Gratitude & Growth- A Client Success Story!

New Customer Experience Model = An Opportunity for Conflict and Growth

Jenni’s organization has around 50 employees, and underwent a significant business model change in 2019. They decided to serve their national members and customers in a new way which included redesigning a department, adding 5+ new staff, and inviting some of their existing employees to apply for new positions within the organization.

From a business perspective, it was a great decision. From a management perspective, the CEO, COO and Jenni, the department’s director, knew there would be many implications for the staff affected. Situations like this can include a lot of conflict. Additionally, they would have 5 brand-new managers coming in that had to get up to speed very quickly.

During 2019, I was able to work with Jenni to support her in re-framing her leadership style to combine relationship-based strengths with a more direct, results-oriented approach. In addition, I coached the new managers to come together to build trust and collaboration from the beginning.

Because of their decision to invest in change management coaching, Jenni has grown into a confident leader who has stopped gossip in its tracks, pushed accountability and problem solving back to her direct reports (where it belongs!), and brought new perspective to the organization’s leadership team.

Jenni had this to say about our work: Change is hard, but Stefanie really pushed me to get out of my comfort zone. I am naturally more of a relationship and people focused supervisor and needed help to blend my style with becoming results focused with specific, clear goals. Through Stefanie’s coaching, I have come to develop new ways to motivate, lead, and support my team. Additionally, I am more confident in what I bring to our Leadership Team and identified areas I needed to have a stronger presence. 

While working with Jenni, I also coached her managers to understand their role in decision making and conflict in ways they hadn’t dealt with previously. They really have taken responsibility for their results!

The organization’s COO, Lindsay, had this to say about our work together in a leadership development cohort: The goal setting portion of this program is the best I have experienced in both the nonprofit and the corporate world. This program taught me to plan out my goals not just on an annual basis, but on a monthly basis so that it leads to actual progress because it is a priority every day. Stefanie also challenged me in areas professionally and personally- there was accountability for the things we said we were going to do and questions if we did not do them. 

This organization is rocking it, and I’m so glad to have been part of their success!