U.S. Leadership Team

Challenge

In the face of declining performance and siloed accountability culture, the U.S. Leadership Team (USLT) was tasked with overcoming consecutive year financial underperformance in the U.S. market. The objective was to double the business revenues within four years, with the aim of being the top global market for the corporation. To make this a reality, they sought our team of professional coaches to foster innovative team operations and synchronization within the USLT.

Background

In a bid to diversify its revenue flow, the client, primarily based in the Southern Hemisphere, ventured into the U.S. and Canadian marketplaces via strategic acquisitions of numerous U.S. regional engineering firms throughout the 2010s. This expansion constituted a comprehensive network to serve North American clients. As national U.S. leadership took shape, accountability was divided regionally rather than as a single entity, leading to a decline in performance. Amid contrasting performances among U.S. regional businesses, overall enterprise growth goals were jeopardized by US market underachievement.

Approach

Our coaches adapted a systemic approach ensuring alignment across the global enterprise to uplift the U.S. business and add long-term value. To address the challenge, we established a renewed team charter and aided key stakeholders in inculcating a transformed approach to revive the U.S. business within a year’s time. Our method involved:

• Team coaching for the 12-member USLT team
• Executive coaching for the U.S. General Manager
• Personalized coaching for a leader of an underperforming U.S. region, and
• Coordinating with other coaches and organizational development consultants across global regions.

To reshape the USLT, we focused on fostering a unified leadership approach to bolster U.S. performance. This led the members to look beyond individual regional consequences and promote growth collectively, prompting a shift from a siloed to an enterprise-focused mindset.
Specific actions involved:

• Kickstarting the team coaching program with a TeamConnect 360 survey to gauge team performance,
• Charting a clear 4-year roadmap with markers and actionable steps,
• Orchestration of a new team charter emphasizing national collaboration in an international playing field, shared understanding, collective responsibility, and reward system,
• Inculcating a holistic understanding of each member’s strengths to guide their growth trajectory,
• Rescheduling the team meeting process with an emphasis on quarterly face-to-face meetups and improved progress tracking,
• Cultivating a global mindset to help team members understand the impact of their success on their global counterparts.

Team coaching centered on bringing together the 12 members as a collective leadership team to address overall US performance, not just regional results, and to work collaboratively to help each region grow. Members had to adopt an enterprise-focused, “big hat” mindset and truly operate as a team rather than as a group of siloed individuals.