US-based international asset management group, managing over £450bn on behalf of global investors
Let’s talk business…
In a challenging financial services environment, our client needed a new approach to help its global leadership team think differently and respond to changing market conditions.
Insight
Developing the leadership ‘bench strength’ across a global population can be a testing experience. Having researched the current and future challenges facing the senior leadership population, we worked with the Organisational Effectiveness (OE) team to define the skills, behaviours and overall competence needed to ensure these issues were effectively addressed.
Using face-to-face as well as virtual focus groups involving key stakeholders including some of the leaders themselves, we explored how best to develop these attributes, bearing in mind that the leadership audience had different first languages, operated in different cultural environments, operated out of almost every continent on the planet and – as senior players in the business – also had individual development needs.
With this understanding and insight, we defined the scope of the development activity and built the overall strategy needed for the project to be a success.
Action
Our next step was to create an innovative, thought-provoking, challenging and culturally acceptable global leadership development programme, bringing together academic, practical, cultural and business-focused content that not only addressed the individual development needs, but also developed a more universal leadership language and skill set.
We planned and developed a ‘multi-channel’ and ‘multi-element’ programme. This included face-to-face workshops, guest sessions run by members of the Main Board including the CEO, matrix team webinars, one-to-one self-assessment and 360 degree psychometric feedback sessions,
We then delivered the new programme to the company’s top 150 leaders across the US, Europe and Asia, embedding key learning into the organisation quickly and effectively.
We also hosted a series of webinars at regular intervals to solve live business challenges, maintain learning momentum and develop new networks across the organisation’s global community.
Results
We’re proud to say we helped our client’s leaders further develop their capability and move forward more collaboratively using bi-focal vision – the ability to focus strategically when required and tactically when required to meet the challenges of a demanding sector.
Our client has achieved:
- A greater appreciation of, and ability to apply emotional intelligence within leadership roles, properly demonstrating effective ‘leadership behaviours’.
- Effective use of critical thinking to solve business challenges.
- Improved cross-functional and matrix working with reduced silo mentality (that is, people are working as matrix teams across the company, more effectively sharing knowledge and expertise).
- A greater understanding of the ‘followship’ needs and desires of an international workforce.
- A better ability to influence stakeholders effectively in their complex and global environment.
- Ways to maximise use of their global resources to address shifting priorities.
