Coaching, Consulting & Training
for High Value Personnel
What Others Are Saying
The First Steps’ facilitator training was one of the most profound professional educational experiences of my life. Rob created a true learning community amongst the participants – we learned the concepts, we developed teamwork, and I reconnected with myself. I learned how to effectively guide group discussions towards real learning. Rob is a consummate Master Trainer, able to simplify the complex and make it accessible. That being said, this was not a beginner’s training, but one that stretched me. I give Rob and First Steps my highest recommendation.
Justina Rudez, Entrepreneur
Client Results - Team Alignment
*Note: our work is customized to each client's needs and specifications. These results are meant to provide examples of how we work with our clients and what they then achieve. They are not meant to display a "set" approach, nor do they detail all of the results achieved by this client.
Situation / Need
Our client was the Human Resources department within a high-profile state agency. Most of their staff had been working together for a long time, with a fairly steady and, at times, heavy workload. The department was then in the initial stages of deliberately upgrading its training and staff development role within agency as a whole, a strategic move that carried additional duties without lessening the daily human resource work. In preparation for this move, the Director had recently appointed two individual contributors to supervisory positions.
Our assessment revealed that, meanwhile, there was dissension within the ranks. No one was happy about more work. Certain members were quietly hostile toward other members. One member in particular did not approve of the Director's direction and thought that she could do a better job.
For this department to successfully upgrade their role and standing within the agency, they would need to develop a sense of shared ownership around the goal, apportion the increased duties smartly and fairly, develop the management skills of the new supervisors, learn how to coordinate their activities more successfully, and learn how to deal with their differences and the stressors that tended to spark internal conflict.
Our Intervention
We developed a series of customized retreats for this team. In successive meetings, this team
- Got to know one another more deeply on a personal level, gaining an understanding and appreciation of each other’s different work styles, and learning to value individual differences and the contributions already brought by each team member;
- Spoke about and began dealing with what they termed “the Real Issues” around management / supervisory relationships, office structure and interpersonal trust;
- Learned new skills to help them hold more effective team meetings and resolve team conflict; and
- Organized their work - continuing and new - for optimal individual and team performance.
Concurrently, we provided coaching services to the department director to help her manage this new transition, as well as the two new supervisors to assist with their transition to management.
Results
- Team members "bought into" their new role within the team and their team's expanded role within the organization.
- Both new supervisors successfully completed their transition; one of the two was later promoted to Department Director.
- Department members were able to "take on" their new assignments, in addition to current responsibilities; and
- Conflict within the team - the type that festers and diminishes team member energy to work together for common goals - was virtually eliminated.
Is lack of "buy-in" or conflict an issue for your team? Are your supervisors effectively managing their front-line staff? Contact an FSTD associate to discuss solutions