TESTIMONIALS

EXECUTIVE COACHING

AUBREY LE COMPTE | CEO Retail company

The situation

I am a 40 year old CEO and majority shareholder of a family owned retail business. The company exists since over 50 years and was established by my grand father. It has grown significantly recently from being a small local discount operation to now a national retail chain with over 30 outlets in Switzerland and over 300 employees. I am running the company for over 10 years now, but –as it grows bigger and bigger- I felt the lack of education and experience in moving the company and my Leadership to the next level.

The challenge

1) I was looking for a sparring partner to discuss freely subjects around people, teams, and last but not least family/shareholder/regulatory issues.

2) I needed to enhance my leadership skills from managing a small company to leading a mid-seized organization.

3) I needed help to develop a platform (Vision-Objectives-Strategies-Organization) to realize our dream to grow our business into a European or Global retail brand, delivering a premium shopping experience.

The working method

Paul and I have a coaching session every month or every two months, more or less driven by my need around hot subjects. Recently we increased the intensity of our sessions to

1) Identify solutions for issues evolving around my leadership style & family matters,

2) Develop and discuss our vision, objectives and strategies regarding our international growth ambitions.

3) Discuss people & organization subjects related to our future plans.

Evaluation

Meeting with Paul means tapping into his knowledge of Leadership Development, his wealth of experience in leading smaller & larger, family owned & public organizations. Coaching sessions with Paul are very intensive as he is very challenging, he makes me discover new aspect on almost all subjects; he brings in a different view on things, he shares best practice from his past experiences, he “puts the fish on the table”, and he made me discover the difference between being a (micro-) manager and a Business Leader. As a result I get much more joy out of life, both professionally and privately. Paul came very well recommended by a friend of me, who also made use of his services. Paul has lived up to these promises and even more. I enjoy my sessions with him enormously as it always leads to solutions, results, new ideas, and/or better relations around me. He listens very well, has sharp analytical skills and shares his views openly. He has this combination of being joy-full, humorous and confrontational & insightful, which makes it almost fun to discuss even the most difficult subjects, and learn and benefit from it.

* = for confidentiality reasons the various names have been changed. If you would like to contact this person for further information, please write to office@hiltermann.net

MARY BORROWER | VP Global Marketing and Sales

The situation

I am a 48 year old female Senior Executive with a Legal & Marketing background. Until recently I was the VP, Marketing & Sales of a Business Unit for a UK based, exponentially growing multinational FMCG and member of the Global Leadership Team. My career was going very strong, hired as a Market head in a small market early 90’s up to my last role, where I covered about 50% of the world. In mid-2009 a new CEO was nominated – from within the Group but new to the business. Soon after, out of the blue, I was called into his office and informed that during the Global conference (1 week later) a new organizational structure would be announced, where I would report one level lower, into the newly appointed VP Global Marketing & Sales. Of course, I was shocked and confused. I had heard about Paul Hiltermann through my network and decided to give him a call.

The challenge

I really needed to review the situation with somebody who had seen and lived through these emergencies before. I needed a sparring partner and wanted an un-biased view of the situation in order to avoid an emotional and unbalanced reaction from my side. Ultimately, I needed a solid strategy on how to deal with this issue and a few concrete ideas on how to execute it. The short-term issue had to be tackled (Global conference) and the longer-term problem would have to follow: what now; accept, challenge, or resign…

The working method

We organized a phone call almost immediately and during the next days discussed the situation in detail. What could have been the cause and how we should deal with the short-term situation? It was clear that both parties needed a solution urgently and that this could give some leverage (for what it was worth!). We followed up with a number of more-or-less formal coaching sessions spread over a year that focused on the following objectives:

1) Really look into the potential reasons for the change.

2.) Develop objectives, strategies and plans to build a continued career within the Business Unit or within the Group.

3) Build a proper positioning and CV to allow me to test the water for a potential career outside the Group.

4) All along the process continue to work to rebuild and re-enforce my self-confidence.

Evaluation

Looking back, calling Paul in for help was one of those excellent decisions. He immediately showed his understanding of and experience in these situations by asking the right questions and leading me through the obvious scenarios. He aimed for workable and implementable strategies that led to solutions rather than deadlocked situations. On one hand he supported me unconditionally but was frank and open at the same time. Paul did not shy away from giving sometimes confrontational feedback and/or conclusions.

Results

With Paul’s help I developed another view on my career as well as another view of my work-life balance. With these insights I was able to accepted a role as Marketing Director within the BU. To my own surprise I learned that I was highly valued by the CEO as well as my by my peers & bosses for my skills, experience and contribution. I slowly but surely regained pleasure in my work and quite recently took on the CEO role in one of our most promising and fastest growing market companies in the USA.

