Case Histories

Background

General Electric has long championed internal leadership development since the establishment of their corporate training campus in Crotonville, New York. That’s why approximately 90 percent of their top 600 leaders have come from internal promotions. Every year, hundreds of high-potentials and top executives spend time on the 59-acre campus, deepening their skills. And the GuruMaker team has been called on frequently to lead workshops there.

Problem

The company wanted to improve communication and presentation skills in selected high-potential IT managers. Generally speaking, IT managers score high in creative thinking for technology but lag behind in communications skills. And this can get in the way of their career advancement, depriving the larger company of their talents at a higher level.

Solution

The goal the client set was for these managers to be able to:

• Demonstrate executive presence and leadership in their presentations
• Respond with confidence to tough questions from key stakeholders
• Present their solutions with authority, credibility and conviction
• Engage their audience’s emotions and intellect

The success of each participant and team would be judged by their making a confident and convincing internal pitch to senior GE managers based on a previously developed business case.

GuruMaker created a customized curriculum with elements from our Presentation Skills for Executives and Executive Presence program modules. With 55 participants, we broke them into groups of nine that each worked with a GuruMaker coach. Each participant received an individual assessment based on their current skills and had specific goals based on their needs.

Participants also learned improv skills that helped them respond effectively to tough questions and resistance to collaboration. They learned presentation techniques that brought out their natural strengths and authenticity. And they learned how to build a strong case in presentation that used both intellectual support and emotional triggers.

Result

At the end of the program, the participants had to present a real business case they’d been working on in project teams over the course of several weeks to a team of top GE leaders. The program was partially designed to coach the participants to hone and polish their presentations and deliver them concisely and with confidence. According to the panels of GE senior management who served as judges, the participants consistently showed improvement in the way they presented their business case with clarity and conviction, which was attributed to our coaching.

According to Sara Ley, the Curriculum Manager at the GE Crotonville campus, “Harrison and the GuruMaker coaches continuously receive stellar feedback from participants. Harrison has designed the custom program to maximize the time learning and practicing techniques, while also reaching each individual with targeted feedback. Harrison is dedicated to delivering a high-quality program and genuinely supports every individual in their journey for improving their executive presence and presentation skills. It is a true pleasure to work with Harrison and the GuruMaker coaches.”

Background

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Center for Green Schools Fellowship Program transforms the environments in which children learn by placing full-time sustainability officers in school districts across the country. The Center selects, trains and supports their fellows to implement strategies to reduce resource use and emissions, improve school occupant health and teach students about global environmental issues.

Problem

The USGBC’s Green School Fellows were facing barriers and resistance from stakeholders throughout each school district when they would try to persuade them to adopt sustainability practices. They felt unable to move the dial in their one-on-one meetings and presentation with stakeholders across the spectrum.

Green School Fellows worked with people across departments in individual schools, including teaching staff, administration and building maintenance. And they worked with administrators in district offices as well. Each of these stakeholder groups presented different blocks to moving forward and their internal differences contributed to gridlock in creating sustainability solutions.

Solution

Gurumaker presented a one-day Power of Persuasion workshop to the Fellows. We helped them learn to analyze each stakeholder group, see the underlying issues and hidden motives behind the resistance they faced. We taught them how to express their goals in terms of benefits and value for each targeted audience. Participants learned how to better establish rapport and create emotional connections that helped build trust and a more collaborative attitude from various stakeholders. And we worked with them on strategies to diffuse resistance and neutralize the skepticism that was holding back progress. They learned to see the way organizational history conspired to hold back change and how to engage with patterns and behaviors in ways that could change the paradigm.

We worked with the Fellows as a group, with each Fellow receiving a laser-focused session of individual coaching that included role-play to help them gain practical experience using different techniques to overcome barriers.

Result

Green School Fellows reported feeling better equipped and more confident in persuading various stakeholder groups and reported having more success in getting buy-in and acceptance for their proposed initiatives.

Background

Baker Hughes is one of the world’s largest oilfield services companies, with over 53,000 employees in over 90 countries providing the oil and gas industry with products and services for drilling, formation evaluation, completion, production and reservoir consulting. As with many large international companies with a staff that is highly diverse and far-flung, communications can sometimes be a challenge.

