Peter May
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My Offerings.
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Leadership Conversations
“An executive team member simply needed a person to speak with about what was uppermost in their mind. Sometimes it was about working with others, sometimes it was about solving a complex organizational problem, and sometimes it was about providing space to share an area of concern. These conversations enabled the leader to think more clearly and act more decisively.”
Leading better begins with a conversation that is open, honest and creative. Sometimes a leadership conversation is all that is needed. It is a safe place for a leader to speak about what is most important to them, to reflect on their own experience, and draw on the experience of another to find a way forward. Sometimes, more is needed. This is where leadership coaching, team coaching, and formal learning can accelerate change and shift organizational dynamics for the better.
Leadership Coaching
“A senior medical doctor took on a new leadership role in a large hospital. We worked together to navigate the organizational complexities of the hospital and to successfully lead a team of highly qualified and experience professionals.”
We start with mutually agreed upon objectives between the organization’s sponsor and the individual. Sometimes the objectives are agreed with the individual only. The objectives include:
- a successful transition to a new role
- improving individual and team performance
- addressing issues that are hard to fix
Formal assessments, stakeholder interviews, and 360-degree feedback create a more nuanced understanding of a person’s strengths and the challenges that need to be addressed. Coaching is typically time-bound, however, both the timing and objectives can be adapted to meet the needs of the organization and the person.
Leading Teams
“A COO wanted to improve the team dynamics of the organization’s finance department. Working together, I undertook an assessment of the team, used a highly regarded model for team understanding and development, and ran a workshop to align the team around a common vision and mission. The team began a new journey with greater collaboration and productivity.”
Team coaching also begins with mutually agreed objectives with the organization’s sponsor or team leader. Team assessments and team models are helpful for increasing the understanding of interpersonal dynamics and for improving effectiveness. Teams do better if there’s a unifying purpose and if team roles are clear. Coaching, especially if done over time, helps teams move to a better place where individuals become more interdependent and where they are anchored by a shared vision and a common purpose.
Learning and Growth
Our work is about building individual, team and organizational leadership acuity and strength.
People Leadership: This is formal leadership development, with a difference. Programs that bring real change are delivered over time and are complimented by coaching. Each program has three to four smaller sessions delivered over a nine-month period, supported by one-on-one coaching. Leadership topics to explore include enterprise leadership, leading teams, creating psychological safety, cross-border collaboration, leading and influencing in a matrix.
Client Leadership: This focuses on developing profound relationships with clients. It increases profitable work and strengthens the client account. It involves agreeing targets for growth, a plan to get there, and the necessary skills needed to deliver. The skills of client empathy, listening and pitching are key for success, and are integral to the program.
Cultural Interventions
“An executive team was working well, but many on the team felt it could work much better. They felt stuck. The team recognized that there were opportunities to improve collaboration, to have more candid conversations and to increase the level of trust. I ran a series of workshops to address these opportunities. The end result was a set of unifying principles that enabled the team to work better together and perform at even higher levels.”
Culture matters, but it is intangible. It can make or break organizations. It is held in the hearts and minds of people. It shows up in everyday interactions, in conversations, in budgets. It is pervasive and needs managing. There are a number of interventions I run to transform culture and drive change:
Facilitating Direction and Alignment
It starts with a recognition that “things are not working” or “things are okay, but we can do better,” or “we are not really on one page when it comes to strategy, can you help us get there?” The work here involves bringing people together—the Board, Executive Team, Leadership Team—and, through a process of facilitation, people determine “what matters most” and agree a way forward.
Facilitating Connection and Growth
This work is about enabling people to talk again. It is needed when things are broken, or where trust has been eroded, or where past hurts need to be healed. Wounds are healed and people find a way forward. My work involves a series of workshops, meetings and focus groups where listening to one another in a structured and respectful way allows us all to learn and find ways to move forward.
Facilitating Strategic Change
Everyone wants to change, but making change is difficult. It requires all the usual ingredients—clear direction, stakeholder readiness, alignment of people, systems, processes—but it also requires courage. This is not a rigid view of courage but one that is adaptive to reality. Courage is necessary if people are serious about change. The strategic work I do focuses on:
- organizational culture
- learning and development
- diversity, inclusion, equity, and anti-racism
While there are many more elements that make an integrated people strategy, these elements are fundamental if change is to become a reality.
Equitable Succession
“The Global CEO of a large professional services firm thought that it was critical to nurture the next generation of diverse talent and to ensure continuity at the most senior levels in the firm. My work was to design and deliver a program that enabled the very best people to be identified and developed, to be ready to step into the most senior roles.”
Succession Management
Succession management is about nurturing the next generation of diverse talent and enabling them to succeed. My work here involves:
Determining future capabilities:
This is the blueprint on which the succession plan rests. The strategy entails scanning the horizon to determine organizational capabilities and individual competencies. This engages the Board, the Executive, the CHRO, Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer, and senior leaders. A talent map is produced that sets the course for future success.
Identifying “Next-Gen” talent:
Here we identify potential successors for key roles. This process is broad and takes into account a multiplicity of factors: incumbency, diversity, human resources, executive-team members and, of course, people who have expressed a desire to advance. This net is cast wide so as not to disadvantage minorities or to overlook less obvious choices.
Assess identified talent and develop a plan:
Once a pool of people have been identified, the next stage is to assess those identified persons against the talent profile (as per step 1). This assessment is focused on growth, learning, and career enhancement. It will involve 360-degree feedback, formal assessment, conversations with incumbents, and a development plan. At this point a “ready now/ready later” assessment can be made. Above all, this is a human process.
Executing the plan:
If equitable succession planning is to become a reality, it needs to move to an executed development plan for the individual, otherwise nothing changes. The plan can comprise many elements: formal learning and development — a course, a program, leadership coaching, exposure to different parts of the organization. New experiences that aim to broaden and deepen organizational understanding. This is not “one size fits all.” This is a tailored plan to meet the needs of the individual.
Review and evaluate:
This step is on everyone’s slide, but is rarely done. We must step back and ask: Have we achieved our goals? Is succession planning really working? Is it more equitable? Just as we seek to assess individuals against a talent profile, we assess the organizational capabilities against its strategic objectives. Is the profile of leadership changing and changing for the better? Is it reflecting the rich diversity of both organization and society?
