From -$0.7m loss to $5.6m new intake order in 14 months
Business Turnaround
Synopsis
Joanna had been appointed general manager for Russia at an engineering company selling industrial equipment. Despite not having a technical background, she was recruited to improve profitability.
Within our coaching programme, Joanna transformed her leadership style and her team to recover a loss-producing unit (-$0.7m) to a new order intake of $5.6m in 14 months.
Context and characters
Joanna’s new role covered Russia, Belarus and Ukraine in a predominantly male-oriented market and culture. To produce the results expected of her, she had to establish her leadership role and build an effective, motivated team.
She was looking for a coach who would give her the space and guidance to quickly develop leadership skills, explore and test new ideas and question her thinking in a direct and positive way. She was also keen to work with someone who had senior managerial experience across a variety of cultures.
Stepping stones
We worked through a bespoke, 12-month coaching programme and started by mapping out her situation – interviewing her team and managers, conducting emotional intelligence profiling and setting business, leadership and personal objectives.
This identified our key focus as:
Managing upwards
Quickly making and implementing tough decisions
Listening effectively
Self regulating emotions
Fundamental team and leadership skills
We established milestones and tasks to complete between sessions, and reviewed progress and improvements along the way.
What changed?
Joanna developed a new awareness and belief in herself, and was able to deeply listen for the first time. Rather than fearing the new challenge, she tackled it with enthusiasm and determination. She cemented a strong presence with her team and started leading by following.
Within 12 months she had doubled profitability and improved her KPIs by a factor of 10. She also developed 3 people in her team to the new highs. In her words, ‘The coaching programme helped me achieve in 12 months what would usually take 3 years’.
The story continues
The leadership skills and mental shifts Joanna achieved empower her throughout her life and career. By the end of the programme, she felt able to tackle anything and commented that working with a high-calibre coach outside her immediate environment was crucial to her success.
Joanna said, ‘It gives you a different perspective and the honest feedback is priceless. Ania unlocked my potential.’
*Name has been changed for confidentiality
