This start-up automotive design and manufacturing client faced familiar challenges for a quickly expanding company. They were transitioning from concept and early-stage growth to rapid scale-up and commercial level sales and manufacturing. They urgently needed to staff up at all levels and show sustained progress on sales, design, and production processes. Internal policies and processes also needed to keep pace with the key market pressures of sales, design, and manufacturing.
A highly capable Board of Directors was recruited, and many senior management positions were filled with executives from large automobile manufacturers. The leadership team comprised a mixture of start-up founders, executives from the company’s very early days, and the highly experienced automotive company recruits. This composition led to challenges for senior executives. Some had difficulty adjusting to working in a start-up environment. Others expressed reluctance to actively contribute due to feelings of inadequacy. Founders found it difficult to step back as the company corporatised.
In addition, all leadership team members felt pressure from investors to make rapid progress to market. Heavy workload and aggressive deadlines added to the stress. The seasoned automotive executives were struggling with the shift from large, established companies with ingrained processes to a more agile and less structured environment. The client enlisted our help for intensive individual coaching for the entire team. The engagement lasted for more than a year.
Psychological methods helped reorient mindsets and allow executives to break free from limitations. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy methodology identified thought processes and motivations behind rigidity or impatience, and helped executives change those thought processes to change their behaviours. Other approaches helped executives recognise—and change—ingrained responses to such stimuli as disagreement or confrontation. Over the course of the coaching programme, many of the executives made strides toward reducing stress and frustration and becoming more open to new ways of working.