‘Managers vs Leaders’
Challenge
David (his name has been changed to protect his innocence!) is a successful Operations Director for a blue chip company operating a brand experience visitor attraction. He has a reputation for single-mindedness and a direct approach. Someone who gets things done.
This has helped the business gain a very high TripAdvisor® ranking as a great place to visit, but a staff satisfaction survey gave David a low score for his people management skills.
Approach
We used the DiSC™ behavioural model to analyse why people act as they do and combined the results with coaching sessions. We did this with managers and team players and supported them to adjust their behaviour and build better relationships with others.
David completed Alisar’s Everything Management DiSC™ profiling questionnaire, which revealed him to be a D (Dominant Style), focused on ‘results’ and ‘action’ – both good drivers in gaining those high standards for the visitor experience. We reviewed David’s strengths and devised a matrix for him to use throughout the day to rank his behavioural responses, scoring from 1 (low) to 5 (high):
- at meetings
- daily team briefings
- being visible in customer areas and
- all communications such as email, letters, telephone conversations etc
We worked through these results with David to help him recognise and flex his behaviour.
Impact
Over one month of weekly phone or face-to-face coaching sessions, we highlighted the areas David needed to address, identified situations that frustrated him and what he could do to achieve a better outcome by flexing his behaviour and discussing different approaches to meetings or written communications.
As many of us operate on a ‘WIFM’ (What’s In It For Me?) basis, we helped David to recognise this and get the best out of his team by seeking ‘win-win’ scenarios that then enabled everyone to get the best out of all situations.
As David is a Dominant Type we worked with him on dialogue, and explaining to team why he wanted something to happen rather than just ‘telling’ them what to do.
Visitors continued to give the business a high ranking and David’s score improved in subsequent staff surveys.