Stepping up to leading the organisation, political savvy, influencing & engaging

The challenge: A capable, analytical and strategic Engineering leader with passionate purpose about his industry and country was struggling to achieve his ambition to influence the company direction at Board level.   He created great loyalty in his team and he lacked sponsorship – particularly among his peers.  That this was make or break.  The brief was that he needed to develop flex his influencing style and engage his peers in ways that worked for themHe needed to develop political savvy and emotional intelligence.

What we did: We structured a programme combining a set of qualitative 360 interviews, 3 way sessions with his boss to add support and momentum, observing him in action in a meeting and a series of coaching sessions.

He absorbed both positive and challenging, uncomfy feedback which created new awareness of how he was seen.  Over the course of a year, we worked on building his ability to step into others’ worlds and managing himself so that he could respond rather than react.  On the way we uncovered and unlocked historic patterns and assumptions which triggered unhelpful interactions.

The impact: He particularly valued the more creative/ active approaches – using metaphor, images and physical movement to stimulate shifts in his thinking and behaviour.  He was delighted to secure both the support and the place he wanted on the board – influencing the future direction of the organization. One of his peers described his impact as “chalk and cheese”.