Client Description
A $300 million company in the construction industry

Business Issue
The management team of this company was experiencing some difficulty working together. The CEO observed a great deal of conflict in team meetings and the group struggled to make decisions. Discussion seemed closed and guarded and the management team lacked a sense of unified leadership.

Earlier in the year, Bliss & Associates had facilitated a session with the management team to help them identify eight core competencies they believed they needed to achieve the company's ambitious vision.

The CEO recognized, however, that the management team needed to address its operating issues head-on and find a way to build trust and work collaboratively before they began to develop new competencies for the future.

Bliss & Associates Inc. Approach
Bliss & Associates Inc. used a three-pronged approach for this client:

1.   Team awareness by identifying the underlying issues and call attention to the critical need to resolve them;

2.   Team coaching to address the management team's issues;

3.   Individual coaching to build core competencies among the team members.

Bill Bliss has coached executives for over 20 years. His coaching style is flexible and varies based on the situation and the client. He targets both professional and personal growth and believes the role of a coach is to work with an individual or team so they can develop their own answers.

Team Coaching
Bill Bliss conducted a team-building session with the management team to raise awareness of and address their issues. His philosophy was that the team members needed to understand why they weren't functioning well as a group before they could begin to change the group dynamics.

Bill's approach to the team-building session was:

1.   Management team members were given a personality profile assessment tool to complete. The results were shared to raise awareness of the different personalities and styles that comprised the group.

2.   Bill facilitated a discussion where the team members identified and worked through a difficult situation they had experienced as a team. The group described the event in detail. Then, Bill guided them through a process that helped them diagnose the situation based on the self and team assessments.

3.   Lastly, Bill used a team building exercise and then facilitated a discussion to apply the learning to a work situation. Bill continued to coach the management team on an on-going basis to gauge their progress and help them continue to improve. He was able to reinforce the new behaviors that contributed to enhanced team effectiveness.

Individual Coaching
Bill developed a 360-degree assessment tool where the management team members rated each other on the new core competencies that were identified. After evaluating the results, in combination with the personality profiles, Bill then established individual coaching objectives and a development plan for each team member.

Bill coached the executives on a bi-weekly basis. During the coaching sessions, they discussed progress against the development plan, what went well/not well during the period, new approaches, etc.

Results
The enhanced teamwork was clear among management team members now that they had raised awareness of their different work styles and had gained some new knowledge and skills for working together. The group was well on its way to finding a common, unified leadership direction.

In addition, through assessment and coaching, each person had the opportunity to maximize his or her performance in leading their own functional groups as well as operating within the management team.

In fact, with Bill's coaching the Chief Financial Officer was able to focus his professional development on the competencies required for the position of Chief Operating Officer and ultimately, was promoted into that position.

Client Description
A $10 billion company in the retail industry

Business Issue
This company initiated a major transformation effort that involved new technology and introduced significant changes to positions and job responsibilities for employees. The most significant of these job changes was seen in the Merchandising Group, where the employees were now expected to use sophisticated analytical tools and information in making decisions about product mix, pricing, promotion, etc. Thus, these managers would need to learn new skills and develop new competencies.

This company was faced with transforming a workforce of managers ready to take on a significantly changed role with new responsibilities. They also needed to address the anxiety their managers were experiencing as a result of the change.

Bliss & Associates Inc. Approach
Bliss & Associates was asked to advise the company on how to approach this challenging issue. The company wanted to determine the gap between the current skill level and the new competencies. Bliss & Associates recommended and then implemented the following plan:

1.   New job descriptions were written for impacted positions. Based on these descriptions, Bliss & Associates helped the client establish the key competencies or critical success factors required for successful performance of the job.

2.   Bliss & Associates then used three assessment tools to measure the competencies of over 300 professional and executive employees in this particular job family. The assessment tools included a personality profile, behavioral interviews and an assessment performed by the incumbent's manager.

3.   The Bliss & Associates interview teams compiled the data from all three assessment tools and prepared summaries that assessed the proficiency level of each individual within each competency.

4.   From these summaries, Bliss & Associates created individual development plans showing strengths and areas for development. They coached the employees' managers on how to deliver feedback effectively and to create meaningful development actions.

5.   Then, they assisted the client in overseeing the implementation of many of the development activities needed to close the gap.

Results
Because of the diligent and thorough process implemented by Bliss & Associates, managers in the Merchandising positions understood the new demands of their jobs and where they needed to develop their skills and competencies to be successful.

