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Leadership & Supervisory Development Case Study #2

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Background

An international manufacturer of machinery was experiencing rapid growth. Although the shop floor and engineering staff had excellent technical skills, leadership readiness skills for future growth opportunities were an identified need. Based on identified core issues that new supervisory staff faced, a Leadership Development series was developed. Integral to the process was the opportunity to network and work collaboratively across departments on key challenges.

Goals

• To develop leadership and supervisory skills
• To build positive work force relations
• To enhance teambuilding and synergy amongst supervisory personnel
• To provide tools and options to address difficult employee situations
• To support the growth and changes this company is leveraging for competitive advantage 

Approach

Needs assessment

• Meetings with key company stakeholders regarding expectations, goals and needs
• Participant interviews (individual meetings with each leadership program attendee)
• Management interviews (individual meetings of participant’s supervisors)
• Exploration of expectations and goals
• Background regarding supervisory experience
• Identification of barriers, questions and issues regarding leadership focus

Program development

• Finalization of topics to be addressed
• Determination of assessment tools to incorporate in the training
• Identification of leadership competencies to be emphasized
• Prioritization of leadership topics
• Preparation of attendees for participation
• Development of program content, cases, exercises, activities and personal assessments based on real organizational setting scenarios for learning integration
• Development of participant handout, support/supplement and PowerPoint support
• Development of post assessment to be used to reinforce learning
• Development of participant evaluation           

Facilitation of program

• Onsite presentation of programs (eight days of training)
• Final meeting to review program outcomes, process, observations and recommendations

Learning integration

• Development and sharing of action plans for each session
• Teaching learning application with interaction and support from fellow classmates

Sample of Action Plan themes

• Empowering employees to think for themselves
• Addressing stress of change with two-way communication
• Requesting employee input first
• Development of criteria for ratings utilized in performance evaluations with year-long documentation
• Incorporating flexibility in leadership style
• Improving communication interaction styles with boss and employees
• Using conflict management techniques
• Encouraging team to explore new ideas to improve processes
• Prompting greater involvement in decision-making action
• Reemphasizing company-wide, long-term goals and benefits
• Measuring progress on meetings and holding people accountable

Outcomes

• Improved problem solving and prioritization processes
• Enhanced communication and interaction skills in meetings and in delegation
• Increased appreciation of cross departmental needs throughout the organization
• Improved relationships between supervisory and management staff
• Clarity of approaches and establishment of common language to leadership core competencies

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