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Case Study:
Consumer Health Product Company
Poor Communication:
The affliction that drains the free-flow of ideas, staff cooperation, innovation, and ultimately reduces efficiency and drags down the bottom line.
The Challenge:
- Re-opening channels of communication.
- Building a foundation that nurtures innovation,
creativity, unity and professional relationships.
- Turning professional roadblocks into alliances.
This international company was facing rumors of a buy-out and plant closings. Layoffs came with downsizing, and the leadership team was forever shifting new managers around. This caused employees to lose any real sense of mission or purpose. In this fluid situation, managers needed leadership skills that also provided some practical communication tools.
Management recognized that the traditional training format of a one-day lecture was simply not sufficient to create the magnitude of change that was needed. They suspected that the vast majority of communication problems were not a function of systems, but a function of people. Therefore, it was essential that they find training with the power to shift the very foundation of company culture from toxic to healthy.
"Perhaps the biggest demonstration of Pathways to Leadership®
effectiveness can be measured in what is now absent from
our culture. The 'we' vs. 'them' attitude has utterly disappeared.
Plant vs. plant, department vs. department, management vs. staff
-- it's all gone. There is, for the first time, a powerful excitement
about the impact we can make in the market place and where we
are headed. I've already noticed a huge shift in morale, inter-departmental
cooperation and creative problem solving." Senior Manager
Tools and Concepts
Note: The following steps represent only a few of the key concepts and tools
applied in this case study.
- During the program, managers learned the concept called The Big 5 of the New Leader's Job -- a crystallization of five behaviors of the world's most effective leaders.
- Management learned a more effective way of acknowledging their staff. They learned how to be sincere, specific and selective.
- Management applied three primary tools:
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How to clearly communicate the leader's expectations and empower team members to think and grow for themselves.
- The power of asking through the use of forward focused questions, rather than telling.
- The ability to listen for true understanding.
- The Pathway Accountablilty tool provided a system for holding staff accountable in a way that directly built the culture rather than destroy it. Team members now knew that they would be held accountable for production of their own design. Respect was restored, both up and down the hierarchy.
Learn more about the Pathways to
Leadership programs. back to top
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Poor Morale