•  Program-of-the-Month vs. Real Change
  •  Growing Pains and a Moment of Truth
  •  Green Managers In A Patchwork Culture
  •  Grassroots Change, Leadership Resistance
  •  Communication Gridlock Is A Hidden “Gold Mine”
  •  Executive Career Rescue

Green Managers In A Patchwork Culture

The Issue
Through a strategy of numerous acquisitions, a very successful financial services company has experienced rapid growth of market share.

The result was a "patchwork quilt culture" with little or no cohesiveness between major divisions, diverse levels of performance among divisions, and very little capitalization of true synergy.

Challenges         Top
A leadership team which lacked depth of management experience. Many managers were very young – in their 20’s and 30’s – and were promoted based on technical expertise with little or no training in leadership and management skills.

Employee surveys clearly identified a significant need was for improved communication and leadership.

The company was experiencing excessive EEOC related lawsuits, morale problems, turnover increases, and lost business opportunity due to employee productivity problems.

Overarching Goals         Top
Improve communication skills – top-down and across – as a critical component of leadership, especially related to building more interdependence and relationships between divisions, and creating a more cohesive and integrated culture.

Intervention, Part One         Top
Initially, Jackson & Schmidt was hired by the CEO and COO to coach them for the presentation of their corporate-wide video broadcast appearances.

The purpose of these broadcasts was to create buy-in for the company vision, strategy and direction.

Jackson & Schmidt's one-on-one coaching focused on improvement in two major areas:

• Build an interactive, more personal connection with the audience, rather than "talking heads"
  
• Create an aligned set of messages about the future and company direction, rather than just "putting out the numbers."
  

Solution: Executive Development Programs

Jackson & Schmidt Intervention, Part Two         Top
Following the presentation coaching, Jackson & Schmidt also designed a customized module on communication for the company's Leadership Development program, targeted to 3000 directors, managers, and supervisors world-wide.

Jackson & Schmidt consultants have delivered the training, and are currently working with the organization to transfer the skill internally.

The focus of the one-day Communication program is on creating actionable "drills" that participants can take forward and apply to their day-to-day management situations. The training module effectively teaches the precise skills needed by managers to improve their communication in practical, interesting, and easily learned exercises.

Solution: Leader as Communicator

The Payoff         Top
The following comments collected from the organization’s leadership indicate successful in-process measures for the way meetings and team work sessions are conducted:

• The video broadcast gained substantial company popularity, and built an important bridge between top leadership and 30,000+ employees across the entire world, a key element of becoming a more unified company culture.
• Feedback from trainees consistently demonstrates the Jackson & Schmidt Communication program is the best in the 14 class series.

The Moral         Top
Communication is the foundation of building relationships for business success.