Improving Communication with Awareness

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iWAM and Coaching Lead to Better Leadership Team

Managing an effective team is always tricky business. Sometimes employees just don't perform to their potential when put in certain teams. Maybe everyone isn't on the same page, maybe they don't know how to motivate each other, maybe an employee just doesn't fit in with the others. Whatever the challenge may be, you can use jobEQ's tools to build a better team.

One of our partners, Carl L. Harshman & Associates, Inc., was hired by a global company based in the Midwest United States to "fix" the leadership team. Specifically, the team's business leader was having trouble communicating and managing relationships with and between some of the team members. Using jobEQ's iWAM questionnaire, Harshman & Associates developed a coaching approach:

1. They administered the iWAM to all team members.
2. Individual feedback sessions were held with key members of the team.
3. They next used the “Paired Comparison” to develop data for dialogue and contracting exercises between the manager and various team members.
4. The senior manager invited a direct report to a joint feedback session with the consultant (direct report agreed to share his/her data with the boss prior to the session).
5. The senior manager and his direct report, with the consultant acting as translator and facilitator, used the Paired Comparison results to talk about similarities and differences and how each could be a source of synergy or dysfunction depending upon who did what in the situation.

THE SECRET TO SUCCESS
The iWAM was able to uncover underlying issues that the employees weren't even aware of. Both the senior manager and the direct reports found the information and approach useful in deepening understanding of something that was generally “off the radar screen” and in finding ways to trigger synergies or avoid difficulties in the future.