Leadership development case study.
The Situation
Tom’s Truck a second-generation, family-owned group of five businesses in the transportation industry aspired to become the industry segment leader. The organization had grown steadily since 1968 and endeavored to achieve 5-Star, “Best in Class” status. The owner recognized that the key to achieving this goal was to build a strong success-oriented culture and management team.
The Solution
The client contracted with CUSTOMatrix to obtain a better understanding of its culture and management capabilities. Using the Leadership Circle Culture Survey, CUSTOMatrix determined the company could indeed achieve its goal to be “Best in Class”. The leadership team was aligned and motivated to take the business to the next level. It also became apparent that although strategic thinking and planning were strengths, their impact rarely moved through the organization.
CUSTOMatrix led efforts to focus on the leadership characteristics and behavioral assumptions identified in the Survey as opportunities for growth. These opportunities included employee engagement; sustainable productivity; and further professional development for the management team in particular and all employees in general.
To help develop the management team, Tom used several tools: the Leadership Circle 360 Profile, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B) assessment. Tom worked as a consultant/coach with the leadership team as a group and individually to develop growth strategies and improvement plans. The leadership team met regularly to support and challenge each other, experiment with new behaviors, and align efforts to grow the business.
The Results
Communication increased within Management and throughout all employees. Performance feedback helped accomplish company objectives and goals.
Focus and priorities became more obvious and included changes to strategic direction and individual accountability. For example, the company divested a business unit that was not in alignment and made a number of long-ignored but necessary personnel changes to strengthen and develop management capabilities.
Today, the business builds on its strategic strengths and promotes Performance Management throughout the organization, with the management team playing a larger role in driving the business. Not incidentally, financial performance is improving as the organization aligns its efforts to become “Best in Class”.