DEVELOPING HIGH POTENTIAL LEADERS IN A GLOBAL PHARMA COMPANY

The company needed to prepare its future leaders for a new era of partnership and collaboration

THE CHALLENGE

Our client is an international pharmaceuticals firm. With several patents about to expire and faced with the increasing pace, high costs – and risks – of drug development, the company was looking to external collaboration to r drive efficiency.  This required a shift in their leaders’ mindset and skills. We partnered with another consulting firm to co-design and deliver a custom development program for emerging leaders.

OUR APPROACH

  • We partnered with Organization Development and members of the leadership team to understand the leadership capabilities and qualities required to deliver the new strategy.
  • We engaged key stakeholders from across the business in a design workshop to generate scenarios that captured the future challenges new leaders would face.​v
  • We created a ‘Leader Lab’ – a simulation that enables participants to test themselves in the new context and gain a deep insight into their leadership style, strengths and skill gaps.​​
  • The Leader Lab involves:
  • Pre-work – 360 feedback, psychometrics, simulation pre-read
  • A day-in-the-life leadership simulation customized to the future business context. The Lab involves live action scenarios (role plays, presentation, team work, a video, individual analysis) delivered by a team of psychologists and trained leaders from the business.
  • Feedback - Leadership development report, in-depth one-on-one feedback on strengths and development needs, alignment meeting with manager and HR business partner to agree development objectives
  • Development – The results are used to create a tailored development plan to personalize the individual’s learning journey across a 6-month development program.

THE IMPACT

  • Participants embarked on the program with a clear sense of purpose and specific, personal development objectives.
  • Over 12 months, participants’ overall job performance improved ‘To a large Extent’ as rated by line managers and key stakeholders. Progress against personal development objectives averaged 4 on a 5 point scale.
  • The Leader Lab has become a core part of the development of the firm’s high potential future leaders.