Client Profile And Challenge

• An enterprise software platform company sought our services to help them to prepare their people and culture for an IPO taking place in 18-24 months.

• Founded in 2016 with 150 employees and quickly scaling, they had an innovative software model, which helped them to quickly acquire market share and recruit talent.

Along with their remarkable business growth, a culture also emerged where the leaders avoided having difficult conversations with their employees and each other, resulting in unclear performance expectations, back-channel communication, and gossip.

High-performing staff was being promoted to management with no training. Managers also needed to deepen their strategic people skills to better motivate and engage employees. Employee morale was beginning to decline with a risk to business performance if the people and culture issues remain unresolved.

The Solution

After a skill-gap analysis and organizational development assessment, a dual approach was devised.

1. A leadership development program that equipped emerging leaders with the skills to manage and engage employees and drive team performance.

2. An organizational development intervention that measured and deepened psychological safety. So, all employees were more comfortable and equipped to have difficult conversations.

Best Practice for Developing Emerging Leaders

TLS Leaders uses the research-based 70-20-10 principle of adult learning, where leaders develop through three integrated components. When executed well, this approach creates high-impact, sustainable growth for the participants and business results for the organization.

A 12-month academy was designed to foster sustainable leadership growth:

Individual Assessment And Leadership Coaching

Participants strengths and growth opportunities were assessed through a research-backed, online 360° tool. Each created a development plan to enhance their management skills, and engaged in individual coaching sessions once a month over a 12-month period with a TLS Leaders leadership coach.

Action Learning Projects Fostered Hands-On Learning By Solving Real Company Problems

Leaders worked in small, cross-functional teams to solve real company issues that bridged silos, deepened collaboration and drove business performance. The projects included:

1. Assessing and recommending strategies for creating an inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds are celebrated and thrive.

2. Identifying and recommending ways for the sales and branding departments to increase operational alignment.

3. Discovering low-hanging, new market opportunities, including co-branding, wearable technologies and CTV advertising.

Group Learning Sessions

Participants gathered in group workshops to build critical leadership skills based on nine leadership competencies.

Quarterly Lunch & Learns

Casual lunch-time discussions created a supportive learning community and fostered peer learning. Sessions were moderated by a different participant each time, who prepared the topics. Participants shared management challenges, best practices, and advised each other.

Learning And Support For The Participants’ Managers

The participants’ managers experienced two hands-on group training sessions. They learned how to have monthly coaching conversations with their team member who was enrolled in the program. They learned how to guide them on goal attainment, leadership and career development.

Results Delivered

• Competency models now guide mid- and end-of-year performance reviews, resulting in an effective and efficient performance management process. The organization also has the ability to target employee-specific growth opportunities and “nip them in the bud”.

• Leadership capabilities were significantly deepened in emerging and senior-level leaders, as measured by level three training evaluation, mid- and end-of-year performance reviews.

• A supportive learning community was formed, enhancing cross-functional collaboration and communication across the organization, which led to deeper trust and psychological safety.

Psychological safety increased significantly across the organization. A reassessment survey was conducted three months after the program ended and showed a 68% increase. Six months post-program, a reassessment survey showed a full 79% increase.