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In an international company, managers have been supported by BPI to develop the managerial skills they need for new duties. The engagement assigned to BPI was to help them quickly understand what exactly was at stake in their new positions.
Backdrop: Developing key skills around Leadership
A major international equipment manufacturer for the automotive industry decided to set up a support scheme for its newly appointed factory or worldwide business managers, and for people likely to be promoted to these posts in the near future.
The training program, spread over several phases and several weeks, enabled these key managers to acquire or develop skills around leadership on a worldwide scale, including crisis management, stress and performance, managing change, etc. Additionally, the training helped them to address the management of an industrial activity while benefiting from the input of colleagues originating from the many countries in which the Group has operations.
BPI contributed to the first phase of training by working with the client to build a specific assessment program.
The mission: Assessment to galvanize the skills of strategic managers
To help these managers position themselves with the utmost precision and to optimize their development, BPI proposed to implement an assessment scheme able to objectify skills and motivations in their new business environment.
Engineering this sort of assessment called for heavy investment from the client, who had to express in very precise terms the skills and management criteria he wished to see assessed in a given business setting. He was also led to define the expected performance standards demanded of the manager. The "real-life situation" scenarios were then prepared in collaboration with BPI consultants.
With the help of these "real-life situations", the assessment appreciated 11 managerial skills based on the group's own reference frame. With each manager, it helped define an action plan for progress which prolonged the scheduled training period and translated to a wide spectrum of actions (self-training, coaching, seminars, reading list). Lastly, it gave a good account of the group's managerial profile based on an analysis of observed skills.
Outlooks: Continuity
This assessment of managers immediately proved itself to be complementary to other tools at the group's disposal. Additionally, opting for an observation of managerial behavioural patterns in a real-life situation by a third party from outside the company was a major step forward. Managers have all benefited from the experience and the positives have been such that the scheme has been pursued for 4 years.
Originally designed for the managers of industrial sites, it has quickly been extended to commercial and marketing managers using a similar model. The real-life situation scenarios have been adapted to this type of function and its business setting.
After a pilot operation in France, this support scheme has quickly gone international. Assessment sessions today are being held in every country where the automotive equipment manufacturer does business.
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