Creating Executive Coaches: Biotech

Creating Executive Coaches

Using Executive Coaching to Drive Performance at a Biotech

Client Case Study

Situation – Creating Executive Coaches

This Biotech Company is an industry leader in the field of antibody discovery and development. Over the past 30 years the company has built strong intellectual property, technology platforms, and capabilities to engineer cutting-edge therapeutic antibodies that have the potential to transform medicine and reshape people’s lives.

To capitalize on a significant market opportunity that would have a major impact on the company’s future, the company launched a strategic initiative to develop its Leaders, Managers, and Management Systems. Shortly thereafter, the poor economic conditions affected the company, requiring a workforce reduction and increased workloads for the remaining employees.

The company weathered the economic storm and put itself on a positive course to execute its key strategic initiatives. To accelerate its momentum the company decided to implement an executive coaching certification program for 6-12 high potential leaders to create leadership leverage throughout the organization.  The overall objectives were to leverage previous investments in management training, increase employee engagement, retain key employees, and push critical strategic initiatives forward by:

  • Engaging key employees in participating in knowledge transfer and skill building
  • Decreasing turnover and possible loss of “tribal” information necessary to company success
  • Providing motivation and a platform for a formal on-going internal coaching program
  • Implementing proven methodologies used to coach and drive performance along with frameworks for having focused and productive conversations, employing active listening skills, managing difficult conversations, and applying tools (such as Personality Inventory and Interaction Styles) in real time
  • Increasing organizational productivity

Complications

The company recognized the importance of maintaining a strong, focused team during this critical period, and feared that its actions during turbulent economic times had eroded past efforts to develop its workforce and create a performance-based culture. They were especially concerned about:

  • Having to cut development resources across the company
  • Managing future career uncertainty across the workforce
  • Increasing workloads caused by workforce reductions

Approach for Creating Executive Coaches

1. Identify Desired Results

  • Determine coach and “coachee” selection criteria
  • Finalize business objectives
  • Identify program success metrics

2. Assess the Current Situation

3. Design the Exact Solution

  • Finalize design to meet agreed-upon objectives and success metrics while overcoming potential barriers

Approach (cont.)

4. Deliver Performance Learning

  • Kickoff for Creating Executive Coaches
    1-hour project kickoff session to introduce the program and gain commitment from participants
  • Day 1
    1-day facilitated session plus initial assignment focusing on concepts and content for effective coaching
  • Customized Monthly Learning Bursts
    Coaches attend monthly 2-3 hour monthly learning bursts to learn new models and skills, debrief their coaching sessions, and to obtain feedback and more in-depth instruction on using various tools and models. Topics shifted according to needs.
  • Final Certification of Creating Executive Coaches
    By LSA and VP of HR

5. Implement Coaching and Follow-Through

  • Monthly Application and Coaching Sessions
    Focused on just-in-time practice, mastery, feedback, or discussion as a group, in specific teams, or 1×1
  • Monthly Phone Coaching Sessions
    Each participant was able to schedule 30-45 minute monthly 1×1 phone sessions with the master facilitator to debrief and work on specific skills, issues, and questions.

6. Measure Impact and Results

  • Level-1 Coach satisfaction measurement

Note: Program participants coached individuals who were in a different part of the organization. Coaching engagements lasted 6 months on average.

Results
In six months:

Coachees

  • 100% reported coaching enabled them to perform at a higher level
  • 78 % reported their expectations of coaching were met
  • 100 % reported they would recommend coaching to a colleague

Coachees’ Managers

  • 50% reported they observed significant changes in their employees’ behavior

  • 100% reported they would like another staff member to receive coaching

  • 100% suggested other members of their staff receive coaching training

Coaches

  • 100% of coaches reported they would recommend the program to a peer

Related Information

Having taken on a new executive leadership role, one of my first calls was to LSA Global to help my leadership team to design, implement, and cascade clear strategic plans.  First, LSA helped our leadership team identify the strategy, culture, and talent areas that mattered most to create organizational alignment.

