Patrick Tissington
Play to your strengthsCase studies
I work with each client to create strategic solutions which means each project is unique. The only constant is the process: contract-diagnose-deliver. Here I have summarised someI recent projects to give a flavour of the sort of thing I can do:
CAREER TURNING POINT
NEW LINE MANAGER
Having forged a successful career based on his technical engineering expertise, I was approached to assist this highly talented individual as he moved across into a more generalist role in a global business. He had to unlearn his previous influence approach which was using his technical reputation as the basis for issuing orders. Over time we explored how people were motivated in different ways and how others might have different priorities. We explored his leadership style, what he could leverage and where he could develop. Shortly after we finished our last session, he was promoted again and is enjoying his new career in the same business.
NEW PROMOTION
A small but crucial department in a public sector organisation had been underperforming for years under a manager who had lost his way. He was moved on and a new, dynamic but inexperienced manager was brought in. He was given a great deal of high level support but needed additional help in dealing with the aftermath of redundancies and some remaining (underperforming) staff. He was talented but faced with significant morale and performance issues with a small number of staff. I was asked to support him through this period. We discussed ways of understanding the viewpoint of the remaining staff and work out how to prevent their negative attitude transferring to new staff. We worked on how to be understanding but also how to be firm about the changes.
CALL CENTRE – FINANCIAL SERVICES
The manager of this large call centre was concerned that their performance was flatlining and brought me in to assess how they could improve on quality of service and also increase productivity. I spent some time with staff observing calls, meeting staff and discussing with teams. It became clear that whilst they were notionally organised in teams, the reward system of bonuses – very important to staff – was only awarded on an individual basis. this meant that it was actively against the high performers personal interests to help anyone else in their team. In fact the high performers didn’t want to speak to me as it would reduce time on the phone and therefore their income. And also they didn’t want to share their secrets. My recommendation was that the bonus scheme be re-structured to include a team element and that this was created against an absolute performance level rather than competing with other teams. The business also followed my recommendation of having team meetings factored in to their working day – previously meetings had been in staff’s own time. The centre was able to make an immediate step change in performance both in terms of quality of their work and the number of calls processed.