Julian of Biotech Co was recently promoted to manage a large service team. New to this position, Julian was doubtful of his capabilities to effectively lead his new team and was struggling to build effective and trusting relationships with his new line managers and direct reports.

THE PROBLEM

When Biotech Co approached GloCoach for help, we formed a 360 Team and performed a pre-coaching assessment to get a baseline perspective of Julian’s situation. This included a Pre-Coaching Discovery interview with Julian, feedback from each of his 360 Team Members, and a personality assessment. Our goal was to understand his challenges from a holistic view, taking into consideration feedback not only of Julian, but of his line manager, peers and HR manager. Here’s what we uncovered:

• Leadership Skills – With the new role Julian was facing a significant and unfamiliar challenge; how to effectively lead and managing the entire service team. To complicate matters, he was also reporting to a new line manager, and 100% of his subordinates had been replaced. With a completely new network and role, Julian was struggling to articulate a clear direction for his team.
• Confidence – As he struggled to gain traction in the new role, Julian’s confidence was being eroded. He was finding it hard to make difficult decisions and he did not want to face conflicts. He was beginning to question whether he had what it takes to be a strong leader. These doubts led him to question the importance of his department compared to others in the company.
• Tunnel Vision – Julian’s kneejerk reaction was to focus on a narrow set of KPIs for his team, since this gave him a greater sense of control. However, this inhibited his ability to focus on the overall performance of his whole team, which further blocked his full ability to succeed in the role.

IMPACT

At the end of the 12 sessions, Bowen had shown significant improvement and progress towards all three goals. According to Bowen’s line manager, he noticed Bowen’s change in management style, and further encouraged him to spend less time on the “tactics” of managing the department versus providing “strategic leadership and vision” to the team. He specifically noted that Bowen’s improved leadership capacity has affected a significant improvement in the department’s overall performance.