An occasion of consulting in which I acted as an expert was in a Leadership Development need for training diagnosis. The problem scope included conducting interviews with Senior leadership in discovery of identifying what skill gaps their management team needed addressed and the applicable training’s required to close found gaps. An exploration of preconceived training content provided over ten topics that contained fundamentals of leadership, coaching, problem solving, conflict resolution, and effective communication, among other subject matters. It was discovered the first order of business, based on consensus of majority data revealed communication to be the most imperative skills to address.
Did training solve the problem and was it necessary? It is unclear if training was the correct course of action. Training was originally thought to be the correct method to implement, however there were underlying fundamental issues within Management that later transpired. Two members of leadership were deemed to have resisting and at times even hostile forms of communication. One of the said members displayed defensiveness in meetings, at times even displaying argumentative behavior when participating in focus discussions. The other leader was out of tune with the organizations business process, and passive in the human resource management function of talent allocation and managing personnel for said initiatives. Ultimately, developing management skill was not the appropriate course of action, until the Leadership themselves could serve as a model in demonstrating leadership competencies, such that communication role modeling proficiency and influencing skills reflected in their management style.
The following video gives more insight on this topic:
The power on the effect of senior leadership team is enormous
Essentially, you can not expect your team to engage in developing skills, if you yourself as a Leader do not lead by example. Furthermore, the standard deviation demonstrated a skill gap from top-level management needed to be addressed, before intervening with middle management. My role provided guidance for the sponsoring client to re-evaluate a specific lack of interpersonal communication skills. Consequentially several months later the decision was made to replace members of the leadership team. My role as a process consultant helped the client re-think the current team and chose a remedial course in the newly identified needs. Without a doubt Leading by example never grows old, and makes all the difference in your team’s motivation.
Teresa, your comparison between the work you did here as an expert consultant with your later work in the process consultant role is very helpful. I’ve found myself in similar situations, where the decision’s been made about a solution before the root cause has been identified. Congratulations on convincing senior leadership of the need to reevaluate.
Thank you! It is through self discovery that one can assess real need, we are our own super heros : )