Learning to Lead Toward Better Business Results

The Challenge

A biotech manufacturing company was struggling to meet desired business outcomes following a rapid scaling period that resulted in high turnover. Conscient Strategies was brought in to help address the company’s scaling challenges and support progress toward growth goals. As part of our work, we identified a leadership gap due to the rapid promotion of technically proficient individuals who lacked the interpersonal skills and professional maturity necessary to lead teams effectively.

Our solution was a leadership development program targeting the effectiveness and development of supervisors and utilizing concurrent individual leadership coaching for program participants. To ensure the turnaround effort success, we made sure that all leadership development efforts were closely tied to business results.

What we did

After conducting an in-depth leadership and cultural assessment, including employee interviews
and operational meeting observations, we developed an eight-module leadership training program. The training delivery was designed to support a cohort model that would foster communication and understanding across the organization.

Our individualized and iterative approach intentionally factored current business processes and challenges into our curriculum. Each week, we would coordinate with leadership to understand areas where they desired targeted growth of the team, and we would weave that context into the training sessions. Over the course of the module, content was modified dynamically on site to consider the organization’s immediate needs. Because we invited them to bring in challenges from their daily work, participants could see in real time how their leadership behavior has an impact on business results. The cohort model allowed leaders to understand how their work was connected to other departments and how organizational results could be enhanced if they improved their communication and cooperation across the company.

To accelerate the learning, individual leadership coaching was designed to begin after we introduced cohorts to essential baseline concepts, ensuring a greater capacity for insight and accountability. Each coaching session supported the operationalization of the skills introduced in training as a component of the leader’s personal development plan.

What we discovered

As we progressed in the early delivery of the training content, we noticed the overall lack of awareness of or consideration for the interdependencies across the organization. Individuals and teams were functioning in silos, focused only on their own work product and often oblivious to the unintended impact their actions had on other departments, and the broader milestones and goals of the manufacturing plant.

To address this, we facilitated each cohort’s creation of an integrated timeline in support of the organization’s manufacturing goals. Through this process, leaders worked together to coordinate the milestones and actions of their teams. We were able to demonstrate the importance of upstream and downstream communication of delays or shifting timelines, leading to a proactive and collaborative approach to achieving on-time delivery.

Results

Providing leadership coaching alongside the training curriculum afforded the opportunity to deepen understanding, review implementation success and challenges, practice new skills, and explore the expansion of tool use in their work environment. We saw leadership growth through increased self-awareness, exploration of communication styles, and refining leadership development plans. Our coaching supported leaders in their implementation of the tools from the training and in strategizing how they could draw the learning into their daily work. Additionally, the coaching sessions offered forums to address challenges, receive tailored feedback, practice an alternative approach, and assess results.

Leaders demonstrated an expansive understanding of the training tools, took risks in implementing them with their worksite teams, and reported increased confidence in their leadership role. At the same time, the organization saw the achievement of returning to first time quality and on-time delivery to their customers. Providing employees with learning environments where they can brainstorm solutions to real problems with peers and facilitators can result in significantly improved business outcomes. Supporting that learning with coaching that offers an outside perspective to challenge and support the leader’s development accelerates both the learning for the individual and the results for the organization.