Challenge:
One of the largest compounding pharmacies in the United States needed to make strengthening leadership, managerial and supervisory capacity at the company a priority. The organization had seen steady growth over the prior decade, growing from a start-up to an industry leader in a relatively short period of time. An organized leadership development program was never offered to its staff, resulting in the business beginning to outpace their capabilities. Having worked with CCI two years earlier to develop a competency model, the company engaged CCI to create a developmental program for all its people leaders.
Solution:
To gain insight and perspective into the needs of the organization, CCI used the previously identified competencies as a back drop while conducting a comprehensive learning needs assessment. To understand and prioritize the needs, CCI conducted face-to-face interviews with each member of the leadership team and several high-performing employees. In addition, an electronic training needs survey was administered to each leadership level within the organization. As a result of the findings and recommendations, CCI’s Talent Development consultants designed a developmental training curriculum for four levels of people leaders: Director, Manager, Supervisor, and Assistant Supervisor. Each level included six workshops with topics based on the prioritized gaps from the training needs assessment. To reinforce the training, the leadership team was briefed on the topics and provided a “manager’s toolkit” so they could provide support to their direct reports. Also, the sessions were scheduled in a cascading fashion that allowed for the more senior audience to experience the training first so they could support their direct reports as they went through the workshops. At the program’s onset, each participant also identified a Burning Imperative. This was their own BHAG they were responsible for completing within the next year. After each session, the participants were responsible for applying what they learned to their imperative.
Results:
The primary mechanism for measuring program success was through session evaluations. Each cohort-level was asked to complete a session evaluation at the conclusion of each workshop. In addition to the qualitative responses, the three questions of most interest were:
- As a result of the program, I will be a stronger performer for the organization.
- I would rate my performance in this area before this program.
- I would rate my ability to apply what I’ve learned when I return to my team.
The following grid shows how each group responded with Top 2 answers (Agree/Strongly Agree or Above Average/Exceptional) on a five-point Likert scale.
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Delta Q2 & Q3 | |
| Asst. Supervisors | 100% | 48% | 91% | 43 points |
| Supervisors | 96% | 28% | 86% | 58 points |
| Managers | 93% | 27% | 65% | 38 points |
| Directors | 89% | 21% | 71% | 50 points |
Overall, the participant feedback was considered very positive and this data indicates the value perceived by the audience. Nearly all the participants felt as though they would be stronger performers as a result of the leadership training.
