Client Scenario

Chaordic was asked to work with the executive director and senior directors of a Department in a global investment firm. The Department was facing a period of high and rapid growth in the business which required the attraction onboarding in the development of highly skilled and high-quality staff. As this was being done staff were reporting overwhelm, stress and were becoming disengaged and the staff turnover rate was 21% and the staff satisfaction surveys reported 55% on average across all teams.

Strategy

The above issues were handled with a series of initiatives. Firstly, the senior leader and the senior team leaders were interviewed in-depth and each undertook a 360-feedback process.

From this, a series of workshops were designed to target coaching skills, team development skills and inspirational leadership.

Together with the skill building workshops, each of the senior leaders was given 4 months of 1-1 Mentoring based on the 360 feedback. The mentoring sessions focused on developing their Relationship Intelligence (RQ), Team development skills and Inspirational leadership skills.

Towards the end of the mentoring process, the executives underwent an alignment session where they clarified a new Vision and aligned on a new strategy. A code of behaviour, both within the top team and with their staff, was also outlined and agreed upon.

Towards the end of the engagement, a workshop on Change Management essentials (mindsets and behaviours for high growth market) was also experienced with detailed actions for implementation in each leader’s department.

Result

At the end of the 8 months, the department were happy to report a drop in staff turnover from 21% to 11% and their staff satisfaction surveys also showed a marked improvement of 73%.

More Informally, team leaders and staff reported that the company culture had vastly improved from one of high stress and low psychological safety to a culture of safety with a greater sense of people development and respect.

Client Scenario

A senior executive for a prominent National Insurance Company was suffering from repeated cycles of overwhelm, stress and burnout. This was having the effect of poor decision-making, reactivity,  poor team management and conflict with the senior executive team.

Strategy

Working closely with Chaordic, the senior executive was put into a formal mentoring programme of 8 sessions over 4 months. As well as the virtual mentoring, the executive benefited greatly from being tasked with exercises to improve their self-leadership, people leadership and executive influence skills.

Chaordic also worked on a holistic life balance strategy whereby prioritisation skills and weekly/monthly rituals were put into place until they became habitual.

The final strategy was to implement burnout prevention strategies involving mindset changes, boundary training and the reallocation of time and priorities

Result

At the end of the 4 months, the executive and the team reported a much more calm and confident leadership presence. This led to more motivation, higher performance, less disengagement and less conflict with the executive team.

Further, the executive reported an increase in clarity and a reduction in physical and mental stress levels. This improvement in wellbeing at the workplace translated into more satisfaction in the executive's personal life.

The end result was an improvement in leadership effectiveness and sustained productivity together with a holistic improvement in the executive’s health and wellbeing. These improvements eliminated burnout tendencies and enabled the executive to sustain high performance in times of high stress and pressure.

Client Scenario

A national office a global professional service firm was having difficulty with executive burnout as well as staff burnout and high levels of attrition (17%). The office was high performing and known for staff excellence and rated highly by clients on client satisfaction surveys. Staff were engaged yet suffering from a lack of balance and well being. The clients desired result was to shift the leadership culture to Supportive Leadership,  Coaching and Mentoring and a firm-wide culture of Continuous Learning and Empowerment.

Strategy

This was the 12 month journey with a follow up program in 24 months. After an extensive assessment period involving interviews, surveys and quantitative measurements (of both leadership and culture) the following plan was implemented.

The executives and high potential executives (senior partners and new partners) were taken on a leadership journey (The Inner Journey Of Leadership programme) over 12 months. This involved 1-1 mentoring sessions, field work and 4 retreats which looked at:

Result

After a 12 month period, measurements were taken that showed an improvement in attrition which dropped from 17% to 8%. The culture assessment survey was redone by all staff and showed an improvement in staff ratings of Continuous Learning, Empowerment, Life Balance and Mentoring. 

These results were sustained as a follow up retreat was conducted at the 24 month mark which showed that leaders were indeed feeling more energised, engaged and less burned out. Staff engagement at the 24 month mark showed a marked improvement (73%) and the leaders themselves showed higher commitment energy and engagement (83%). Retesting of the culture showed that the desired culture values above were still strong and highly rated. 

