Finance Leadership Program – Financial Research and Analytics Company

The Catalyst recently concluded a holistically designed learning program for senior finance leaders of a top analytics company going through a period of transformation.

Business Challenge

The Indian business has recently been taken over by a European company, the leadership team is new and based in London. With this takeover, the business is going through a period of change and accelerated growth. The finance team has seen an expansion in terms of employee strength in the recent past and has to build readiness to embrace the growth and transformation expected in the next few years. This team consists of some new hires and a majority of old-timers.

Further, there is a need for the finance team to be more strategic in its thinking, adopt a big-picture approach and influence stakeholders impactfully so as to align others with the finance transformation vision.

Diagnostic conducted

A deep dive diagnostic was conducted which informed the design of the entire program significantly. The diagnostic study consisted of multiple interventions

1. Detailed calls with stakeholders including the CFO, finance directors, HR leaders and participants to understand the business context and also behaviours that need to be strengthened and those needing modification
2. Personality assessment using the Lumina Spark tool was done to map participants on the 8 aspects of Lumina, uncover their preferences and working styles
3. A detailed team profile was built which helped uncover team strengths, gaps and opportunities for growth in the upcoming business context
4. Lumina 360 tool was administered with participants and their leaders to uncover manifested behaviours, perceived strengths and gaps with critical stakeholders

Learning approach

Based on the detailed diagnostic, a 5 month long journey program was curated which consisted of face-to-face learning sessions, one-on-one coaching sessions, as well as peer learning sessions.

Specific skills were built on the following through interactive and immersive classroom sessions

1. Strategic thinking
2. Building change readiness
3. Influencing stakeholders
4. Effective dialoguing in complex situations

This was further supported with one-on-one coaching interventions which helped build awareness of self, understand stress triggers and behaviour under stress and also manage stakeholder perceptions. Self-awareness and feedback received from stakeholders were consolidated to create a personal growth plan for each participant. The coaching sessions helped participants initiate conversations with stakeholders and conduct them effectively.

Impact

Each participant created a Personal Development Plan (PDP) which was relevant in the business context and based on insights from their personality assessment and 360 feedback. This was supported with skill building sessions which gave them the confidence to implement their action plans. Peer learning sessions were done for them to share their experience and learn from one another. These peer learning sessions were attended by leaders who gave their insights and provided the canvas for participants to build on their actions.

Overall the program was very well received and built confidence and skill for the team to embrace the new paradigm.

Some verbatims are as under –

“Our senior leaders engaged in comprehensive and intensive discussion around Assertiveness for fostering collaboration, resolving conflicts and building resilient teams. Thanks to Priti Agarwal, The Catalyst Training for her expertise, engaging approach and dedication in making the program successful.”

“A big thank you to Priti Agarwal, TKM team, Avadhesh Dixit and Acuity Management for organising this program. It was an engaging and insightful session very relevant in the current context of Acuity’s transformational / growth journey. Looking forward to implement these learnings in practice.”