A GUIDE TO EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT & COACHING

A GUIDE TO EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT & COACHING

ABOUT SAXTON BAMPFYLDE Saxton Bampfylde was founded in 1986 and is one of the leading executive search and assessment firms in the UK. With offices in London and Edinburgh, Saxton Bampfylde is an employee-owned firm of over 80 Partners, recognised as a specialist in the fields of financial services, professional services, oil & gas, retail, media, consumer goods and technology. About 65% of the firm s work is at board level. Saxton Bampfylde is also well known for its expertise in the education, public and not-for-profit sectors. Within its specialised Board practice, Saxton Bampfylde advises clients on chair and non-executive director appointments, as well as on board reviews. Through its partnership with Panorama (www.panoramasearch.com), Saxton Bampfylde has a highly successful international search capacity that enables it to replicate the firm s unique research model around the world s time zones and to seek out and engage pro-actively with leaders in relevant markets.

INTRODUCTION Our executive assessment team have assessed more than 1,000 senior management candidates for roles in the private, public and non-profit sectors. To have the edge when hiring and succession planning, we believe that it pays to know all you can about a candidate. How do they benchmark against the market? How are they likely to perform today and in the future? What culture they will prosper in? And what culture they will bring with them? Using the latest psychometric technologies and broad and deep behavioural interviews, our experienced team of business psychologists help get behind the CV of external hires, as well as assessing the potential of your internal talent. In this booklet we have explained the range of the assessment and coaching services we offer to our clients. WHY EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT THE CASE FOR EXECUTIVE COACHING BOARD & TEAM ASSESSMENT OUR TEAM

WHY EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT? Which way? Which way? THE PHILOSOPHY Make an informed choice Deciding between candidates is a complex and challenging task for even the most experienced CEOs and HR professionals. Who will be the most strategic? Who will have the best cultural fit? Who can really get the best out of our people? These are just a handful of the questions that our clients now need us to answer. They are demanding deeper, objective information on their short-listed candidates to help them make the most rigorous decision possible. We are increasingly being asked to provide a level of insight in areas which are not immediately forthcoming in CVs and references: how candidates will think, what will drive them and how they are likely to influence and lead. We can help you make an informed choice, not only to mitigate the risk of making the wrong hire, but to enhance the benefits of making the right one. APPROACH Selection should be a process not an event The hiring of a senior leader is the beginning of a crucial journey for any business, so we help you understand not only each candidate s current performance but also their future potential. Our team of in-house occupational psychologists assess each candidate using a combination of biographical interview and psychometric data. You will then receive individually written reports which describe candidates profiles against the critical success factors for the role. We also summarise individuals strengths and areas for further probing, which you may use as a guide for final interview questions. As part of our offering, and an element that is highly valued by clients, our psychologist would verbally debrief the panel, take questions and address any final points or specific issues. To promote the most successful integration possible, coaching can be provided to successful candidates as part of onboarding if required.

FORMAT Simple, rigorous, cost-effective We are aware of the pressures on cost and time that our clients face. Some want a brief overview of each candidate s style. Others want a deeper, more detailed exploration. We therefore have two levels of service available: 1 EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP PROFILE This assessment is intended for clients who are appointing senior or sensitive roles. It is a two hour assessment biographical interview combining carefully selected psychometrics. Reports are in-depth and tailored to your requirements, including a commentary against critical success factors and leadership behaviours if required. They are suitable as a stand-alone procedure or part of a wider search process. 2 PSYCHOLOGIST REPORT This assessment is best used in conjunction with a wider search process. Assessments are one hour in duration and focus is on debriefing psychometrics. Reports are concise and insightful: ideal for those who are short on time. We do not tell you what you want to hear: we give you an accurate appraisal of what you will and won t get if you hire a particular candidate into your organisation.

