Change in global markets is pushing companies into profound transformations, affecting both organizational structure and people management. This impact is reflected in the leadership model, which is fundamental to corporate management. The creation or modification of this model is a process that defines corporate culture, a set of principles that characterize the organization at all levels. The culture, often only partially documented, is learned through daily experience. The leadership model translates the explicit and implicit elements of culture into observable behaviors, providing a common language. Changing the model involves deciding how to work and interact, adapting the organization to the changing needs of the context.
A world-renowned Italian design company, in transitioning from family management to an investment fund, revised management policies to adapt to sustainability principles. Perspective supported management in making old and new cultures explicit, helping to strike a new balance.
Focus of Need. The project began from a need of the company's top management (Leadership Team, LT), which, led by the CEO, had encountered a real cultural conflict between the "natives," people who had grown up professionally in the early family business, and the "newcomers," recently acquired professionals who had not experienced the "heroic" founding and growth phase. Both sides claimed their views as "correct" over the other, creating a division rather than attempting a merger. Together with the LT, Perspective proposed to facilitate the union of the two points of view by "bringing out" both the experience of the "old" company and the new proposals and skills of the "new" ones, comparing them and considering the possibility of "merging" them by enhancing what was positive in both and "burning" behaviors and practices that were no longer viable in the new reality.
Finding organizational cultural material. Perspective, after collecting all the documentary material related to values and policies, conducted a series of interviews and focus groups with several opinion leaders (LT members and people considered key to understanding organizational culture) with the aim of not only identifying the concept of "present" leadership but also trying to identify future lines of development(What is the current and desired leadership?). The collected material was analyzed and clustered by identifying some key words and content essential for modeling.
First modeling of observable behaviors. The report with key words and concepts was developed in a series of workshops in which the LT, supported by Perspective, chose the truly "foundational" concepts of corporate culture and tried to "translate" them into observable managerial behaviors. At the end of this phase, the LT produced the first draft of a leadership model that balanced respect for tradition with the new needs and sensitivities of an organization in transition to its future.
Model dissemination and implementation. Just in these weeks the LT's dissemination and implementation phase of the model has begun. In this phase, the applicability of the model will not only be tested but an analysis of training needs "in the field" can be conducted, allowing Perspective to further support this phase with ad hoc training courses for specific target populations. This phase will end with the identification of areas for improvement and modification of the model and the implementation of specific training for managers at all levels.
Final tweaks and improvements to finalize the final version of the model. Finalization of the model may take place with a series of workshops that will again see Leadership Team members, supported by Perspective, reflect on and modify managerial behaviors. This phase will also include specific work with HR to create a process for qualitative assessment of managerial behaviors based on the final version of the model.
A comprehensive leadership model validated by its use "in the field," ready to be a guide for managerial action at all levels.
A soft skill scorecard (built from the model) that will support managers not only in the day-to-day management of people but also in defining and implementing professional development plans for people.
A toolkit to support the development of the managerial skills needed to implement the model
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