The scenario
The Child Maintenance Group was going through a process of service modernisation creating twin challenges for its senior leadership team: recovering post C-19 business as usual while transforming operations. The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) wanted to be great leaders to their teams and support each other through the changes.
The symptoms
The team also knew there would be a 50% change of membership over the next 6 months (including the team leader) due to planned job moves. As well as bolstering its resilience to help navigate the changes ahead, the SLT wanted to provide continuity of leadership to stabilise the wider team too.
The solution
The team used the teamSalient® discovery tool to gauge its effectiveness and make it “…easier to talk about the team crisply.” and a 3-session programme of team coaching spread over a six-months to help optimise its working methods and free up capacity during the transformation programme.
The outcomes
teamSalient® helped underline the importance of the SLT’s role and strengthen their identity as a leadership team. Whereas previously the SLT had focussed on individual areas, it re-designed how it used its time together to focus on more collective, executive level work. Members reported their roles had initially felt quite disjointed and used team coaching to help them become more aligned. To provide stability and continuity to their teams during the service modernisation, the team used teamSalient® to identify those practices that were making it effective and that they could continue putting into action, and the coaching to agree how they would share leadership between members.
Client Testimonial
“Taking time together at Exec level gave us space for some of the best conversations we’ve ever had. We held a mirror up to ourselves, feeling proud in how strong we operate together, but at the same time recognising steps to achieve optimum performance and that some things had to change. We’ve improved our working style with a lot stronger communication. First time working with a ‘team’ coach, wish I’d done it years ago!”
Team Leader, Director, CMG
“Undertaking transformation is one of the hardest tasks a leadership team can undertake: as OD consultants we are continually impressed by CMS SLT’s cohesion and ability to think and lead under enormous ‘anti-task’ pressure, which is testament to their coaching.”
OD Director, DWP