Business leaders shaping the best Transpersonal Leaders for the future

Creating advanced leadership development to drive an ambitious growth strategy.

The Challenge

To identify and create the leadership in EMEA for Disney Interactive Studios(DIS), which could meet the very ambitious growth plans set by Disney Corporate USA.

Client Profile

DIS is the video games division of the Walt Disney Company. The International Division has grown dramatically, expanding into Eastern Europe, South America, South Africa, Middle East with a number of the more mature markets moving to vertical distribution.

Background

This global computer games division (excluding USA/Canada) was set up approximately 3 years ago. Prior to this Disney had licensed others to produce games from their intellectual property.The company had enjoyed a hugely successful launch period, attracting talent from EA and other top games companies, together with a superb ‘slate’ of high profile titles based upon Disney film releases.

Existing key staff were shifting their focus from establishing the business to seeking personal advancement and it had been identified that this was in part due to the fact that DIS was no longer seen as a ‘new’ business and therefore a change of focus was needed to retain and attract top quality talent.

The US parent had laid out a very ambitious 5 year plan which necessitated a review of strategic direction and significant development of the leadership team to implement successfully.

Desired Outcomes/Goals

• Introduce and develop Emotional Intelligence based leadership in the International Leadership Team.
• Identify the default and most desired leadership styles of team members to enable implementation of the growth strategy.
• Raise team and individual awareness of each team member’s strengths and development areas.
• Create group and individual development plans to address identified needs.
• Intervention.
• The first facilitated workshop matched the Corporate financial goals with the structure and strategy needed for successful achievement.
• Part of this two-day intervention introduced the International Leadership team to the Goleman & Boyatzis concepts of emotional intelligence and its correlation with effective leadership.
• We undertook a LEIPA 360º review with ten members of the International leadership team with individual two-hour debrief coaching sessions to create individual development action plans.
• A follow-up workshop shared agreed elements of the output from the LEIPA; identified common learnings, and helped create an action plan to address joint and individual development needs. This workshop also had content to deepen the participants’ understanding of the impact of emotional intelligence and the best use of different leadership styles.
• The final workshop aligned the strategies and learning needs to deliver a 5-year plan, including how high-potential employees outside the leadership team would be developed. We revisited the Mission and Values to ensure all parts of the strategy were congruent.

Success Against Desired Outcomes

Feedback from participants was remarkable. They commented that this was: 'The most valuable intervention ever provided to them in developing their awareness of leadership strengths and needs and creating a practical, actionable outcome.'

The workshops put the concept of emotional intelligence into a working context and made it clear to participants how to adopt more emotionally intelligent leadership behaviours and the benefits.

See Testimonials from our satisfied senior clients here