The president of the company was concerned that a senior person he had brought from another firm was not assimilating well into her new environment and new culture. He wanted to offer her support through this transition.

Hiring from the outside meant that people who had been with the firm for many years were passed over for the job. In addition, another senior designer had worked with the new hire at a different firm and was adamant that she was not the right person for this position. The animosity between the two was rubbing off on other team members and making everyone tense.

It was clear that the employees were all very intelligent people who cared a great deal about one another’s and the firm’s success. Although the intent was good, the lack of communication skills between key people was making it difficult for the senior designer to be fully accepted in her new role.

It was challenging to get the people surrounding the new hire to see their role in the negative interactions, and some needed to receive their own counseling on getting along. As an example, the president had listened to each person’s complaints separately but had missed that by trying to fix things he had become more of a wedge than a connector.

We met with five of the employees and the new senior designer in order to design a personalized coaching program. We helped the new hire realize how her actions were contributing to the negative interactions and how her pre-conceived ideas as to how things should be done were getting in the way of her being accepted as a leader in the new firm. We focused on her listening skills as a way for her to better understand what people needed from her in order to ensure everyone succeeded.

She not only became happier in her role but more effective. Her interactions with her leadership team, peers, and team members improved, and progress was made with the one individual that was so opposed to her. The bottomline is they were building a better foundation together – and had become more effective communicators.