• case study •
Ready to unlock the full potential of your team?
Discover how Cooper Management Consulting’s customized approach to team-building creates high-impact teams that are aligned, cohesive, collaborative and create greater ROI for their organization
“Team-building with Cooper Management Consulting is very specific to your team and your situation, and the focus of every team-building activity is on how to implement what is learned so that you see a real difference in your team.”
IAIN WEBB
Vice President of U.S. Medical Affairs for Oncology
Fortune 50 Pharmaceuticals Company
“Members of my team have told me that working with Cooper Management Consulting was the most impactful coaching experience they’ve had in their careers.”
ALLA PILTSER
Managing Director and Global Head of Technology & Architecture
Fortune 50 Financial Services Company
Team-building that’s customized, actionable, and impactful
A team may be full of brilliant and talented individuals, but its collective power is only unlocked once it begins to work well together.
That’s why it’s critical to support your team with team-building activities that address their unique and specific needs, identify and honor the strengths of each member, and create an environment where conversation, collaboration, strategy, and trust align and optimize your team and ultimately power its success.
IAIN WEBB, Vice President of U.S. Medical Affairs for Oncology at a Fortune 50 pharmaceuticals company, was looking to optimize the effectiveness of his team and establish a strong leadership presence when he contacted Cooper Management Consulting about their team-building services.
Having recently joined the company as the new leader of the U.S. team, Iain had known going in that his senior leadership wanted his team to partner better with the rest of the organization — a trait they hadn’t been encouraged to utilize or even exhibit during the leadership of Iain’s predecessor.
Because of this, Iain’s newfound team was mostly underutilized and invisible, with many feeling disengaged and often unclear about what their responsibilities truly were.
As their new leader, Iain was eager to provide leadership that engaged and included them, highlighted their expertise, and cultivated an environment where they proactively and visibly took ownership of their responsibilities.
ALLA PILTSER, Managing Director and Global Head of Technology &
TEAM-BUILDING
SERVICES
Our team-building services empower new or existing teams to envision — and then become — a powerful, results-driven unit that’s rooted in teamwork and delivers impactful results for critical stakeholders
HIGHLIGHTS
Perfect for:
- Teams transitioning to new leadership
- Newly formed teams that want to get up to speed quickly
- Existing teams that need to optimize their effectiveness
Services include:
- Team assessments
- Vision and strategy setting sessions
- Off-site facilitations
Architecture at a Fortune 50 financial services company, was interested in Cooper Management Consulting’s team-building services for a different reason.
As a technology leader who had quickly climbed the ranks within her company’s leadership, Alla had brought her team along with her. While their technical talent was fantastic, most of her team members had never received leadership training and were now required to cross-collaborate, manage direct reports, and be more visible in the organization.
Alla wanted her team to learn about leadership, specifically the difference between leadership and management and the characteristics that strong and effective leaders possess, so they could build solid relationships and display more influence and executive presence.
Alla had Cooper Management Consulting’s Founder, Rochelle Cooper
as her executive coach a few years back, an experience she’d found very impactful, while Iain was currently one of Rochelle’s coaching clients.
Both knew how transformative it would be to have Rochelle run team-building activities with their teams, so they brought her in to work with their teams.
Alla had Rochelle lead a two-day off-site facilitation to train her team on the fundamentals and characteristics of strong leadership, as well as guide them through reflection exercises and the creation of their own leadership plans.
Alla said she loved that Rochelle had each of her team members take Hogan Assessments and that she interviewed each of their key stakeholders.
“It made the team-building very specific to my team and allowed them to see our team’s profile and where everyone on the team fits into it. They got a better understanding of themselves and their strengths, as well as the team they’re operating within.”
The team-building Rochelle did with Iain’s team was longer, more in-depth, and included a few core components.
The first was helping Iain thoroughly understand what his team needed and wanted from him as their new leader, what his broader stakeholder group expected of him, and what he needed to shift to improve the engagement and effectiveness of his team.
To do this, Rochelle conducted interviews with Iain’s team, colleagues, senior leaders, and key stakeholders to get their feedback and insights,
as well as performing assessments that highlighted team members’ unconscious motivators, needs, and frustrations and illuminated how they were viewed by others in the company.
After all of this information was gathered, Rochelle facilitated workshops to share the feedback
and guide discussions that fostered understanding, clarified expectations, and spoke to the needs of all parties.
Iain said the facilitated workshops were extremely valuable.
“Hearing the feedback and responding to it was huge, and it was shocking to some of the team. They had been protected for so long by their previous leader that they didn’t even know that certain responsibilities were a part of their role, or that others in the organization didn’t know them or understand their value. It was eye-opening for them.”
There have been several results from Iain’s team-building activities, with perhaps the biggest ones being the increased clarity team members gained about their roles and the understanding that their input is welcomed.
Alla has seen strong results from her team-building activities, too.
Her team members are more self-aware because of the feedback surveys Rochelle conducted (which she continues to do even after the team-building services are over), and they are also showing stronger leadership qualities in the way they communicate and focus on relationships.
“I see a really big difference in the way my team operates,” Alla said. “They’re spending less time on technical details and more time in stakeholder conversations to understand our customers’ needs. They’re being less transactional, more focused on creating and sustaining relationships and partnerships and elevating the value that our team delivers to our customers.”
Alla said these shifts have not only allowed her more time for
“Most of the team has come to understand their responsibilities and are taking more ownership over them,” Iain said. “They’re also proposing their ideas and discussing them, which is much more than what I experienced when I first started. They have so much more to give and are much more proactive in sharing their value.”
With Rochelle’s facilitation and guidance, there’s also been increased clarity over Iain’s role as the leader, which helps to empower the team even further.
“My leadership style is to coach more than manage,” Iain said. “My expectation is that my team has the skills and the background to do most things on their own and my main role is to advise them about certain situations, remove roadblocks, and support them as leaders.
“My team has come to understand that, and they have grown as a result of this shift.”
bigger-picture work like strategic planning and developing a deeper bench, they’ve also made it easier for her to show the value of her team to others in the company.
“Because Rochelle continues to collect feedback about my team’s progress, it serves as a tangible way to show and elevate the value of my organization overall, not just to stakeholders and partners but to my own leadership.”
Perhaps the greatest result of all is the feedback Alla has received directly from her team members about the team-building activities and what it’s allowed them to cultivate and accomplish together.
“Members of my team have told me that working with Cooper Management Consulting was the most impactful coaching experience they’ve had in their careers,” Alla said. “They learned things about themselves they’d never thought of before, and she created a space for them to be vulnerable and talk about difficult topics or situations, which some of them had never done.
“These conversations brought the team closer and developed trust. Now my team goes to each other for coaching and to gain different viewpoints. They’re supporting each other, which in my opinion, is the definition of a well-functioning team.”
To learn how Cooper Management Consulting’s team-building services can transform your team, visit coopermanagementconsulting.com