THE CASE FOR EXECUTIVE COACHING Who are YOU? THE PHILOSOPHY Provocative and insightful Traditional search processes look at the experience and personality traits of individual hires. They seldom forecast or anticipate how compatible that hire will be with their new boss, peers and direct reports. Whilst a candidate may look exemplary on paper and in terms of leadership, precise cultural fit is not truly tested until they are in post. Our clients are increasingly asking us to help ensure that the transition to a new role is a seamless one. Just as mergers of companies are turbulent, so can be the induction of new staff. Our philosophy is to explore the characteristics of the new hire in question in the context of the team and system they will be joining. This allows us to identify the optimal leadership style for the challenges of your organisation, present and the future. For those already in-role, the blame for under-performance or the potential for improvement is usually seen as the responsibility of the individual being coached. This, in our view, is a mistake. It is only by improving the system in which an individual operates that judgement, drive, influence and leadership can be harnessed fully. APPROACH Develop a systemic understanding Saxton Bampfylde s approach to Executive Coaching is the same whether you are dealing with a new hire or incumbent member of staff. Before working with individuals, we work with you to understand your organisational culture, norms and idiosyncracies in depth. We explore the styles, traits and leadership behaviours of the team which the new hire will ultimately be a member of. This can be done via conversation, observation and/or psychometrics, depending on what works best for you. By comparing these nuances to the traits of the coachee, we can understand not only on how an individual is behaving, but more importantly why they are behaving that way. The coaching which follows is therefore holistic and carries a much greater impact in terms of the accuracy and effectiveness of our insights.

FORMAT Thoughtful, diligent and insightful We typically coach in blocks of 6 individual sessions, bookended by two Panel sessions: PANEL SESSION 1 The first Panel session gathers together the coachee s line manager, HRD or HRBP and ideally CEO to discuss the culture in which the individual is operating and to speculate on key coaching objectives. We can bolster this with calls to other key stakeholders whose input would be valuable. Any additional measures to understand the organisation in-depth prior to embarking on the 1:1 phase of the coaching are agreed here. COACHING SESSIONS 1-3 Once we have a thorough understanding, we summarise our findings in a report and invite the individual coachee to input his/her own insights. This provides an in-depth and accurate appraisal of the environment we are dealing with, from multiple stakeholder perspectives. We then look to understand the individual concerned in as much detail as possible, combining psychometric testing with biographical interview. Its only when we know the individual and the organisational system, we agree key coaching objectives. COACHING SESSIONS 4-6: The final three coaching sessions are designed to identify and implement action points against the objectives identified. Because we allow 4-6 weeks between sessions, the individual has time to experiment with the themes being discussed and to identify which actions are working better than others. As an optional extra at this stage, we can gather individual stakeholder feedback from the individual s boss, direct reports, peers and customers. This helps us to measure the impact of the coaching intervals, not just on the completion of the work. PANEL SESSION 2 To the final Panel session, we invite the CEO, HRD, line manager and the coachee themselves. It is the coachee s opportunity to debrief the Panel on progress and the coach s responsibility to challenge on which issues are individual and which are cultural. This adds an extra layer of certainty that changes have been made in the right areas and provides indications as to how the organisation can grow its systemic performance over time. Unlike traditional coaching interventions, the responsibility for change is both individual and organisational.

BOARD & TEAM ASSESSMENT I am not crazy, my reality is just different than yours THE PHILOSOPHY Difference is not weakness Every board and executive team comprises its own distinct combination of personalities. No two are alike, but the distinctive profile of a particular board or senior team has a profound influence on the culture, leadership style and strategic direction of the organisation it runs. Our clients are increasingly asking us to help them understand what makes their teams tick: how individual characteristics combine to create a distinctive set of motivations and behaviours, and the impact on organisational culture Board and team review is an assessment/coaching process designed to answer these questions. It gives an insight into how senior teams think, what drives them and how they influence and lead. It delves into the motivations and behaviours of individual members to develop a holistic picture of the team, including its strengths and its potential points of friction. APPROACH The team s the thing Investigation into team dynamics is grounded in the use of high-quality psychometrics and expert interpretation. We invite each board or team member to complete a short selection of online psychometrics, which are chosen specifically to suit the desired outcome of each project. Our team of in-house occupational psychologists analyse the data, produce a team report, and meet with you to discuss their findings in detail. As a starting-point, the report and conversation would cover the team s overall profile, key strengths and development needs, together with challenging suggestions for job specifications (if using for new hires), induction (if using for on-boarding) or team coaching (if using for team effectiveness).

