Case Studies

CEP_Logo

The challenge

Increase productivity through more engaged workforce

The solution

Our thorough assessment process determined that supervisors and team leads needed to:

Understand the business need for the changes

Understand their role in creating accountability and engagement

Learn the concepts, skills, and attitudes associated with the new model of leadership required

We customized our Step Up to Leadership course to help them learn how to lead with respect and effectiveness while achieving superior production results.

The success

Production up 40% with 30% lower staff hours. Higher margins. Employee satisfaction survey scores increased significantly. Customer getting what they want, when they want it, with higher quality which is why P4 is seen as an investment, not an expense.

Personify_Logo_CMYK

A 15 year old software company with 250 employees and a majority share in a small niche market had been unable to move their EBITDA past 2.5%. They were plagued with late deliveries, large insertion rates, unreliability of updates and squabbling among the executive team. The leadership spent a lot of time explaining why problems existed putting blame on others and little time solving real problems that were hurting profitability.

During the assessment we determined that the emotional intelligence of most of the executive team and the directors’ team needed to be developed. While we found issues in the work processes, employee evaluation and development, training, and communication most of those were caused by actions, inactions, inconsistency, and lack of accountability of the leaders in the company. Uniformly people liked working for the company and liked their leaders but were extremely stressed by lack of effectiveness and inability to get the executives to understand that they were part of the problem.

We began our work with off-site meetings monthly with the executive team to begin the development of their emotional intelligence. Starting with the cornerstone of self-awareness the team quickly learned that they could be accountable and responsible. Utilizing practices for growing their awareness and understanding of others, they began to behave in ways that were tough on problems and gentler on people while holding their direct reports accountable for results.

Next we began leadership training for the directors. This group of hard working, passionate leaders dug right into learning to become the kind of leaders they envisioned for themselves. They began to truly communicate with the executive team and with their managers. They began some of the same practices that the executives were doing to increase their ability to be effective leaders.

After 1 year, this company hit 6.5% EBITDA and attracted a buyer who wanted to make the company an anchor for its expansion into the software market. Most of the leadership stayed and were able to take advantage of the expanded opportunities the new company offered. Many of the participants in the leadership development programs still stay in touch with us today and report that those programs have been life changing not just professionally but personally as well.