagues who often wanted just the bottom line. The feedback from the Board was that Tina* needs to start with the big picture, answer the question directly, summarize context only briefly, point to root causes, and provide detail only when asked. Despite the need to communicate with more direct impact, Tina clung to the habit of giving more detail than most others wanted, especially in the C-suite.
The team Tina inherited was experiencing performance issues, and a systems implementation that was partly underway when she joined was now encountering delays and cost over-runs. Tina worked long hours, as did her team – yet they were overwhelmed by constant changes and rapid growth.
THE APPROACh | Executive coaching benefits
This 6-month engagement got a kick-start from Tina’s DISC assessment which shed light on a behavior style of Dominance combined with Compliance (a desire to follow rules and norms). We identified the factors that drove her to over-communicate, and coaching revealed self-protective strategies that had become self-defeating. Tina began to adapt her behavior with a coaching framework designed to become a better listener, and to rely on her experience and intuition in the moment -- rather than to over-prepare and overwhelm as she sought to cover every angle proactively.
A secondary coaching framework identified Tina’s perfectionist tendencies and freed her to create new agreements with her team and her CEO, with modified expectations including a new battle cry, “Don’t let great stand in the way of good.” She began to discipline herself to consistently start with the “important” items each day, and to find ways to identify and disarm the tyranny of the urgent-but-not-important. Tina embraced the concepts of Patrick Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and we facilitated a 2-day offsite event with her 6 direct reports, during which the team built trust, and learned to air disagreements early in each process -- debating issues before moving on with formerly-partial buy-in, which had contributed to system delays.
“Tina’s become significantly more effective in her leadership and in communications, both with me and with the Board. Her leadership presence is steadier, and her extreme results-orientation is now better balanced with skills to create better employee engagement. The risk of losing her due to a lack of cultural fit has evaporated.” – Client Sponsor / CFO
THE OUTCOMES | EXECUTIVE COACHING BENEFITS
Tina renegotiated the timeline and budget for finishing the systems implementation with her constituents, and the Finance team successfully met the revised targets 4 months later. She began a discipline of creating short talking points in executive meetings, and in written communications learned a new style of leading with bullet headlines – accompanied by footnotes that offered optional context when she felt compelled to convey more. Even those emails became much more brief, as Tina internalized the negative impact she was otherwise creating. As she streamlined her talking points, listened more and began to trust her instincts for when enough was said, others relaxed and her influence among colleagues grew. She became a more clear and disciplined responder in Board meetings, and saw how much more effective that was. One of the executive coaching benefits was that her formerly high-strung presence became more solid, calm and self-assured, resulting in increased credibility and impact with her team and peers.
Tina’s new communication style, combined with fresh skills related to managing her own capacity, perfectionism, and expectations on her team released fresh energy in the group. They determined that on many dept. initiatives – except in accounting functions -- 80% was often satisfactory: better to roll it out quicker and iterate on it vs. delay. With such expectations better aligned, Tina and her team found a process that could free up time, energy and even budget.
“This coaching has enabled me to release old habits I used to think were effective, but which actually caused friction with my colleagues. As I’ve learned to let go some, it’s led to more capacity for other initiatives, and better team dynamics. Staff retention has increased from 60% last year to 80% currently, and it seems easier to create buy-in.” − Client / CFO
The CEO’s level of confidence began to increase again. Department turnover decreased from 40% to about half in the months that followed. As Tina demonstrated mastery in her role, the CEO expanded her scope to include Risk Management under the Finance umbrella. Based on savings from turnover, avoidance of additional systems delays and budget turnover, executive coaching benefits amounted to a 5x return on investment.
(*) Names changed to maintain Client and Sponsor confidentiality. Tailored solutions and services for CFOs, Executives and VPs. See what others say.