APPLICATIONS 1 BOARD/EXECUTIVE REVIEW FOR DEVELOPING TEAM EFFECTIVENESS When the going is good, teams usually operate in relative harmony. However under pressure, relations can easily become fractious, and minor frustrations or clashes can take on much greater significance. This is seldom to do with underperformance on an individual level. Rather, it usually occurs because a high-stress situation can lead people to see differences in their colleagues individual styles as weaknesses. Instead of seeking to understand each other, teams go the other way and attribute problems to specific individuals, rather than looking critically at the team dynamic as a whole. Blame is more easily apportioned, and responsibility more easily abdicated. Traditional coaching interventions, which focus strongly on individual effectiveness, can reinforce this trend. We believe it is better to explore and challenge the effectiveness of the team as a whole, and the systems and culture in which its individuals operate. This is as much about taking teams from good to great as it is about supporting them through difficult times. BOARD/EXECUTIVE REVIEW FOR POTENTIAL HIRES It is inherently in an organisation s best interests for its new hires to succeed. Yet here again, there can be a tendency to look primarily at individual effectiveness, privileging track record and personal ability over the potential fit between an individual and the team/culture into which they would be placed. A high flyer might excel in one setting, yet fall flat in another. Different organisations carry different cultural signatures: a forthright boss and a resolute team may be one person s rubbish, yet another person s treasure. Fit is everything. 2 To make an informed choice, we help you to understand the team dynamic in advance of a major appointment. The insight gained can be used from the earliest stages of your hiring process, feeding into the specification you develop, the initial search, and all major selection stages, or if you prefer the review can be used to facilitate meaningful on-boarding once the person has been identified.

OBJECTIVE MEASURES We have a range of psychometrics at our disposal which can be selected to meet your needs. The most frequently used are as follows: GRIT-A An online cognitive ability test normed against a senior management population, comprising Verbal, Numerical and Spatial elements (30 minutes) FIRO-B A measure of interpersonal, leadership and team styles, which gives insights as to team and cultural fit. (12 minutes) HPI A broadband personality instrument which assesses day-to-day behaviour and style, including leadership, relationship building, decision-making, energy levels and emotional resilience. (15 minutes) HDS A stress-test which investigates likely dysfunctional leadership behaviours i.e. how individuals will behave under suboptimal conditions, such as stress, extreme workload or fatigue. (15 minutes) MVPI Explores motivations and values, probing the things that drive individuals and the culture they will espouse as leaders. (15 minutes) OCAI A measure used with teams to explore both individual and collective perceptions of the dominant features of the organisation s culture and its appropriateness to the business s needs and ambitions going forward, whilst also providing insights as to the consequent soft skills requirements of its future leaders. (20 minutes)

OUR TEAM NICK HASTINGSc nick.hastings@saxbam.com Nick is Head of Saxton Bampfylde s Executive Assessment and Coaching Practice. He has assessed and coached over 500 leaders from organisations such as Diageo, Aviva, Telefonica, British Airways, Cadbury, National Grid and BP. He is known for his insight and candour in challenging his clients to think about the styles, strengths and weaknesses of their potential hires. He has a background in sport psychology and golf, coaching Michael Campbell to his historic US Open win at Pinehurst. He has a Masters in Performance Psychology and an undergraduate degree in Psychology, both from Edinburgh University. GARETH JONESa gareth.jones@saxbam.com Gareth is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist. He holds a BA (Hons) from the University of Nottingham, an MSc from University College London and an MBA from the University of Westminster. He was a Senior Civil Servant and headed the Home Office s Assessment and Consultancy Unit. He then joined the management consultancy arm of KPMG, before moving to Saxton Bampfylde in 2007. He works widely across the private and public sectors, and the breadth and depth of his experience informs his approach. He brings acuity, objectivity and rigour to the assessment process. CONTACT US To find out more about working with Saxton Bampfylde please contact Gemma Thomas, Project Coordinator to Nick Hastings and Gareth Jones. gemma.thomas@saxbam.com +44 (0)20 7227 0887

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