*  = For reasons of confidentiality all individual and company names have been changed or omitted. If you would like to contact this individual or company for further information, please write to: office@hiltermann.net

PERFORMANCE ACCELERATION

EMILIO MANCINI | Regional Supply Chain manager EMEA

The situation

I am a Senior Executive for a Swiss based multinational corporation on international assignment within the EMEA region. I was offered a Talent Development plan as part of our Global Talent Development Program and consequently attended a Talent Development Workshop that included an individual performance assessment, plus Executive Coaching. My direct reports and my boss had given me some feedback on my sometimes overly modest leadership style but I quickly discarded this feedback as I did not see myself at all as being a shy or introverted leader. Nonetheless, I chose Paul from a list of available coaches because of his combined experience in Business and Coaching/psychology and started working with him.

The challenge
1)    Improve on some aspects of my Leadership behavior as revealed in the assessment report.
2)    Re-enforce my Leadership presence both during public presentations as during team events.
3)    Prepare myself to potentially take on a more senior Leadership position within the Group.

The working method
Starting immediately after the workshop assessment, Paul and I worked together for approximately 6 months. We met several times at various locations across the world and during 4 meetings with my team – on top of the individual, face to face sessions. We concentrated the coaching on my Leadership behavior during team meetings and on my “Executive presence”. On top of the assessment report we used team-member and real time video-feedback; clips made on the spot by Paul which revealed my actual behavior and body language. From the feedback we developed alternative behaviors, exercised them during our sessions and put them in to practice during the team meetings and during public presentations.

Evaluation
I must admit, initially I was a bit skeptical; however, Paul’s coaching helped me to establish and reinforce my leadership of the team, sometimes with very simple things. The most spectacular aspect discovered through Paul’s observations (supported with ample Video proof) was that my body language was at times showing signs of shyness, softness and even sometimes submission, without me realizing it. Now that I have corrected this behavior my Leadership style -as visible to others- is more aligned with how I feel it should be.

Results
I now feel that others react much better to me, and that my working relation with my direct reports and my boss & peers have improved. Last but not least, I have received repeated feedback that I now come across as a more senior, more forceful, more convincing person during presentations and public appearances, in short: a stronger leader.

I highly recommend Paul as an Internationally recognized Coach and an absolute specialist in his area. He easily works across cultures and geographies. His analytical skills are superb and his feedback short and to the point. Despite the confrontational nature of his observations he manages to keep things relatively light, constructive, joyful and positive, making the coaching journey both a fun and leaning experience.

*  = For reasons of confidentiality all individual and company names have been changed or omitted. If you would like to contact this individual or company for further information, please write to: office@hiltermann.net 

ADDRESS PERFORMANCE ISSUES

BILL HEATHER JONES | MD Business Unit France

The situation

January 2009 I was promoted to the role of Managing Director of the French Market organization (+/- 800 employees) of a large FMCG multinational. The French BU is the biggest and the most profitable unit of our Group and therefore often in the spotlights at our headquarters in Paris. During my 2010 mid-year appraisal the COO gave (totally unexpected) serious improvement feedback and maximally 6 months to improve my leadership behavior. Fortunately I was also offered the opportunity to immediately embark on an intensive Leadership Development journey with Paul Hiltermann. I was fully surprised by this situation and could not see what I was doing so wrong to deserve this harsh appraisal.

The challenge

1.) Understand and accept the feedback: what to do to improve and how to do it

2.) Develop from a (micro-) Manager into an empowering Leader of a mid-seized company.

3.) Improve my attitude and behavior towards HQ and my superiors.

4.) Avoid being fired within the allocated six to nine months period; preferably set up for a continued career in the Group.

The working method

Paul interviewed and collected 360 feedback across my team, my peers and my bosses: What did I do well and where did I “screw up”. He immediately materialized this feedback with video footage taken during my Top-team meeting. This formed the basis of one of the most difficult hours I had in my life: the long list of 360 feedback combined with the video-clips evidence left no room for excuses……

From that moment onwards I was convinced that I needed to seriously change. Paul and I developed & agreed on Leadership Development objectives, action plans and a progress tracking method. We worked together for 6 months intensively: 1 day a month for progress-check’s with my Top-team members, presence in a Top-team meeting followed by a Coaching session with more video-clips and a review of the progress. On top of this we had mid-monthly telephone coaching-sessions, to “keep the pressure on”.

Evaluation

Looking back, I consider the coaching journey as one of those rare life-changing events. I needed a brutal wake up call and Paul did this for me, relying on his exceptional combination of corporate experience and behavioral psychology. He sharply analyzed the (few) key behaviors that led to the overall and specific negative feedback; he convincingly showed these to me with his Video-clips, allowing me to develop alternative behaviors. It took some time and lots of frustration to incorporate these, but once successful the feedback around me changed rapidly. Seven months later I was congratulated by my bosses for my remarkable change in Leadership behavior and attitude towards HQ; and I am back on the short-list for bigger & better roles in the Group.

Despite the pain and the frustration I think that Paul did a remarkable job; he never gave up and kept on pushing for the behavioral change to materialize and stick. Paul makes psychology and change understandable and do-able; where necessary he used concepts to explain better what we were doing. And although very confrontational and focused he kept our sessions light, joy-full, positive and always aimed at our ulterior goal: re-vamp my career in the Group.

* = for confidentiality reasons the various names have been changed. If you would like to contact this person for further information, please write to office@hiltermann.net