Forming a new leadership team at Ericsson

The Brief

In 2020 Ericsson appointed a new VP for External Relations. One of their objectives was to provide new leadership impetus to their team of direct reports – all senior leaders. The team is dispersed across 3 countries and was yet to all meet in-person. The new VP had used the first months in post to recruit for two new positions in the redefined team structure.

Having used Insights Discovery practitioners before, Ericsson’s new VP was very enthusiastic about the approach and its benefits. They were keen to include this in the formation of their new team. They asked us to bring our expertise, insight and experience to design and deliver a project that would integrate with their leadership activities as their new team came together.

The requirement was to deliver a workshop that would:

• Enable each team member to have a clear understanding of how their colleagues ‘tick’.
• Gain a first look at how the team will function.
• Grow an appreciation of everyone’s differences.

This was our first project with Ericsson – having been chosen for our excellent reputation in delivering Insights Discovery profiling and feedback.

The programme

Having scheduled a two-day Team Formation Workshop, the new VP introduced the idea of including Insights Discovery to their team members. All were open to the approach. A couple of them had received an Insights report earlier in their careers; others had experience of personality profiles using other tools.

In advance of the workshop, each team member was asked to complete the Insights Discovery Evaluator, a 25 part questionnaire, in order to generate their Personal Profile Report.

Our consultant, Rob McWilliam, then held a Bring It To Life one to one session with each of them. We held these sessions online using MS Teams. They aim to explain the information presented in the reports and to explore and discuss its accuracy and application.  Rob is skilled at interpreting individual reports. He works with participants to identify how they can play to their strengths and manage their areas for development.

Having completed the individual sessions we held a workshop planning meeting with the new VP. While maintaining the confidentiality of the individual conversations, we collaborated to design a set of activities and discussion topics for the Team Formation Workshop.

A ‘Team Wheel’ was prepared which gave a visual indication of the mix of personalities and their Insights ‘Colour Energies’. Using our expertise in interpreting the data and by applying our Team Development model, we recommended some key areas for developing the team’s effectiveness and identified potential risks to the team’s performance.

Rob facilitated the ‘Forming Your Leadership Team’ Insights Discovery session online as part of the Team Formation Workshop.

The Impact

The ‘validation’ of the workshop was very positive. Our structure of carrying out the individual profiling and feedback, followed by the consolidating effect of the team event, hit the desired objectives. There was collective recognition of the usefulness of having the common language of Insights Colour Energies to describe preferences and behaviours. Everyone verified the accuracy and ease of use of their Insights Profile Reports.

One of the new recruits who attended was yet to join the organisation. They found the workshop really useful for getting to know their new colleagues.

There was a high degree of trust and openness. Some were surprised by the preferences revealed by their colleagues and this prompted deeper conversations.

During the workshop we included a light-hearted activity in which asked the team to plan a celebration collaboratively. The aim was to give them a reference point for how they would want to work together as a team in the future.

The activity led to discussions about individual styles, how to engage with each other, who took notes, whether there was a need to formally keep time and how the result was achieved. It revealed the need for a balanced mix of Colour Energies for optimal team performance. The participants pledged to play to their strengths and preferences while making the effort to use energies that didn’t come to them so readily.

Build your teams with Insights Discovery

All our work is carefully tailored to the needs of each organisation. Call us for a chat to find out how Insights Discovery, and other people development techniques, could benefit your teams.