Enhancing leadership development at all levels

About the client: Global investment firm | 500+ employees

Core challenges: Management development | Succession planning

Joining the business as CHRO, our client rapidly identified a need to enhance the company’s existing leadership development program to support their ambitious growth. There were business-wide concerns with a lack of individual manager alignment and consistency of approach, and the CHRO noted issues with:

• High staff turnover in first-time-manager teams
• Opacity around feedback
• Siloed teams and minimal peer support 

A better approach to leadership

The CHRO had extensive experience rolling out leadership development in other businesses, and knew there were often huge issues in the efficacy of these programs: “I knew we didn’t want a point in time training program where people forget what they learned. This needed to be meaningful, and deeply embed leadership skills in our people.”

Sama coaches worked with a cohort of managers to develop their leadership skills, including:

• Communication
• Effective feedback
• Delegation and people planning
• Self-awareness
• Stakeholder management

Communication and feedback were critical for the company: “We’re emphasizing becoming a culture of feedback; we haven’t been great training managers how to have tough conversations.” Coaching normalized feedback culture, and also gave managers toolkits for delivering – and receiving – feedback.

For first time managers

Being an outstanding contributor doesn’t necessarily make you a natural manager; the company was noticing higher employee turnover in teams with first-time managers. Exit interviews highlighted a lack of support and guidance, poor communication, and not enough useful feedback. Giving coaching to first-time managers hones all of these critical leadership skills, playing a vital role in developing the company’s teams and supporting their growth. 

“New managers like having Sama as a sounding board to have performance management conversations. We’re going through a lot of change and the manager role is becoming more and more complex over time. Sama solves some real challenges for us.”

Measurable success

Since working with Sama, the coached cohort and their direct reports have all scored higher in engagement surveys, and turnover in those departments has also reduced. Communication has also elevated, with feedback on new managers improving.

Key metrics

27% reduction in turnover in high-turnover departments where managers are coached

+18 eNPS in teams where managers are coached

92% of coached employees report better working relationships

50% of employees coached were female of which 94% reported a greater sense of belonging