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I continue to be impressed by the level of leadership development training and management expertise and quality of advice and facilitation that LSA has to offer.

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Director

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Having tripled in size and recently merged, LSA helped our executive team to increase our level of strategic alignment, to solidify our new direction, and to push our agency forward.

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CEO

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The strategy and alignment work with our leadership team was absolutely transformational.  The decisions we made combined with the transparency, communication, and accountability were exactly what we needed.  Thank you!

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Medical Director, Liver Transplantation

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At a time of change in our marketplace, LSA Global did an exceptional job helping our executive team create strategic clarity by helping us to define, clarify, and prioritize our corporate vision, mission, values, differentiation, target clients, strategic priorities, success metrics and key roles.

They beautifully navigated a very difficult and fuzzy situation, respectfully cleared out all of the cultural elephants, and shared impactful insights and leadership development theories along the way. They have transformed our business.

Laurie Sewell
President & CEO

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We reviewed the top Leadership Development offerings and selected LSA’s 12-month Leadership Program based upon the value and systemic approach.

The feedback on the program, approach, and results was phenomenal. While other programs may be better known, the other options were more theoretical and did not compare in terms of LSA’s practicality, quality, and results.

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Senior Manager Learning and Development

Roche

For our go to training outsourcing partner, LSA provides exactly what we want and need – which is not an easy task.

As always, they design and deliver outstanding leadership development results and high quality management training programs that totally align with our unique business and talent strategies!

Elizabeth Siebert
Director, Organizational Excellence & Development

Intuit

LSA’s executive coach based his approach on understanding our business circumstances and strategy, as well as our leadership aspirations. The customized coaching covered all aspects of leadership; it was not simply a touchy-feely endeavor.

In fact, the focus on clear business outcomes and real life circumstances challenged me as a senior leader to develop my thinking and actions related to leading the business.”

Janet Pagano
Managing Director

Ovid

It was a challenge to find a consultant with an approach to performance improvement that fit our unique performance culture and style. We were pleasantly surprised to discover LSA’s depth of expertise in the fields of motivation, developmental coaching, performance management, and measurement.

LSA seamlessly integrated those components without our folks feeling like the intervention was forced. They understood what we were trying to accomplish, helped us clarify our objectives, and created a solid, refreshing approach that quickly got us moving and engaged at all levels across the organization.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier that we found a true strategy and implementation partner in LSA.

Doug Hansen
President and Director

Redwood Trust

LSA’s approach and ability to bring the right leadership and management expertise and approach to eBay has been a great asset.

They really focus on helping us succeed in any way they can and definitely lifted up our leadership and management development capabilities.

Mike Normant
Learning & Development

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We consider LSA Global the top outsourced learning and development partner.

We work closely with LSA to customize leadership and management development programs to meet our growing business needs.

I would highly recommend LSA to any company wanting to deliver high quality and practical learning solutions for their leaders and managers.

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Vice President Human Resources

LSA consistently delivers for me and my team.  Recently they demonstrated the criticality for executives to look beyond current ethics topics and focus on applying fundamental values in everything they do to demonstrate true leadership. They successfully delivered in two hours what most leadership development facilitators would spend an entire day trying to communicate.

Nick Voyvodich, SPHR
HR Manager

Fujitsu

LSA has been a tremendous asset at my current company and my past company.

As an HR leader, I am always looking for ways to find external resources that can provide impactful leadership and management development expertise. LSA consistently does that for me.

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Ken Boehm
VP of Human Resources

At the onset of our engagement with LSA, I was skeptical that an outside firm would be able to understand and dissect our organization’s highly complex and technical business challenges.

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Robert Laudati
Managing Director

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Thank you for a great leadership development session today. The facilitator was brilliant.  The team got a lot out of it (as did I).

I believe it will help us create an even higher performance culture by ensuring we have a common understanding of how to create higher performance and work toward clear and common strategic goals.

Simon Jefferson
Managing Director

AKQA

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