The Gap Partnership – a three-tiered talent development programme
Coaching global negotiation experts to grow their leadership capability
Background and challenge
The Gap Partnership (TGP) is a mid-sized professional services group, leading the global negotiation consultancy market, with expertise in experiential negotiation, training and consulting, and operating in more than 50 countries.
TGP wanted to assess its current talent and leadership pipeline with a view to building on, and investing in, its future consulting capability.
With a wide variety of clients, ranging from Heineken to House of Fraser, TGP negotiators must be able to deal with a host of different sectors, businesses and people.
The style, approach and professionalism of TGP’s negotiators, coupled with their empathy and understanding of how these different businesses operate, are the company’s strength. TGP wanted to ensure it was maximising the leadership potential and flexibility of its teams.
What we are doing
Working closely with TGP’s Chief People and Talent Officer, COO and CEO, Indigogold created bespoke programmes to assess and build leadership capability across three key levels in the company.
We took a holistic approach to the requirements for each level and adapted the programmes – for business unit leaders, high potentials and executives (direct reports of the CEO and COO) – with the aim of producing sustainable and tangible outputs for the business.
During 250 coaching hours being delivered throughout 2016, we are implementing these programmes via our team of twelve Indigogold coaches across the UK, Germany, Russia, the US, Australia and China.
Each of the 36 participants has undertaken a 360° and a psychometric test, followed by one-on-one feedback and coaching. This is supplemented by modular work aimed at discussing specific topics tailored to each level.
For business unit leaders already heading up significantly-sized teams, we are blending practical learning and coaching to develop deeper insight and capabilities that will increase TGP’s management and leadership capacity.
To maximise the potential in TGP’s talent pipeline, future leaders must be equipped to tackle the complex business challenges of tomorrow. Our high potentials programme – aimed, typically, at senior individual contributors – provides a unique fusion of ‘real life’ business challenges and coaching, to accelerate their development and impact.
The leadership team’s programme focuses on practicality, connecting them to commercially orientated goals. It offers immersive learning in areas such as developing coaching capability and understanding how personalities can help or hinder performance.
Results achieved
The programmes are continuing to deliver a tailored development intervention to 36 TGP leaders around the world, and will continue to do so throughout 2016.
The feedback from the Future Leaders module has been positive, with particular praise for the facilitators’ credibility and relevant content that keeps attendees ‘stretched and challenged’.
Three further modules being run in June (at Ashridge Business School and at a chateau in Bordeaux) will be filmed and uploaded to this case study in due course.
- The Gap Partnership project is continuing, and we will update this case study with further results and later in 2016.
- If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.