700 employees across the country…
Novartis had the courage to face the fact that they needed help with engagement and leadership.
Transforming the leadership culture in a large organisation can be difficult but they needed to make a change for growth. Novartis decided to invest in their leaders and enable them to undertake the Mindful Leader program. They have achieved remarkable results, far exceeding their expectations.
700 employees across the country…
Novartis had the courage to face the fact that they needed help with engagement and leadership.
Transforming the leadership culture in a large organisation can be difficult but they needed to make a change for growth. Novartis decided to invest in their leaders and enable them to undertake the Mindful Leader program. They have achieved remarkable results, far exceeding their expectations.
Their Challenge
Before the Mindful Leader program was undertaken by staff, the turnover for Novartis’ Australian division was well above average, running as high as 22%. The costs to the company were considerable, with the HR department rating the cost of each person who left at twice the value of their annual salary. This figure, although alarming in itself, did not fully take into account the inevitable impact on the morale, team continuity and productivity of departments and divisions that were losing important members. Clearly, action needed to be taken. As Novartis CEO put it: “We are bleeding.” Adding to the urgent need to change was a global directive from the worldwide
At the time, Novartis’ international management team ran a global survey of its employees where results showed that there were multiple issues around engagement at senior leadership and management levels. This gave some insights into where the challenges were and what might be done to overcome them. A new HR Director was also appointed with a specific mandate to change the company culture.
- Retain top talent
- Improve senior leadership capability
- Build people-management capability
- Reduce the complexity of the decision-making processes
- Improve the IT platform and data access
- Retain top talent
- Improve senior leadership capability
- Build people-management capability
- Reduce the complexity of the decision-making processes
- Improve the IT platform and data access
The Solution
The implementation of The Mindful Leader®, the most highly researched and innovative leadership development program in the world.
After many years of exhaustive research, studying real-world situations, what is crystal clear is that leadership is not as much about who you are – it is about what you do (or fail to do). Effective leaders inspire their teams to do the things they would not otherwise do on their own. In order to create the desire for team members to do the extraordinary, five behaviours have been conclusively shown to be the keys to leadership:
The Solution
The implementation of The Mindful Leader®, the most highly researched and innovative leadership development program in the world.
After many years of exhaustive research, studying real-world situations, what is crystal clear is that leadership is not as much about who you are – it is about what you do (or fail to do). Effective leaders inspire their teams to do the things they would not otherwise do on their own. In order to create the desire for team members to do the extraordinary, five behaviours have been conclusively shown to be the keys to leadership:
A Shared Vision
Model The Way
Inspire
Enable Others To Act
Encourage The Heart
Challenge The Process
A Shared Vision
Enable Others To Act
Model The Way
Inspire
Encourage The Heart
Challenge The Process
Novartis’ top talents started undertaking the Mindful Leader program, as this was the cohort who were most important for Novartis to retain. They were also the group most likely to leave if something was not done. Given that the root cause analysis revealed career acceleration and development were key drivers for these individuals, the retention strategy adopted was, therefore, a high quality, long-term leadership and personal development program.
Something standard or off the shelf would not be enough to fully engage these high achievers: a transformational program was needed, something that would engage, inspire, fully challenge and enable practical application for the top talent in the organisation. The Mindful Leader program was undertaken by the team. Because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the top talent group, Novartis Executive Team made the decision to undertake the program too. Seeing the progress of the top talent group, the CEO and HR Director had quickly come to realise that in order to support their highest achievers they needed to understand the training and to become mentors to the top talents, speaking to them in the new language that they were now learning.
They also faced the painful fact that the undesirable behaviours in the company were a direct result of their own leadership. They understood that organisational transformation must be underpinned by personal transformation at the most Senior Leadership level.
This was the turning point for Novartis. It’s only when the leaders of the company fully committed, that the program truly became embedded in the organisation and was able to support significantly positive behavioural changes. Subsequently, more leadership development programs were undertaken within the company to train other teams.
The Internal Stakeholder Support
The commitment of the Executive Team and, in particular, of the HR Director was outstanding. Progress had to be measured and tested frequently, but in a way that was unobtrusive. As the HR Director put it, “These are lead indicators, not lag indicators. You need the results for HR to prove you are making a difference and create accountability.”
In effect, 360 degree assessments were utilised to support the program. When any resistance to the necessary changes being taught came up, the HR Director was able to maintain momentum: “We had tons of reports, monitoring, feedback and results. We are in business – we want results!”, she said.
Any truly transformational leadership program is challenging. It is designed to help leaders change their long held habits and beliefs. It is not a tick the box exercise, and it is not about tools and techniques: it is about personal growth, mindset changes and habit changes.
The HR Director had to repeatedly check in with the executive team for their buy in through the process. There were several pivotal moments where it was literally put to a team vote to continue or to stop the program. This strategy proved very powerful as it ensured the program and process were given a constant buy in and buy out option. Ultimately, this helped the Executive Team to engage with the program more and it also supported WorkSmart with real time feedback for improvement.
The Achievements
Companies are made up of the people in them. In the War Room in the Ford Motor Company’s HQ is a sign that says: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ As Michael Bunting puts it: “we have a way to teach very deep and meaningful material in the logical language of an engineer and still not lose the human element. The process stands up to the greatest cynic because it is logical. This is key to buy in for transformational work”.
To change the company culture, changing some procedures or practices has little impact. The people have to change. The Mindful Leader is in the most innovative program for personal transformation. Personal transformation towards a growth mindset is how companies change their culture, their leadership style and achieve their new, more ambitious goals and greater levels of success.
Companies are made up of the people in them. In the War Room in the Ford Motor Company’s HQ is a sign that says: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ As Michael Bunting puts it: “we have a way to teach very deep and meaningful material in the logical language of an engineer and still not lose the human element. The process stands up to the greatest cynic because it is logical. This is key to buy in for transformational work”.
To change the company culture, changing some procedures or practices has little impact. The people have to change. The Mindful Leader is in the most innovative program for personal transformation. Personal transformation towards a growth mindset is how companies change their culture, their leadership style and achieve their new, more ambitious goals and greater levels of success.
TESTIMONIALS
What our clients say ?
Misty Shatto / Sr. Director, Culture & Org Development
Stephen Miles / Commercial & Business Performance Manager
David Hugo / Group Financial Controller
Mike Swadzba / Director of Operations
Isabel Webster / Delivery & Adoption Lead
Salena Fereday / Global Head of People
Steven Baert / Global Head of People
Richard Todd / Senior Director HR
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