Energy/Manufacturing Case Study

Leadership Development & Change Management

A world-leading, multi-national manufacturing firm operating in the energy sector needed a leadership team that could meet the challenges of in demands. After years of steady growth, a leading manufacturing firm became burdened by a well-intentioned but untrained senior leadership team. With growing complexity and changes on the horizon, the organization partnered with us to help leaders develop the skills necessary to operate the growing and increasingly complex organization.

The Challenge

An international manufacturer in the energy sector operated 12 production facilities on three continents. The US division of the company began to grow rapidly, and the complexity of its operations followed suit. It became obvious that the organization’s managers had either grown-up in the company or had been a part of a past acquisition. These managers had no formal training, lacked the expertise necessary for complex leadership demands and simply found themselves–by virtue of their technical expertise–thrust into a leadership role that was beyond their skill set.

The Process

Before we could train and develop a suitable leadership team, we had to identify the necessary skills, behaviors and expertise required for new leaders to succeed in their new roles in the increasingly complex organization. To determine the requirements of each job role, we met with senior leaders and observed successful leaders in other divisions of the organization.
After identifying the skill sets and expertise needed for each leader, we developed a plan for training and fine tuning the required proficiencies.

The Solution

While it was important to get leaders “up to speed” in the least amount of time, it was also important to ensure that managers could put their new leadership strategies into practice– especially after our engagement ended. We began leadership development through individual coaching and facilitated group and team sessions. We worked with leaders to improve communications and develop skills that had not previously been a part of their job description. We worked with the leadership team as a whole to develop a cohesive vision for broadened skill sets.

The Results

Leaders–particularly the Plant Manager and similar staff levels–are demonstrating significant changes in leadership behaviors. These leaders are focusing on employee empowerment and open communications. Senior leaders have the skills to reinforce these new directions, and the entire leadership team is poised for additional and forecasted organizational change. In fact, the newly trained leadership team recently executed a corporate relocation flawlessly, as well as a significant vertical industry acquisition.