Human Capital Management Cases

He began to re-engage his division to respond swiftly to market pressures focusing on new business directions. Through a series of cross-cultural coaching and short (2-hour) team interventions, Ms. Zofi helped him build a stronger senior leadership team. Main focus was around exploring team decision-making, problem solving and conflict strategies as well as global leadership, organizational structure, communication and talent capabilities. Senior leaders implemented 90-day action plans for critical change within their respective areas worldwide. The project resulted in successful team transition and cost savings of over $9M were noted with several team members assuming greater responsibilities.

Despite careful transition and communication efforts, productivity significantly decreased, while intra- and inter-group conflict increased. Yael assisted the CEO and the merged organization to bridge the cross-cultural and communications gaps by working closely with key stakeholders to effectively form and rebuild a cohesive leadership team. During the first year, the newly formed global team beat all goals set by the firm.

Due to several conflicting factors, including compounded business challenges and derailed service delivery, he had limited time to make the company profitable. Using AIM’s online Team Setup tool, Yael and her colleagues created structured team building interventions that consisted of virtual and onsite sessions that focused on Team Code, Rules of the Road and Team Operating Principles to guide their virtual journey. The company beat revenue targets the quarter after the intervention.

Yael conducted assessment sessions with the executive team to determine organization culture and role clarification. She facilitated leadership reviews, delivered transition sessions, and developed actionable business plans. The program’s success was widely recognized, and teams reported 25% greater collaboration as well as increased team engagement and cross-communication during a follow-up survey and focus group feedback.

Ms. Zofi was asked to provide coaching to change the CTO’s perceived leadership style, which was derailing him and preventing him from getting promoted. Ongoing 6-month coaching sessions focused on developing his leadership bench strength, helping him establish more effective behaviors – enhancing his influence, addressing political issues, adapting his style, and enhancing work relationships. Feedback focused on creating strong communication, openness and teamwork. Intense coaching helped him build strong alliances with his constituents and assisted him in rebuilding his team, resulting in greater buy-in and engagement. As a result, the CTO improved his overall leadership effectiveness.

His team was diverse yet divergent. He was charged with moving the organization to a global enterprise and did not have the ‘Human Connection’ tools to make this happen. Working closely via a series of conferences and leadership sessions, Yael assisted him in bridging the cross cultural gaps and taking his team from a local to a global one. The team created guidelines for communication across the diverse cultures, set ongoing communications, rotated roles and implemented principles provided in A Manager’s Guide to Virtual Teams. Within several months things improved, and the team increased performance and improved business results.

The CEO brought Yael Zofi to work with him to build better engagement strategies. To succeed in this role, he needed to engage internal team members, build strong influence skills, and develop strong alliances. Yael assisted him in planning and implementing action steps to reach out to the organization and build his leadership, resulting in greater role clarity and increased commitment across his dispersed global team. In addition, Yael developed accompanying materials and ran an offsite meeting. The outcome – the SVP enhanced his influence skills, improved his political clout, and increased executive impact.

The work involved coaching the entire leadership team, developing a PM system, and creating competency models for use in recruiting, staffing and retention. Ms. Zofi worked with individual business heads to design and monitor development plans. Results included a 30% cost savings.

Yael involved key business unit heads in the planning and implementation of cutting-edge global leadership and virtual team initiatives that reached global presence. The result was smaller, high-impact training conducted via technology and telepresence that received high marks from business executives, project managers and dispersed team members.

Ms. Zofi has extensive experience in interpreting 360º feedback data, providing executives with options and helping them create and realize their leadership action plans. She guided the team to set consistent goals, have courageous conversations, deliver ‘real time’ feedback and put action plans in place. Frequent coaching sessions as well as several group sessions resulted in better conversations, improved internal communications, and ultimately enhanced performance. This enabled the team to beat all targets set by their division.

Yael identified the change management initiatives required to communicate operating changes, developed management competencies and determined success criteria that impacts bottom line. The result was a successful Supply Chain Management effort that was recognized throughout the firm.

This required looking at all executives through a new global lens. Ms. Zofi was asked to design a talent discussion process for the top executives. The project yielded several strategy sessions during global business meetings and executive retreats. As a result, the firm was better positioned to attract and retain critical top talent despite significant technological and market challenges.