Leadership/Communication

The Challenge

As part of an ongoing leadership training program at the company Bob is employed with, Bob began attending training sessions every other month with an XB Consulting executive coach, as well as participating in a three-month coaching program. The primary challenge Bob faced was difficulty in working with the organization’s sales staff.

The Preparation

Based on the findings of a DISC Behavioral Profile, Bob discovered he was high in the Stability segment.  This fact explained his “process-oriented” behavior.  Most people on the sales staff, however, had high tendencies toward Influence (social) and Dominance (power), the two opposites of Steadiness.

In order to overcome the challenge of communication between Bob and the sales team, Bob first had to understand how and why both he and the salespeople communicated.  That knowledge would be the foundation of Bob’s breakthroughs.

The Implementation

As we began to delve deeper into the ways people communicate, and why they communicate, Bob started to make efforts to implement his new knowledge on a daily basis.  For instance, instead of stating every step of his information gathering process to a salesperson who was high in Dominance, he relayed the information in such a way that the employee could see the end results.  (Something those high in Dominance prefer.)

In addition, Bob began to understand that some previous negative statements or behaviors from sales team members were not necessarily as they appeared.  While Bob may have perceived the actions in one way, in reality the person was doing what they felt to be correct.

Over time, Bob gained an entirely knew understanding of others’ behavioral styles and preferences in communication. This in turn has helped Bob to become more effective and less stressed at the office.

The Results

After three months of coaching, Bob completed an evaluation about his experiences.  Here is a portion of the comments he included.

“The coaching has been more personal, and more focused on actual problems, and more goal-oriented than I had expected. It was more beneficial than I thought I would be.  I guess I was just not aware of how much I needed help in some areas.

For instance, I’ve greatly benefited by:

• Understanding the difference in behavioral and communications styles has helped me become more effective in working with the Account Executives.
• Prioritizing projects and managing my time has helped me become more efficient, and accomplish more in less time.
• Creating boundaries to limit interruptions and distractions that had kept me from achieving my goals.

“Without having an objective, third party professional to discuss problems with confidentially, personal roadblocks and inter-personal problems rarely get solved and tend to get worse.  The organization never realizes the potential of the individual, and the individual does not reach his personal potential, simply because of not understanding or seeing clearly his or her role, value to the organization, growth path, etc.”