We’ve helped many agency leaders manage leadership challenges. In fact, our coaching engagements have helped catapult their firms to greater heights. Here are a few case studies:
CASE STUDY #1
The management team at one agency believed the owner was routinely stymied by fear. So, we helped him realize how his fears—and resulting behaviors—were diminishing the agency’s success. We unearthed the root of his fears and deconstructed them. Then, we empowered him to lead from a position of confidence. This helped improve his relationships with senior managers, employees, and clients. The profound impact of our coaching strengthened the owner’s leadership, propelled managers to achieve goals, and inspired the staff to greater success.
CASE STUDY #2
A leading communications agency’s second-in-command had a leadership style of: “My Way or the Highway”. Unfortunately, this typically resulted in a chaotic environment with significant employee exodus. We worked with this leader to develop a stronger leadership style rooted in motivation—as opposed to intimidation. After a four-month engagement, we saw dramatic results. The revolving door first slowed, and last year, agency retention was an amazing 100%. Equally important, the agency team was far more engaged. And the icing on the leadership cake? This particular #2 was rewarded with a promotion to #1: Agency President
CASE STUDY #3
A top agency had a common problem: getting managers to take initiative. So, we motivated and incentivized the management team to “step up” and take on more responsibilities. We tackled this with both the entire team as well as with each individual manager. The result? The firm is now achieving more of its profitability and HR goals. And, the agency leader is focusing more on the agency vision, long-term strategy, and business acquisition.
CASE STUDY #4
A senior executive of a communications firm had an unconfident leadership style. This adversely affected the performance of his managers and staff. Via regular coaching, he learned how to manage difficult discussions with clients, subordinates, and peers. He embraced a confident leadership style. Plus he became more decisive. The most inspiring results: this exec developed a newfound ability to ask for, and receive, what he wanted. He adopted a more direct communications style. And, he became a faster decision-maker. All of which greatly improved his group’s overall productivity.
CASE STUDY #5
An agency approached us because they had a senior VP who wasn’t stepping into her required role as a leader. Discussions with her uncovered confidence issues. By focusing on increasing her confidence in her leadership qualities, she was able to fully embrace the leadership part of her new role, so much so that the after six months of coaching, the agency promoted her to EVP, citing leadership performance improvement tied to the coaching. It then renewed the coaching engagement so she could maximize her performance at this next level. Thereafter, the executive maintained coaching on her own over a number of years. Ultimately, she was promoted to agency partner.
CASE STUDY #6
Agency leadership approached us to coach three of their senior executives to enhance their leadership performance. Each of the three had different issues getting in the way of their ultimate leadership potential. We designed different coaching engagements for each. After six months of coaching and hard work on their parts, they and the agency owners agreed they had more than achieved their coaching engagement goals, becoming superior leaders.
CASE STUDY #7
A senior agency executive approached us to help her “survive” a toxic work environment. Through coaching, we empowered her to not only survive but thrive, despite that environment. Ultimately, we coached her through her successful job search. She found an appropriate leadership position at another organization, and used her coaching to help her thrive in her new role from day one.
CASE STUDY #8
An integrated communications agency CEO asked us to coach their #2 executive to reshift her leadership approach, and help her more effectively delegate and empower, make their teams feel more supported, and create an open and supportive workplace environment and that type of relationship with employees. At the end of the coaching engagement, the CEO cited nothing less than a “positive transformation” that truly made a difference.
CASE STUDY #9
I met a senior executive at another integrated communications firm at an industry event, where we were giving a presentation on leadership. She felt she was up for promotion, but wasn’t leading as effectively as she believed she could. We embarked on a six-month leadership coaching engagement built around energy leadership and the Energy Leadership Index (LINK). At the end of it, she not only was promoted to executive vice president, but the agency cited her coaching engagement as having played a major role in her “stepping up” and agreed to a six-month extension to help her thrive in her new post. She remained an active client with us as she embarked on new positions at two other companies.