Client

The Client is a major research and development laboratory operated by a leading east coast technological university in conjunction with a division of the US Department of Defense.

Challenge

The organization required identification and validation of the scope of competencies required for their managers and directors to ensure functional effectiveness and overall situational leadership success in a complex technical environment. The existing leadership development requirements and process would require assessment, evaluation, and where required, implementation of transformational measures to ensure best-in-class results for a wide-ranging and technical complex national defense portfolio.

Solution

AMS senior consultants conducted a formal evaluation (gap analysis) of current leadership development requirements-process against a robust set of best-in-class competencies and behavioral characteristics linked to demonstrated results for managerial and leadership successes in the same and similar environments.

Critical steps to the solution implementation included:

1. Interviews with key managers, directors, and laboratory leaders to elicit their thoughts on managerial and leadership requirements and challenges.
2. Assemble the assessment model based on interview results and senior consultant industry experience.
3. Client stakeholder review and validation of the assessment model for relevance in the subject environment and alignment with current organizational role delineations, functional practices and leadership challenges.
4. Development of participant (wider audience) web-based surveys, detailed interviews with participants at all organizational levels.
5. Review of best practice and process documentation, project and program documentation, and interviews with the laboratory’s key defense client.
6. Development of a detailed recommendations report detailing where leadership development mechanisms were successful and a wide-ranging list of recommendations for transformation in Technical and Project Management Best Practice, Roles and Responsibility Definition, Functional Manager Competencies, and inclusion of an overall Leadership Competency Model with definitive behavioral characteristics.

Benefits

The client systematically and consistently implemented key changes programs across the enterprise. Utilizing formal feedback systems, significant gains were observed in the following areas: reduced turnover; increased employee morale; increases in key performance metrics for critical projects and programs; and formal recognition by the laboratory’s key defense client stakeholders.