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Case Study

Succession Planning and Leadership Development for Future Executives

Hanover helped a Private Equity owned insurance company to plan succession and develop and engage future executive leaders.

We started by working with the Executive Committee to agree what was meant by ‘talent’ and ‘potential’, and to define what high performance leadership looks like in their business.

We created a set of scaled leadership behaviours based on their values, then assessed nominated individuals against them using in-depth behavioural interviews, personality profiling and a 360 degree emotional intelligence feedback survey.

We produced detailed individual feedback reports and coached participants whilst exploring insights and challenging their thinking.

We provided the Executive Leadership Team with data and insights into the group – collective strengths, development gaps and themes in the context of their business strategy. We worked with them to build a clear succession pipeline and leadership development plan.

We also worked with participants to provide follow-on coaching and run workshops for their teams.

The Executive Leadership Team now has a clear view of the talent pipeline and the performance and potential of leaders that report to them. They know where and how to invest in leadership development to get the best return. They’ve also integrated the leadership behaviours into their talent management processes.

Participants have deep insights into their strengths, development priorities, personality and potential. They are re-energised and focused on their development and have built personalised action plans that will benefit them and the business.

Progressing From Delivering to Leading

A business within an international bank recognised that a number of the existing Executive Committee would retire or move on soon.

They also saw a big gap between ExCo and the levels below; Associate Directors and Directors were too reactive and focused on delivery.

The CEO and Senior HRBP asked us to help them understand what leadership capabilities they would need to meet future challenges. These included operating model changes, cost pressures and evolving customer needs.

Working directly with the CEO of the business we:

  • Met with the SLT and their direct reports to understand and align their different perspectives on high-performance
  • Assessed and coached senior leaders in four countries (UK, France, Ireland, US)
  • Helped ExCo to understand trends using qualitative and quantitative insights
  • Informed the design of a 12 month targeted development programme delivered through multiple suppliers

Some of the participants have already been promoted on the back of insights from the process. Others are developing their leadership approach and delivering more through others by empowering and leading their teams.

Feedback was so positive that the bank decided to replicate the approach in another business.