Jim and Martin – Pistols at Dawn

Sector: Business-to-Business Service Consultancy

Challenge:

To enable the executive management team of a software house to minimise the conflict between them and to communicate and work more productively with each other in order to achieve their business goals.

Our Approach:

360° feedback process across the whole management team, with feedback sessions producing reports on each member.
Quarterly workshop with full team and facilitator to flush out the “flashpoints” and address issues positively.
Monthly executive coaching sessions with agreed objectives for each executive member.
Triad sessions with two members who found it difficult to resolve their differences in the larger group, with coach as facilitator.
Monitoring and measurement against the agreed team plan with specific behavioural elements outlined.

Outcomes:

A warring team made peace with each other and got on with achieving the common goals, i.e. to build a solid business and to celebrate successes.
Two particular executives took the opportunity to repair a distrustful relationship. This has enabled their two respective divisions to collaborate more effectively and to increase their overall productivity.
The two senior executives concerned took the time, through this leadership programme, to understand each other’s respective positions and to see how each complemented the other. If the relationship had broken down irretrievably, the business itself would have lost vital and valuable resource.
Today, both men enjoy working with each other again, and do so in a collaborative way. They are aware of each other’s limitations and take great care not to press each other’s hot buttons (behaviours that had caused paralysing friction in the past).
Both individuals now bring their considerable drive and energy to the business. As a result, the company has produced its best-ever financial results this year.
Their colleagues feel that the business is now back on track.
The newly-cohesive top team knows what it needs to do in the market to achieve the results it wants for the business. This has enabled colleagues to launch exciting new offerings to customers.