Achieving Business Goals through people
ISSUE: “The customer is not giving us bigger projects.”
Profile of Executives
4.5 years in the present organization as Senior Engineer plus 2 years prior experience. Had earlier visited the customer, the customer was happy with his earlier visit. Hence was requested by his manager to visit again.
Situation (Pain, Problem, Cause)
The customer only used to give what they could not resolve or the other vendor could not resolve. These kinds of work called for a longer stretch in terms of time on the resources, resulting marginal ROI.The coachee’s organisation continued with this customer for a long period of time with a hope that the customer will understand and give bigger projects. As this did not materialize a proactive initiative was needed. The Coach was asked to design and lead the initiative.
Solution
1-2-1 Coaching: The Coach first understood from all concerned with the project the gaps in terms of the coachee, customer and the other vendor. It was discovered by the Coach that the other vendor was not addressing the issues and flags raised by the customer. The Coach realized that this was a vital gap between the customer and the other vendor. Onsite coordinators and Engineers of the other vendor lacked the maturity and the customer’s patience was tested. The Coach, in turn, coached 3 people on uniformity in delivery as onsite coordinators. This established frequent rotation of onsite coordinators having B1 visas does not raise concerns and worries in the customer’s mind. What was given as a solution was a model on –
- Structuring communication which included context setting and completion of a loop
- Building trust
- Winning customer’s confidence
- How to manage critical issues
- Questioning skills
- Uncovering resistance
- Priority management
- Tracking mechanism
- How to participate in meetings on site
- Getting commitment from coaches
- How to interact with more than one Project Manager
- Spotting opportunities
Outcome
The organization benefitted significantly both in short term and long term. The leadership vacuum was filled up by this group in a short period of time meeting the immediate requirement. For the long-term, the leadership pipeline got built. Majority of those serving at present at the level of COO, V Ps, AVPs, Practice Heads, Sr.Managers and Managers were part of this initiative.