Diagnosing Opportunity
When forty of the nation’s leading producers of insurance and investment products gathered to share best practices in team effectiveness, the bypassed the urge to celebrate their success. Instead, they immersed themselves in the metrics of their team assessment results in search for an opportunity to evolve. Some leaders identified a strength to leverage. Others discovered a vulnerability to address. In each case, a unique aspect of their team was mapped to a specific productivity goal and a tactical plan was forged. Within six months, all team goals were met or exceeded.
Connecting Resources
An urban public school district invited parents to partner more actively in their children’s education by establishing mentoring workshops at times when the families were most available. Each workshop provided resources for every family member anchored in evidence-informed actions proven to promote home-school partnership. When adults harness their power, kids win.
Sharing the Wealth
An equity partner in a global law firm invested in the development of his most promising talent by engaging leadership coaching relationships. Each future leader completed a personal strategic plan for their own career path mapped to the firm’s goals and their own signature strengths. The marked increase in internal morale, client satisfaction, and business development targets was not a coincidence.
Transforming Culture
When a macro-level industry transformation impacts all 200 of your association members, there is no time to complain about increased complexity and decreased resources. It didn’t take long for the good-to-great, great-to-greater vision of the executive leadership team to cascade to management and employees in all departments. The same energy that most organizations spend on grousing about change was quickly deployed to support innovation. From leadership to line staff, curiosity and difference was elevated as fuel for adaptation. Although the labor will be invisible to most of the association’s membership, the outcome will enable a benchmark level of advocacy, research, and education to the institutions where they spend the bulk of their waking hours.
So long, 2013. A new standard of courage and effectiveness has been set. Welcome, 2014. Whose stories will we share next December?
