Using Strategic Alignment and Leadership Acceleration to Drive Performance

5 Min. Read

Two critical differences between successful and unsuccessful organizations are strategic alignment and leadership acceleration. A lack of alignment causes confusion, wasted effort, and impacts performance. Similarly, an absence of acceleration inhibits innovation, thwarts collaboration, and stunts progress.  

In this case study, we’re going to highlight our work with specialty pharmacy company  Accredo to look at the issues the company faced, what we did to address them, and the business benefits they have reaped.

Low levels of strategic alignment and engagement

When Accredo approached us, it was facing two inter-related challenges. The company was not strategically aligned, and the culture needed improving. As a result, its people were unclear on the company’s purpose, mission, and strategy, and there was not as much collaboration and commitment as there could have been. All of which was reflected in extremely low employee engagement and Net Promoter scores, and negative comments on platforms such as Glassdoor.

Initially, ZRG Consulting Solutions was brought in to take the senior executive team through our Strategic Leadership Team Alignment process. This is our framework for getting an organization’s leaders pulling in the same direction to generate better business results faster. Working with the group, we co-created a clear purpose, vision, and mission, with key focus areas shared, understood, and agreed on.

A modern style of senior leadership acceleration

What emerged from this exercise and other focus groups we had with various stakeholders around the business was the desire and opportunity to co-create and implement a new type of Leadership Acceleration, which Accredo named the Inspire program. The objectives of it were:

1. Engage the heart and mind to develop leadership skills needed to drive business results, thereby ensuring robust senior executive succession planning. 

2. Provide opportunities to practice innovative approaches to leading self, leading others, and leading change in a virtual environment. 

3. Develop relationships and enterprise-awareness needed for cross-functional problem-solving and collaboration. 

4. Build and promote a mindset that prioritizes care of self and others as the foundation of sustained high performance.

5. Learn novel approaches to leadership through exposure and interaction with other leaders across the organization.

6. Enhance change management skills during times of uncertainty and opportunity.

Focusing on people first

We knew that for inspire to achieve its goals, it needed to be leader-led and people-focused. What we mean by that is, we had to have active senior executive sponsorship and involvement, and the content and delivery needed to be human and relatable, with an emphasis on the specific people skills needed to drive performance in Accredo.  

In practice, this meant designing a program that was cross-functional and experiential, comprising three core parts:

• Leading Self – authentic leadership, leadership identity, and mindful influence. 

• Leading Others – communication and coaching. 

• Leading the Organization – team effectiveness, innovation, and call to action. 

The program was delivered though a blend of in-person and virtual sessions, with on-the-job application of learnings between and peer accountability partners to accelerate results and keep attendees on track.

What makes our approach to leadership acceleration different?

Many organizations claim their people are their most important asset, which they are. But when they are trying to align and accelerate the performance of their leaders, they often default to interventions that center on teaching generic business models, concepts, and structures. 

However, we know there’s a different, better way. Our philosophy on leadership acceleration is to amplify and build on the strengths of your people to solve your specific strategic challenges. If you engage the hearts and minds of the human capital of your company to create experiences that are tailored, they feel invested in, and help them be the best they can, that is when you make leaps in leadership, and therefore business, performance.

This is why Inspire is based on these principles: 

• Led by leaders – two senior level leaders become the executive sponsors of the program and partner with us to design and facilitate, ensuring the experience is tied to the current state of the business. There are no off-the-shelf frameworks or outsourcing. This is about your executives transferring (face-to-face) their knowledge and experience to the next generation to solve your real business problems. Your leaders hear directly from other leaders across the business – getting to know them in a small setting, which helps them build their network, and also learning business acumen and understanding their perspectives on current successes and challenges.  

• Experiential – taking a people-first, action-based, experiential approach to accelerate learning the holistic skills needed to drive business results today through leading the whole self, others, and the enterprise. 

• Relevant – we believe the expertise lies inside your business, not with us. You know your organization best, so we help you clarify what’s critical to you – your challenges, the experiences you’ve had, the principles you hold – and build your unique program that is directly relevant to your business.

 

Results of our leadership acceleration approach

The Inspire program is now in its 10th year at Accredo, and more than 246 senior leaders have been through it. The results speak for themselves: 

• 100% of participants would recommend the program. 

• 100% feel equipped to lead transition and change. 

• 100% have a better understanding of the overall enterprise. 

• 100% have improved cross-functional collaboration.

• Change in culture to be more collaborative and resilient. 

• Improvement in employee engagement. 

“This was a life-changing experience and provided me with a different perspective on leadership and leading the enterprise,” said one Accredo leader. 

Another added, “Learning and hearing from other leaders across higher levels of the organization was super impactful.”

Next Steps for The Inspire Program

Inspire continues to go from strength to strength. This year, we’re evolving the program to include content on current hot topics within the organization, including purpose, belonging, and feeling valued. When we’re seeing record numbers of employee burnout globally, we must equip leaders with the skills to lead with empathy, trust, and inclusion.  

And Inspire The Collective, the program’s alumni network, meets virtually every quarter to bring past participants together for continued learning, development, and critical issue work across the business. People want to stay connected and nurture the deep relationships they formed, as it’s the strength of this collaboration that makes the business more agile, innovative, and effective. 

Combining leadership and business acceleration to drive growth

Across the board, we are seeing increased interest in the topic of leadership acceleration, as organizations seek to drive growth through toughening economic times. Alongside leadership acceleration, we are working with clients to simultaneously use our proven Business Accelerations Teams (BAT) process to embed alignment and develop the leadership skills deeper within their organizations to deliver even faster results. 

Pam Delehey, Managing Director, ZRG Consulting Solutions’ Leadership Acceleration Practice, said: “Given the speed at which the world is moving today, it’s essentially this is matched by investing in leadership development that is people-focused, actionable, and targeted at the real-world challenges you’re facing. 

“Accredo has done exactly that, and as a result it’s improved its culture and made game-changing leaps in performance, despite tightening market conditions.”  

We partner in business transformation, leadership acceleration, culture transformation, assessment & succession planning, executive and leadership coaching, and talent acquisition. 
 
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