Brown Brothers Harriman
Issue: A diminishing leadership pipeline compounded by a lack of performance management and promotions based solely on technical expertise
Solution: Comprehensive leadership and management curriculums bolstered by personal assessment
Results: Increased performance management focus and improved productivity
Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), a private, 200-year old globally diversified financial services firm, has a rich history of success. Offering banking and investment advice and services, the organization prides itself on its ability to build and service high-quality relationships with its clients.
Being steeped in history also meant that the organization was slow to change, a trait that threatened its profitable future. In addition, the organization found that its leadership pipeline was diminishing, that its performance management system was underutilized, and the leaders who were in place were promoted often because of their technical ability rather than people ability. The organization realized it needed to focus on training its leaders, yet recent downsizing had rendered the training and development function to a handful of people—not the ideal climate to launch an accelerated training initiative.
Senior leaders at BBH tasked key individuals to rally to the challenge. Richard Garcia, VP of Global Talent and Development, and Stacy Stobie, AVP of Global Talent and Development, began identifying the key skills individuals needed, clarifying the metrics by which to measure success.
They knew they wanted the curriculum to support and reinforce existing leadership and management competencies such as coaching and developing others, establishing and executing business objectives, managing performance, and managing resources. And they partnered with The Ken Blanchard Companies to design a curriculum to address their issues. Senior leaders were so supportive of the plan they wanted the inaugural program to launch within 30 days.
At the heart of the initiative was providing a platform for leaders and managers to understand themselves, believing that if leaders could become self-aware they would also become more competent about growing their people. Since BBH had its roots in the shipping industry, the curriculum was designed to tap into the historic backstory and have leaders think in terms of being captains guiding the helm of the organization through people.
The program was delivered in three phases: The Maiden Voyage, The Principle Voyage, and culminated in the Bon Voyage. The Maiden Voyage, a 4-day training experience, was launched via the Blanchard Frontline Leader Assessment, through which managers receive feedback from direct reports on their feedback, coaching, and performance-management skills. Another key focus included Blanchard’s DISCovering Self and Others program as well as taking the DISC assessment and viewing results of others in order to more deeply understand distinct personality types to allow for more effective communication. The Principle Voyage, a 2-day experience utilizing Blanchard’s Situational Frontline Leadership program, offered a deep dive into the micro skills of a Situational Leader. And the Bon Voyage focused on managing conflict, developing individuals, and culminated in an engaging experiential activity. Throughout the process, leaders and direct reports took Blanchard’s Frontline Leader Assessment as a pre- and post-test of skill and competency development.
An initial challenge for the training initiatives was that since performance management and feedback had been the exception rather than rule, many leaders didn’t know why they were being asked to participate and hadn’t a clue that they needed skill development. Frontline leaders, however, welcomed the opportunity to gain new skills. Buzz about the program quickly spread and classes were filled as soon as they were announced.
A key component of the process requires leaders and managers to review what they have learned and report out via a case study or presentation. “Invariably,” says Stobie, “even though they have been exposed to many elements and topics, what they point to as most valuable is either the DISC training or the Situational Frontline Leadership content.”
Three years since its inception, the program is flourishing, as are the results. BBH has trained most of its target market, performance-related conversations are now the norm allowing managers to document good and poor performance, and, as a result, leaders are able to cull out poor performance, which directly influences the productivity of the organization. Over time, BBH has continued to refine the curriculum to meet the changing needs of its developing managers, while at the same time including components such as coaching to ensure that its leadership legacy will continue to evolve into the future.