The Client:

A multibillion-dollar global pharmaceutical giant

The Challenge:

A pivotal leadership transition loomed large. The Chief Operating Officer (COO), a key contender for the CEO position, was one of several potential candidates to succeed the CEO (who had expected to retire within the next 3-5 years). The CEO had requested coaching for the COO to support her ability to potentially succeed him, and to address what he saw as her lackluster ability to secure buy-in for strategic initiatives from her peers.

Assessment:

360 Process: I facilitated a comprehensive 360-degree feedback process, interviewing the CEO, eight members of the executive leadership team, and four of the COO’s direct reports. Drawing upon the interviews and leveraging cutting-edge methodologies, I synthesized nuanced insights into a confidential feedback report which I delivered to the COO, supplemented by strategic recommendations.

COO Takeaways: The COO gained a more robust picture of the impact she’d been having on her peers, and a much clearer idea of what the CEO was looking for from her. The COO also came to understand a fuller sense of her own strengths—which were greater than she’d initially realized—as well as other areas where she could improve her leadership. She was also able to develop hypotheses about why she and the CEO had disagreed about her ability to gain buy-in, and ways to discuss, and ideally align, their differing perspectives.

Coaching Process:

360 Feedback: Based on the feedback report, the COO committed to engaging in a set of next steps to strengthen and build both her confidence and influence skills.

Timeline: As she implemented the steps, the COO and I met in hourly sessions once every other week for a year, with emails, texts and phone calls throughout, to help her reflect, integrate her learning, plan and execute.

3-way meetings: The CEO, COO and I met three times over the span of the coaching engagement: first, to run the COO’s next steps by the CEO and get his feedback, and then to check in with the CEO twice on the COO’s progress against her plan.

Results:

The COO took ownership of her strengths and gave up trying to prove herself. Paradoxically, as she let go of her desire to be universally loved, she was better able to win her colleagues’ trust and buy-in on strategic initiatives.

The Bottom Line:

The COO became first in line to succeed the CEO when he retired, and she was much more well-positioned to take the company to new strategic heights.