How to lead a team of leaders towards growth and innovation - A case study

“My team is very talented, coming from the best pedigree colleges and with world-class industry experience. While we did well initially to capture the Indian market, somewhere now, we seem to be losing the plot.”

These were the words I heard from the CEO of one of the top hair care companies in India as he reached out to me to help him conduct a 2 day offsite with his CXO team consisting of 8 leaders. The team was a spin off from one of the top FMCG companies in India, consisted of immensely talented and driven individuals who were aspiring for quick growth. However, while initial business growth was strong with many new initiatives taken, the team seemed to be losing effectiveness. Further, they were facing challenges of talent attrition below them which was leading to execution delays. In an industry which was seeing tough competition and high innovation, being constantly on the toes was crucial to win the market.

As part of the diagnosis process, we spent considerable time interviewing the HR leader and the CEO to understand business challenges being faced and their own understanding of the reasons behind the same. Some issues that surfaced were

1. While the team was able to hold each other accountable, they failed to hold the team under them accountable which led to execution lapses.
2. The team was very collaborative and worked well together but sometimes shied away from conducting difficult conversations.
3. Each individual in the team was gifted and ambitious and looking for fast-tracked career paths, but was unable to put systems and processes in place to ensure sustained execution and growth.

We designed a 2 day classroom program based on Lumina Spark for this team which consisted of the following themes

Who am I and what are my preferences?

a. Building a better understanding of our key qualities, how they show up, how they serve us and others

b. How do our strengths over-extend and become weaknesses at times?

How do I connect with my peers?

a. Who is my peer team? What are their strengths and gaps?

b. What synergies can I explore with others?

c. Are there any gaps in our ability to communicate with each other/ build relationships with each other?

How do I lead others?

a. What are my leadership strengths and gaps?

b. How can I build a high-performance culture in my team?

These discussions were done using principles of safe self-disclosure, feedback, group coaching, peer coaching etc and was highly experiential in nature - using cards, mats and digital mobile apps. Further, the session was conducted in light of current business realities and priorities to help the team contextualise which actions were important to take now and why. The 2 days culminated with each individual making a detailed action plan which helped them?

• build themselves up as leaders
• support their peers while holding them accountable

After the completion of the 2 day program, a team profile was shared and discussed with the CEO and HR leader helping them uncover team strengths, over-extensions and the potential in the team which needed to be unleashed. A detailed discussion was done on what specific actions the CEO could take with the team as a whole and with specific individuals to spur the team to take more calculated risks and accelerate business growth. This discussion was inter-woven with building a deeper understanding of the CEO’s own personality preferences so that he was more aware of how he could communicate and lead his team towards innovation and growth.

All in all, the program was a huge success and received extremely good reviews. Some verbatim responses from the team on the program were as under

"Thanks Priti for the wonderful session using the Lumina Spark. The session was very helpful and insightful for all of us as individuals and as a team. With your deep knowledge on this subject, ability to link the insights to business situation and sharing your personal examples, you were able to inspire all of us and spark a positive change."?- CEO

"Amazing session?Priti?. Something which we all should evaluate and be aware of .. Eye opener and awakening! Loved the session with respect to its content, format and insightful discussion. Kudos to your efforts, experience and enthusiasm!" - CFO