Billion Dollar Influence!

A Fortune 100 Chief Data Analytics Officer could not convince C-suite to invest $100M to improve the supply chain P&L by $1B in 5 years. I was hired to help her create and implement a strategy to get the initiative a green light.

We put together a strategy with tactics to up-level her influence by transforming the story, meeting the leadership team where they are, and building champions to lead the change. 

Five months after creating our plan, the project was approved by an enthusiastic leadership team. Who said not only would this reduce expenses, they were thrilled because it was an opportunity to increase market share in the very competitive industry.

Creating 100% Success

A health system physician executive was responsible for finding operational savings. He was promoted to an enterprise-wide role hoping to save over $100M in 3 years. However, he couldn’t convince the decision-making committee to proceed with several projects.

I was hired to help him build the influence to get the projects consistently approved. We assessed his skills and the current state of the committee, then created a template to improve cycle times and win rates.

My client transformed the story by becoming more adept at reading and responding to the committee while using a consistent process to increase the cycle time.

He increased the approval rate from 38% to 100%!

This produced $28M in savings in just 6 months. My client increased the 3-year projection, believing that with his new approach, he could save the system over $150M.

Refining Leadership Presence: Creating Bigger Impact

A Fortune 100 tech leader was praised for being visionary but panned because he kept his “elbows out,” and they were sharp. He struggled to progress with a bold project that would positively impact more than 25% of the workforce.

I was hired to help him progress and build speed with the initiative. We made a plan using the strengths as pillars for executive leadership presence and a stakeholder map that transformed the story and created natural advocates and champions.

The project was completed and implemented on time, with extremely high adoption and satisfaction. He was rewarded and sponsored to scale the project for enterprise-wide implementation.

Engineering a Promotion 

A Sr. Engineering Director in a Fortune 500 company was frustrated because she could not get a promotion to VP. She got great reviews and praise from many people. However, she witnessed people around her moving up and decided to try coaching before looking externally.

She loved her company and work; she loathed being passed over for promotions. She worked hard and took on additional projects. She tried to add value and earn recognition. Nothing seemed to get her recognized as having high potential and into a succession plan.

Together we assessed her current reality and determined a specific plan to raise her credibility and profile. We focused on building her gravitas and executive leadership presence, crafting straightforward, achievable ways to bring out her best and increase her know, like, and trust factor. She was methodical, improving relationships and creating advocates and champions for her leadership.

In just a few months, her manager said he wanted her to be ready to fill his role in the next 6 to twelve months. He gave her feedback about how she was seen by executives with the potential to move a few levels up over the next several years.

 The next viable role took 5 more months to open; she was immediately selected as the new Vice President. With a very happy epilogue! With 18 months as an engineering executive, she created significant improvements and was promoted as the company's first female Senior Vice President of engineering.

Behavior Change Earns C-Suite Seat

A sales leader in tech was lauded for his sales success, bringing in billions in annual revenue. The CEO wanted him to be the CRO successor; however, his aggressive, take no prisoners behavior had the rest of the executive team entirely against the idea. 

I was hired to help him learn how to partner with colleagues and influence with political savvy and decorum. Using scientifically valid assessments, we created a roadmap to connect his unique assets to his most significant improvement opportunities.

The coaching helped him quickly adopt new, genuine, and natural behaviors that won over the support of his team and the C-suite executives. Six months later, he earned the CRO position with support from the entire executive team.

Too Smart To Become the Chief

A Senior Corporate Counsel in healthcare was highly successful because she knew how to get to the heart of issues and solve complex legal matters. Her work product was beyond reproach, but her aggressive pursuit of solutions often left colleagues bristling and offended. Nonetheless, she was the intended successor to the Chief Legal Officer.

I was hired to help her polish her executive leadership presence so that she could make a move to the C-suite with more influencing skills, social capital, and business partner competency.  We assessed her current reality and clarified the gaps she needed to close.

Mindset and perspective proved to be more important than skill development. The goal was to help her be seen as an influential and trusted business advisor, ready to take the role of General Counsel. New skills for influence were needed, as was business savvy. We focused on mindset and perspective shifts that created velocity, durability, and more natural skill development.

In less than 12 months, she was promoted to the C-suite position with support from the entire executive team. This helped her hit the ground running as a trusted advisor with high confidence in her peer group.

Exam Room to Board Room

She was a tireless clinician, committed to patient health and practice improvement. Her success in improving clinical outcomes, high reliability, and safety procedures earned her a leadership position. She loved the opportunity to create systemic change but was frustrated because the other physicians weren’t simply following her ideas.

She wanted to make more progress with less friction from other clinicians. We worked together to get a clear-eyed diagnosis of the problems and determined a pathway that would create better adoption and compliance for the change.

We created a specific plan to change her methods for a new initiative. She met her colleagues where they were, listened to and acknowledged their points of view. She targeted influential physicians whom their peers highly regarded to create advocates and champions for the change.

This time the change went well because everyone supported the new protocol. My client kept at it, rolling out new and better practice standards but emphasizing human adoption as much as the evidence for better outcomes.

Her credibility and influence increased steadily, and she was offered the Medical Group Executive. She accepted this senior leadership position because now, rather than feeling frustrated, she was inspired and energized as a  transformational change leader.