Our programs produce millions of dollars of return on investment (ROI) for our clients. But it’s the emotional and personal transformation that people talk about with their team and family members afterward.
Some stepped into the first workshop with bravado. They’d been through this, after all, in previous jobs. What could they possibly learn about leadership? Others showed more vulnerability and weren’t hiding behind a false sense of confidence.
Before the Leadership Development Transformation: One Company’s Tale
Twelve anxious leaders entered our Unite Senior Leadership Program doing their best to balance the excitement of finally having a seat at the senior leadership table and the sheer fear of now having the responsibility that was about to come with their elevated roles.
Everyone would be watching. They felt naked.
They knew, especially at the beginning of the year, that the organization was looking to them to create clarity, in a space and time of business maturity where things just weren’t that clear. As a 200-person organization, they were no longer a startup where it was ok and fully expected for people to purposely do things that were less than sustainable. And they weren’t quite at the phase of a business’ life cycle, where processes were in place, roles were clear and people knew how to play in their lane while being cooperative with peers.
They were in the dreaded transition zone—where they would be the ones developing processes that they’d never developed before. They would be the ones trying to influence others where they had no authority. They would be the ones trying to maintain relationships with functional leaders with competing priorities and whose teams had just moved to different floors in the building. It was getting harder to remember everyone’s name, yet they would be the leaders counted on to create clarity out of chaos.
After the first workshop in the program, one of the participants came up to me and said, “Thanks. I’m so grateful to be in this program. I am scared shitless.”
After the Leadership Transformation
For these 12 leaders, making that transition into a more pronounced and visible role that comes with senior leadership was both exciting and terrifying at the same time. Fast-forward seven months to the end of the Unite Senior Leader Program. Not only did these senior leaders create $3.5+ million in self-reported additional value for the business ( additionally calibrated with and approved by their managers) as a result of their changed leadership behaviors. They were also less anxious and stressed. They were more confidently stepping into their roles as leaders.
They were leading with intention and purpose.
They came into the program with solid technical skills. After all, that’s what got them promoted. They left with self-awareness and a better understanding of how they impact people, processes and the business as a whole.
They came into the program with strong tendencies to either overly control their environment or be overly conflict avoidant. They left with the ability to stay in relationship with their other senior leader peers who had conflicting objectives.
Some of our conversations early in the program were about what those leaders were tolerating: poor performance, lack of quality of output and deliverables, and derailing behaviors from junior members on the team.
By the end of the program, they tolerated less and expected more from their people.
Surprisingly, relationships improved instead of deteriorated, and their people were more committed and engaged. Team members who had previously derailed the team environment eventually washed out as they were no longer a cultural fit in an accountable, people-first, and results-oriented organization.
These are the typical results we get in our Ignite and Unite leadership programs. Some results are tangible and measurable, while others reflect how leaders feel and then show up.
The 5.12 Solutions Consulting Group Edge
We are the experts at measuring leadership behavior change. We invented Coachmetrix, the first cloud-based coaching and training development tool to measure those changes. At the end of the day, the coaching and training that these leaders went through all produced more effective behaviors and not just based on self-assessment. The program also changed the perceptions the that team members and others held of these leaders. And, even though we produced millions of dollars of ROI as a result of these 12 high-potential leaders’ participation in the program, it was the emotional, spiritual and personal transformations that were consistently discussed, remembered and shared with team and family members alike.
If your organization is looking to help transform your leaders so that they are prepared to lead and sustain change, give us a call. We’d be happy to explore your leadership and team development objectives and create a customized program that will enable the same type of leadership transformational change.
In the mean time, if you’d like to assess your leadership strengths and development areas, click below to download our free Ignite Leadership Self-assessment.
Download the Ignite Leadership Self-assessment