IOM Case Study - Leadership Team Development
Company Information
The Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) is an organisation with a great history and unlimited potential for the future. They have been at the forefront of scientific research to understand and mitigate a range of occupational and environmental health risks since founded as a research charity in 1969 by the National Coal Board.
In 2019 they turned 50 years old. As well as covering the United Kingdom and Ireland, their work takes them across the world into Asia, North and South America, Africa and continental Europe. They are a leading player in Europe and in 2012 successfully opened their first overseas office in Singapore, enabling them to expand in Asia where it was clear that there was a great need for their expertise.
The Challenge
The Executive team at IOM had been a team for over 2 years but were not working effectively as a leadership team, instead more like a group of department heads. The team contained very credible and experienced Directors who were in the most long serving (average c.20 years).
However, they had forgotten their purpose and had become lost. The leaders’ focus was much more transactional instead of strategic and often working in silos. The structure was far too hierarchical for an organisation that needed to become more agile. The relationships on the team were ok in the main, however there was a lack of focus on leadership, strategy and accountability.
Solution
Connect Three grabbed the ‘bull by the horns’ here and started facilitating bespoke Executive team development sessions to further build relationships and create a high performing team to launch and implement a new organisational vision and strategy for the next 5 years. Through this partnership approach we were able to build trust, agree a ‘team charter’ and strengthen relationships within the team.
We also introduced psychometric profiling to increase self-awareness and the differences with styles and preferences. We wrapped this around the introduction of executive coaching to help work through current and future challenges and opportunities with our experienced coaches.
Using David Marquet’s Intent-based leadership concept, we embarked on a voyage of discovery about how we could improve the leadership capability at IOM starting with the Exec team. Using this amongst other concepts to create a tailored programme that was fit for purpose and could be rolled out for middle management and staff levels further down the line.
Impact
- We have more confidence in each other now.
- We are confident to hold each other to account.
- We are thinking and acting more strategically which is reflected in the organisational performance and results.
- We have shown improved performance and financial results
- We have improved our leadership capability.
- Relationships are better across all teams.
- We are using the right models and language helped us to create a new culture of accountability.
- Connect Three helped us change our mindsets, moving from technical experts to leaders at all levels.
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