June 9, 2022
Silicon Reef, a successful and growing Microsoft Partner, asked for our help to realign their leadership team after a recent acquisition.
"Since working with Law 365 and their Performance Coach [Louise] to implement HAPPY 365 at Silicon Reef, we have reaped the rewards in more ways than one! By focusing on the 5 building blocks of Health, Autonomy, Purpose, Progression and Your connections, we have developed both our business growth and our ethos of 'Work Happy'. Through team coaching, one-to-one coaching, support with KPI and objective setting and ensuring that our employment legalities are in order, Law 365 is really helping us."
Acquisitions and mergers can present unique challenges in the workplace
A clash of cultures, different values and purpose and a bigger mix of personalities to navigate -- so, they knew there were a few hurdles to clear before they could achieve their dream.
We enrolled them on our HAPPY 365 ‘Good to Great’ Programme (inspired by the book: “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't” by Jim Collins) with the promise of transforming their leadership team by uniting them with a common goal and equipping them with the skills to manage and develop others. We took the leadership team offsite for an afternoon of team coaching using the Belbin Team Roles as a framework for discussion.
Getting away from the office gave them the time to think clearly to make some strategic decisions about who did what role within the team and the Belbin analysis really highlighted where the team was strong and where they needed support in order to be successful.
This is a HAPPY 365 Case Study - to learn more about HAPPY 365 and how Law 365 could help nurture a great workplace culture, see HAPPY 365... or continue reading!
We asked them, “Who do you want on your ‘bus’ on your journey to becoming a better workplace?”
This is a really useful exercise for any leadership team and especially post-acquisition where sometimes there can be people filling multiple positions, duplicating work or there may be gaps in the team. For Silicon Reef, the issue they needed to address was clarity of job roles and there were some gaps to fill. There are only a certain number of seats to fill on your metaphorical bus and it can require some juggling to get the right people in the best seat before you can head off in the right direction. They reassessed their ‘bus’ and moved their leadership team into roles that played to their strengths.
Now they needed a roadmap
So Silicon Reef’s bus was ready to roll, and the next step was to make sure everyone knew where they were going and why. It’s vital to work together to agree a common purpose that includes everyone so that you can head in the same direction united.
The teamwork was followed by 6 months of one-to-one coaching
This work can sometimes be uncomfortable and challenging because it requires self-awareness (which is where great leadership begins!) – but it’s almost always enlightening. Fortunately Silicon Reef has already seen incredible improvements, both for individuals and as a team, and is completely converted to the power of coaching.
They’re now investing in the next level of leaders
We’re now providing the next level of leaders with the same experience -- giving them the gift of time to think, to focus on their goals, identify their strengths and to understand how their behaviour impacts others. Using DISC or Myers Briggs MBTI psychometric profiles helps to drive deeper levels of self-awareness and improves communication.
While our Executive Coach addressed the systemic issues in the business post-merger, the Employment team supported Silicon Reef with some challenging processes and decisions to streamline their resources. They worked in partnership with the leadership team to determine the best way forward for the business.
Our job is to protect our client, so we’re always looking for ways to mitigate risk and anticipating issues that might arise so the business is prepared for the widest range of possible reactions and outcomes.
We worked closely with them to understand what they wanted to achieve and the available options.
Law 365 were able to help in the following ways:
- Risk analysis
- Timetabling and project management
- Scripts (e.g. for employee meetings from restructuring to performance reviews)
- Support and troubleshooting
- Regular reviews and re-assessments as the processes progressed to ensure the best result for the business in all the circumstances.
Next we’re helping them to re-launch their employment contracts.
We want to bring together the work the team has done with Louise and embed the values and culture of the business in every policy and contract. Our goal is to create fun and friendly employment contracts that do what Virgin Atlantic did for the in-flight safety announcement – taking them from drab to fab!
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Further Reading
H is for Health (and resilience)
More HAPPY 365 Case Studies
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