A recently promoted marketing manager is struggling to manage her international teams in phone meetings. The teams are losing cohesion and she is losing confidence in her leadership abilities.
Gemma was recently promoted to a high-profile international marketing role in the large investment bank where she’s worked for 10 years. It’s an exciting move as the bank is investing in global rebranding as a result of an acquisition, but it’s brought problems she didn’t anticipate.
There’s an embargo on non-emergency travel, which means she’s having to manage her European marketing teams through phone meetings. This is having a detrimental effect on her ability to lead and on her confidence. People are ‘tuning out’, and handling this feels confrontational. Also, new members have joined and the team feels disjointed. People don’t challenge one another or share ideas, and meetings are process driven. Gemma feels “no-one speaks but me”.
Gemma’s confidence was knocked further when she discovered that two of the team had applied for her role – she feels they are judging her and resenting her promotion. A 360 evaluation that included team feedback highlighted several development areas, including empathy. Her line manager suggested coaching.
Which approaches and solutions would unite and inspire the team and help Gemma regain her confidence?
Sue Powell – Leadership coach and facilitator, Eluminas
Encouraging Gemma to explore her vision for the team, her perception of her new role and what she wants to achieve with the phone calls, is a good starting point. If she hasn’t thought about, and then transmitted, her vision and expectations well, the team may lack clarity about the purpose of the meetings and their role in them.
Coaching could encourage her to create and articulate her vision. It could also help her explore how her assumptions and judgements may be getting in her way.
Empathy is an important attribute for Gemma to develop as the team has experienced change on many levels. We could explore their perspectives to generate new awareness that might influence how she leads them.
Gemma may also want to consider what actions would best support her relationships with the two unsuccessful applicants. She assumes she is the problem, but they may also be considering their options or be unsettled after the merger. Coaching could help her assess what conversations she might have.
She would benefit from understanding how her behaviour affects participants. She could give her coach permission to ‘shadow’ her by listening to a recording of a call. Her coach could reflect back observations so they could create new insight about her style and process.
I’d help Gemma focus on and leverage her leadership strengths while encouraging her to try new approaches. Once we’ve identified what works for her, we’d focus on making sure she’s able to replicate and sustain those behaviours over time.
Biba Binotti – Leadership and systems coach, The Red Hat Coaching Co.
While Gemma’s confidence in her leadership ability is the presenting issue, she is part of a wider inter-related issue: changes in the organisation (acquisition) and team (restructure, new leadership, new working practices). The latter may be fuelling the lack of cohesion. This creates a strong case for a team coaching and systems approach: looking at the collective dynamic and supporting members to build productivity and effective relationships through increased positivity, trust and aligned action.
Tackling the situation at team level would bring to light team-wide and individual issues. Any individual needs could evolve into individual coaching.
For me, team coaching begins with jointly designing a team contract. The process itself provides insight, learning and a safe territory to get to the heart of the team. What’s their vision? What environment do they want to create? What do they need to flourish? What will they do when things get challenging?
Systems work ensures marginalised voices get heard and treated with curiosity not blame – an ideal place for the two disgruntled team members to speak out and be valued.
The process allows team members to see their roles as part of the system. For Gemma, this would reveal her impact and role in context.
Given resource restrictions, we could use the phone media that caused the issues – a great way to tackle practical and emotional barriers to it directly.
Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 6