Further, the client was able to focus on providing specific development activities targeted to each competency required for the new roles. They could proactively provide skill building experiences for employees to help them successfully adapt to the change.

The client was particularly pleased with the objective, thorough and insightful information that was provided by the assessment process.

Client Description
A privately held company in the project management industry

Business Issue
The CEO of this New York-based organization wanted to ensure that his management team was focused and productive at an upcoming executive team meeting. From past experience, he knew the challenges of keeping the team on track. He also knew he would be unable to both facilitate the meeting and participate in the discussions.

The CEO's objective for the offsite session was to enhance the effectiveness of the leadership team and develop the company's objectives and strategies. Specifically, the CEO wanted the team to identify the organizational competencies they needed to lead the company forward.

Bliss & Associates Inc. Approach
Bliss & Associates was brought in by the CEO through a referral to facilitate the 2-day offsite meeting. Bliss & Associates' approach to facilitation is collaborative and participative: They are skilled at creating a meeting environment where there is open, honest communication and people feel at ease. Their facilitation style also draws people out and creates a stimulating environment where ideas flow freely.

First, Bliss & Associates made sure they had a solid understanding of the client's business and expectations before planning the meeting. When facilitating, they remain objective and focused on achieving the clients' goals. They draw from their business knowledge and experience to probe with insightful questions that stimulate learning and valuable discussion.

For this client's planning session, Bliss & Associates used the following approach:

1.   They met with the CEO to learn about the business, the CEO's expectations for the meeting and his assessment of the management team's group dynamics.

2.   At the beginning of the session, the Bliss facilitator helped the group establish a baseline view by describing the company's current position in their marketplace. Through a facilitated exercise, the group identified the company's strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for growth (i.e., what works well today and what could use some attention). Based on this discussion, they generated key issues and an action plan.

3.   The Bliss facilitator led the group through an exercise where team members clarified each individual role on the team and the interdependencies between them.

4.   Once consensus was reached, the facilitator helped the group examine the role definitions in the context of their business objectives (i.e. what do we do versus what should we be doing).

5.   The management team then identified the competencies they would need in their roles to work effectively together and reach top performance. Lastly, they assessed how they were currently performing against each of the competencies and discussed an action plan to enhance their performance.

6.   Commitment was gained to further develop, prioritize and implement key ideas and actions over the upcoming few months.

Results
Bliss & Associates exceeded the CEO's expectations by keeping the management team focused and productive in their challenging tasks of business planning and team development. In prior meetings, the group had never been able to achieve the level of focus, clarity and commitment that was attained in the session facilitated by Bliss & Associates. In the meeting, when the need to address team performance was highlighted, the Bliss & Associate's expert facilitation skills enabled him to adapt his agenda to focus on role definitions, competencies, assessment and action planning. The discussions were open and candid and many underlying issues were brought to the surface and addressed.

In fact, the CEO commented to the facilitator after the meeting that his facilitative style and collaborative approach created an environment of mutual trust and shared accountability among his management team. The group left the facilitated meeting committed to action.

Client Description
A multi billion dollar company in the retail industry

Business Issue
This multi-billion dollar organization hadn't updated their succession plan for a number of years. In reviewing the last succession plan, which was outdated, it was discovered that there were some particularly vulnerable positions where there were no obvious successors if a sudden vacancy occurred.

In addition, the company had undergone significant organizational changes and many of the senior managers were new to their roles.

Bliss & Associates, Inc. Approach
Bliss & Associates was brought in to develop a comprehensive succession planning process. They identified specific successors for each of the company's 1,800 managers with the CEO. For each person identified as a potential successor, a determination was made as to whether that person was ready at the present time to assume the role or whether some development was needed before they would be considered. Positions that did not have an internal successor were identified and a plan was developed to address this vulnerability. Bliss & Associates presented a detailed analysis of organizational succession issues to the CEO.

For each successor, a detailed development plan was created to target the needs and experiences required to become ready for the next position. Specific developmental action steps with targeted completion dates were established to progress managers further in their careers within the organization.

Results
Three weeks after this succession plan was presented to the Board, an executive with operational responsibility for nearly half of the organization accepted a position with a direct competitor. Because of the new succession plan, the client was able to absorb the news without missing a beat and the executive's successor was moved into the position immediately. Backfill into vacant positions was accommodated as well through effective succession planning. Importantly, the client company experienced no disruption to the business.