Executive Coaching for Women Leaders in a Large National Bank

The Client:

A regional bank that was expanding and needed to accelerate the development of senior women leaders

The Issue:

Bank leader’s faced the challenge of increasing the pipeline of next level leaders, particularly women, who would be ready within a 1-2 year timeframe for increased responsibilities, broader span of control, and higher impact decision making ability.

A Closer Look:

One of the bank’s priorities is creating a culture of diversity and ensuring that there is representation at all levels within the bank with diverse leadership. While a stated goal, getting the first line and second line managers ready for the next level of responsibility was increasingly a challenge. Several bank executives determined that there were a number of women, with the appropriate development, could advance more rapidly into senior leadership positions. However, the bank did not have internal development programs to address their needs so they sought executive leadership development from external sources, such as HCA.

A Solution:

Through understanding the bank’s goals and challenges, HCA offered one on one executive coaching to a number of high-performance women leaders to help prepare them for next level leadership roles. Each woman leader, who was highly successful in her line of business, worked one on one with a coach over a 12-18 month period to prepare for their future role. Each individual received leadership skills assessments, 360 feedback, and a development plan specific to their strengths and areas of development.

The Bottom Line:

The women leaders used the coaching to help them build their executive communications and relationship building skills, their credibility in decision making, leading change and leading others, as well as other professional traits such as confidence, clarity of purpose and political savvy. Each woman was promoted and continues to thrive as an executive leader in their respective organization.