Case Studies
Case Study 1: Individual Coaching
A senior research scientist in a pharmaceutical company was responsible for overseeing and directing all internal medicines development—including QC and the FDA approval process—and she was having undue conflict with several peers. Carol was seven months into her new position, having been recruited from another pharmaceutical company with very high recommendations from peers and others who had worked with her for more than five years. Executive leaders were now concerned that she would fail if something was not done quickly, and the pipeline of new medicines would be at risk.
Randy was enaged as her coach and began with two lengthy meetings, plus in-person interviews with all relevant peers, much like an executive 360-degree process. He learned that Carol was highly regarded for her scientific credentials, her research publications, and the relevancy of her experience. Peers were highly satisfied with her as a scientist and believed she was a superb choice for the position.
Additionaly, Randy learned that Carol was perceived by her peers as having some rough edges were perceived as abrasiveness and possible disrespect. The latter came out when it appeared that in cross-functional meetings or other peer interchanges, Carol was not sufficiently respecting the perspectives and points of view expressed by others. Some peers observed that she was continually sharp or even challenging with certain members of the group. All could see that this type of behavior would not be effective over the long term, especially because Carol was rapidly losing the respect and cooperation of several of her peers—both men and women.
All of the feedback to Carol was given without attribution and with care not to reveal in any hidden way who had said what. She was both astonished and embarrassed that she had made such impressions in such a relatively short time. A coaching plan was created to help her increase her listening and communications skills to ensure that she heard others thoroughly and correctly before asking non-challenging questions to probe for greater understanding. Additionally, the coaching plan assisted her in learning to use negotiating and influencing language more effectively. Her former company had a culture that valued and encouraged hard-hitting debate and toughness as a way of ensuring quality and a low failure rate with the FDA. Rather than a personality trait, the coaching had uncovered a need for understanding her new corporate culture and adapting to it.
Carol and Randy worked together to learn these new skills, and how to apply them in appropriate and productive ways. After four months of coaching, the complaints about Carol had died away, and the degree of cooperation from peers had gone up noticeably. She continued her learning, practice, and critiques. At the end of eight months of coaching, another peer interview series was conducted. In this round, Carol’s rating with her peers went up significantly. The coaching had been a successful intervention, and a key scientist and executive—plus the pipeline of new medicines—had been saved from failure.
