Global pharmaceutical company
From one sales meeting to a two-year program
A national sales team knew its products and data inside out, but wasn’t connecting with clients the way it needed to. People had been trained for years to deliver information, and some performance reviews still graded the data they shared, not the connection they made.
I rebuilt the week-long national sales meeting around one idea, connection over content. Then I coached 14 sales leaders, one-on-one and in groups, and trained the 180-person sales force. Leaders practiced it in their own meetings first, then coached their managers to do the same.
Connection over content became how the team ran meetings, led people and approached clients. The same work then spread to the medical division. Two years on, they still use the language, and nobody is enforcing it.
Global pharmaceutical company, medical
Making medical expertise count, with doctors and across the business
Two medical teams had deep expertise, but different challenges. One struggled to connect with doctors. The other worked relentlessly, yet colleagues and senior leaders didn’t fully understand the value it provided.
I coached the first team to start with what doctors needed from the exchange. Doctors began requesting more meetings and staying longer at sessions to explore the material in greater depth.
With the second team, we shifted the focus from explaining their workload to articulating what their work made possible. Commercial colleagues began to understand their contribution, and collaboration increased. Senior leaders had a clear account of the team’s value they could use in high-level discussions and when their contribution was questioned. The team also changed how it worked, directing effort towards greater impact rather than longer hours.
International non-profit
Keeping experience in the organization as leadership changed
Across departments, experienced leaders held knowledge and judgment that weren’t reaching people stepping into leadership. Valuable experience was being lost in the handover, with too few opportunities for people to learn from each other.
I designed a four-day retreat that brought both groups together to share experience, develop leadership content and practice ways of learning from one another. Six months of follow-up coaching helped them put that work into everyday practice.
The program helped close the knowledge gap and established a culture of mentoring, supported by structured activities people could continue themselves. Years later, the organization still holds an annual retreat dedicated to that exchange.
Global event production company
Turning an event people dreaded into one they wanted to work
An intense five-day event had earned a reputation for burning through staff. Many worked it once and didn’t want to return. New leaders arrived unprepared for the pressure, stress spilled into working relationships, and their boss became the person everyone relied on for decisions.
I ran a session with the leaders before the event, then coached them on site throughout all five days. We worked through real decisions, handoffs and moments of pressure as they happened. Leaders began supporting each other, briefing vendors more clearly and raising problems early enough to solve them.
The change went beyond delivering a successful event. What had been an assignment people avoided became one of their favorites: demanding, but rewarding. People could focus on making the event work together, and took that experience into the next production.