Client Scenario

A newly promoted senior executive was struggling with having their voice heard and a strong executive presence in the top team.

Strategy

The executive was put into a 3-month, weekly mentoring program which involved assessing her strengths and weaknesses as an executive, as well as assessing her executive presence. The Chaordic consultant worked on strategic communication, stakeholder influence and changing limiting mindsets to empowered mindsets and behaviours.

Result

As a result of the mentoring and field work projects in between the mentoring sessions, the executive reported being able to put forward her ideas to other executives and be heard and listened to. Furthermore, her concerns, doubts and objections were able to be clearly and powerfully presented and listened to by executive colleagues.

The end result was an increase in clarity, confidence and standing for this executive in the senior team. She reported that her personal brand as a senior executive had vastly improved.

Client Scenario

A global IT company had a regional executive team that was suffering from a lack of attention, funding and visibility by the global head office of the company.  They were a high performing regional team in terms of results, growth and profit nearing $1 billion. Despite this, they were not being given the same attention, resources and opportunities offered to other regions. In addition, there was a lack of promotion to global roles because they were not being recognised and their voices were not being heard at a global level.

Strategy

The Chaordic Global intervention was a 2½ year journey. The elements were as follows:

Result

At the 2 year mark, an increase in funding to the region occurred - this was 18% more business funding - and a new fund was initiated for CSR (corporate social responsibility) projects which the region was already involved in but was unknown at the global office level.

Members of the regional executive team were given opportunities to be involved in global advisory projects and in global committees which were essential to the company's future success.

Most pleasing to the regional office, was that global executives began to visit the region at the 2 year mark.  Global executives  became involved and understood regional opportunities, challenges and innovations, taking those learnings to the global head office.

Client Scenario

A national office of a global retail company was concerned about mid level managers (potential future partners) leaving and staff that were disengaged (53% engagement).  The attrition rate for mid level managers was 23%. The challenge was to make the culture and climate attractive for managers to stay, be promoted and to then engage their teams more effectively.

From interviews and utilising a 360 leadership assessment tool, it was found that a main contributing factor was that the senior leaders were rated low on People leadership, Mentoring and Supportive leadership.

Further, the culture survey revealed a culture of stress, burnout and imbalance. Hence the high turnover rate of middle level leaders. 

The culture goal then was to move from a culture of individualism, isolation and competitiveness to a culture of belonging, high engagement and highly supportive leadership.

Strategy

The Leadership development strategy was the first element to be implemented as the leaders had to role model the desired culture change.  The leadership development had the following elements.

After the Senior leaders stablised in new behaviours, next came the process of embedding the desired culture drivers: these were behaviours, symbols and rituals to create a culture of  belonging, high support and work/life balance. These culture drivers were embedded from 6 months to 24 months after the leaders could role model the required skills and new behaviours.

The final element was field work projects that the leaders had to conduct with both their teams and clients to implement the new People Leadership skills and the Supportive leadership skills being learned in the training modules and from the coaching.

Result

After a 2 year intervention which involved leadership development, culture change interventions and coaching and mentoring skills, surveys showed an improvement in staff engagement (71% up from 58%) and a decrease in leadership turnover (11% from 23%).

The re-administered culture survey showed a higher rating of Life balance, Supportive leadership, and Coaching and Mentoring (all up from 18% to 23%) and an overall improvement in staff satisfaction which was now being measured quarterly.  

Client Scenario

A HR team and their executive leader was suffering from lack of engagement, miscommunication, and misunderstanding. This was in part due to new team members but also because part of the team where they were working virtually. Furthermore, the manager had a very hands-off approach in their leadership style.

Furthermore, the executive leader had a very hands-off approach in their leadership style.  This left staff feeling directionless, unmotivated and disengaged which was worsened by the remote work and virtual teaming.

Strategy

After interviewing each team member and the senior leader involved, Chaordic designed and implemented the following 6 month journey with fortnightly mentoring sessions.

Result

After the workshops and coaching, the team members felt more motivated and performance improved. Team culture and climate (which were measured) also improved, leading to better results delivered to the business. The senior leader of the team was also rated to have improved in their communication, feedback given and supportive leadership.