Problem

As part of a wider corporate initiative to strengthen the abilities of their senior management, Baker Hughes wanted to teach and coach their business leaders to make solid business presentations to internal stakeholders on solutions to real problems and leveraging of existing opportunities.

To help with this communications training challenge, GuruMaker was invited by Duke University’s corporate education arm, Duke Corporate Education, to join them as part of a larger leadership development program conducted for Baker Hughes senior executives.

Solution

GuruMaker custom-designed an intensive group workshop that also included team-coaching sessions with five coaches working with teams of six Baker Hughes leaders each.

In the first-day workshop session, we worked with the teams on ways to effectively organize and structure ideas and arguments to create powerful and persuasive stories designed to create clarity and overcome objections. Participants learned and practiced techniques to deliver and present proposals concisely, with conviction and passion.

They received coaching in the pressure cooker situation of tough Q&A sessions so they could communicate with confidence and substance. They came away with techniques to overcome anxiety and distracting habits, and learned how to apply best practices to pitching business ventures.

Results

Participants had to present their business cases to Baker Hughes’ top leadership who reported that the executives did an excellent job in presenting well-constructed business cases and handled themselves well in high-pressure Q&A sessions following the presentations.

The success of the participants has led to further engagement of the GuruMaker team in providing workshops and coaching with Baker Hughes over the last several years.

Background

Denver Investments is an independent firm providing investment management services for individuals, institutions, financial advisors and intermediaries. With over 50 years of professional investment management experience, it is 100% employee-owned. As an employee-owned company, everyone is completely invested in improving their abilities to win business.

Problem

Management called us in to help their client- and prospect-facing professionals overcome distracting habits, nervousness and weak presentation skills, while increasing their ability to prepare for high-stakes pitch situations.

Solution

We customized a combination workshop/one-on-one coaching engagement with elements from our Power of Persuasion, Presentation Skills for Executives, Strategic Storytelling and Public Speaking programs. Staff came together for group workshop learning and practice, with individuals also receiving focused private skill-building sessions.

Participants learned to structure presentations and focus their message on the needs of their audiences. They practiced crafting stories that engage and build buy-in. They learned strategies to keep attention, deliver value and convincingly overcome objections and resistance. And they developed the self-awareness needed to break old habits that get in the way of authentic communication.

We worked closely with the team on one particular pitch, helping them prepare the presentation to win the management of a 300 million dollar retirement fund.

Results

The firm credited GuruMaker coaches with making the difference in winning the management of a 300 million dollar retirement fund. Denver Investments reports better results in winning business from individual investors and institutional investors as a result of participants’ improved messaging and presentation skills. Their success has led to our continued engagement with the firm, as we work with them year after year to deepen their skill sets.

Background

Ayers Saint Gross is a 100-year-old design firm with a staff of over 140 people that specializes in master plans and building designs for higher education institutions. ASG has provided architectural services to many leading universities, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Problem

Large-scale architectural projects are not always awarded on the merit of a sound proposal or innovative design. The oral presentation and final interview often can make or break the decision to select a firm. Because presentations are so highly weighted in the selection process, GuruMaker was brought in to help the firm’s principals and associates improve their pitching and oral presentation skills.

Solution

For close to a decade, GuruMaker has been helping ASG prepare for high-stakes interviews and presentations that demonstrate clear value and feature compelling storylines and visuals that supported their message. We consistently made sure that questions asked and issues flagged by the selection committees in the RFP were all addressed effectively.

GuruMaker worked with the team to ensure their strengths and relevant experience were brought to the fore so the client clearly understood their unique value to a given project. We also worked one-on-one with individual team members, helping them find opportunities to create authentic personal connections to the client since the winning firm’s stakeholders would be working closely with the client’s stakeholders.

Result

Ayers Saint Gross was awarded numerous multimillion dollar planning and design contracts after we helped the team prepare their final presentations. Firm principals credit GuruMaker for many successful project interviews and continue to utilize our services after nearly a decade-long professional relationship.

Adam Gross, one of the firm’s Senior Principals, has said that GuruMaker has “greatly enhanced our presentation skills office-wide, and in so doing have touched the lives of many people in our company, making them more confident, more articulate and better employees.”