A Group of High-Potential Employees
Create More Impact & Influence in Their Organizations
The Challenge
eBay and PayPal had sixteen high-potential female employees, director level and below, who they wanted to develop as leaders. Jo partnered with them to plan and deliver a 4-month career advancement and leadership development group program.
The Work
Using training and coaching, we covered topics including getting things done in cross-functional and multicultural teams, developing your own vision, and improving communication skills. Naturally, each woman brought her own challenges and questions to the group.
Participants had the opportunity to ask questions about situations in their own careers and departments and develop a new strategy for a better solution. The first and last sessions were hosted in person. The rest of the sessions were delivered through web conferencing.
“I never would have volunteered to lead this initiative if it wasn’t for our conversation.”
The Result
In addition to having the space to problem-solve current career issues, the majority of participants reported having less workplace stress overall, greater awareness of their executive presence, and an increased ability to work better with others. Several representative participant outcomes are detailed below.
- R. was relatively new in her position, and experiencing a disconnect with her manager. She didn’t understand his approach, and as a result, doubted her ability to do well in her position. Through our work on the area of Deepening Your Executive Presence, R. explored how to communicate differently with her manager, letting him know directly what she needed from him to do her best work.
- As a high performer in an external communications role, S. was feeling pushed into a spotlight that she wasn’t sure she was even ready for. Her manager had plenty of confidence in her, but she wrestled with trusting that she could – or wanted to – take on such an important, visible responsibility. During our engagement, she focused on the area of Leading with Clarity of Vision, visualizing her own ideal of what it would be like to be on stage, communicating with an audience, and doing it masterfully. During the work she was speaking in front of hundreds of people at conferences. With these opportunities to be guided by her own vision, S. found herself excited by having an even bigger presence and impact as a spokesperson for her company.
- M. chose to work on the area of Developing Your Influence. As the leader of a cross-functional. virtual and international team. she came to the group frustrated by her attempt to lead people who had no reason to listen. She worked on how to manage others without having direct authority over them, including how to give feedback so it’s heard and coming back to equilibrium after a conflict. In addition, M. also worked on the area of Leading with Clarity of Vision, developing her own vision of what she wanted to do in her work. When her VP happened to ask for help with new initiatives a month later (that happened to match her vision). M. trusted her vision and her gut. and volunteered immediately. M. says, “I would never have volunteered to lead this initiative if it wasn’t for our conversation.”