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Interpersonal Communications Intervention

What happens when two people with very different styles can’t see eye-to-eye on some fundamental business issues like who owns what? Where are the critical hand-offs? What methods and standards do we use?

KRG was chosen to diagnose the challenges faced between two key executives, identify the current barriers in the relationship, design turnaround strategies, and build the commitment required to take this relationship from ineffective to full-functioning and productive. The process included:

  • Data Collection – KRG met with each executive individually to collect perceptions about the current challenges, expectations of the other, and readiness to address the issues.
  • Presentation of Summarized Feedback – Met individually with each executive to review the summary themes gathered from the interviews and prepare them for a next-step offsite meeting
  • Offsite – KRG facilitated a meeting to:
    1. clarify role responsibilities and boundaries;
    2. build a deeper appreciation for the strengths and talents each person brings to the relationship;
    3. develop strategies that use style awareness to communicate more effectively;
    4. create a set of communication ground rules to improve understanding and trust; and,
    5. identify metrics and feedback tools to monitor progress, increase accountability, and acknowledge effort and achievement.
  • Follow-up – KRG facilitated weekly 1:1 and team tele-coaching calls to discuss progress, setbacks, and ongoing development strategies.

We know the development path is rarely straight nor smooth, so the follow-up coaching was a critical step to successfully rebuilding this relationship. Three months after the engagement we re-solicited feedback from the two executives, their colleagues, and their direct supervisor (the CEO). All agreed that the relationship had successfully made a dramatic shift and now, instead of investing valuable energy in disruptive, unproductive behaviors, these two leaders are much more interpersonally aligned and productively focused on business results.