Our Client’s Challenge:

The CFO of a £5B Insurance Company had led a successful turnaround effort but had also created strained relationships with the CEOs of the business units and their teams. Additionally, the leadership team of the Finance organization itself had strained relationships among its members, and many members of the leadership team “dreaded” their meetings and other interactions.

What We Did:

We designed an approach to achieve the following objectives:

  • Ensure senior leadership team alignment on the vision for the Finance organization and its overarching priorities
  • Build effective relationships with the business such that Finance is seen as trusted advisors to the business
  • Develop strong and trusting relationships across the Finance leadership team
  • Enable highly productive leadership team meetings with effective and efficient interactions

Our approach involved:

  • Designing and leading a series of off-sites focused on the CFO and his leadership team
  • Attending Finance leadership team meetings to develop a meeting architecture (i.e., the purpose, frequency, and focus of Finance leadership meetings throughout the year) and reinforce the desired mindsets and behaviors
  • Coaching the CFO on his leadership and engagement style (both with his team and his peers-the business unit CEOs)

Results and Outcomes:

Through subsequent interviews and informal feedback, the business units reported that they noticed a shift in how Finance was working with them-a shift from “police” toward partner. The relationships on the Finance leadership team improved, and consequently, the effectiveness on initiatives that cut across multiple Finance teams also improved. Additionally, the members of the Finance leadership team found their meetings to be much more substantive and productive.