Over five years, three of our team partnered with Gucci Group to create a cultural shift among the organisation’s top 200 leaders. The approach blended 360° feedback, individual coaching and highly experiential leadership programmes.
The shift the client was seeking
The Group’s Global CEO and HR Director wanted to enhance the calibre of the most senior 200 leaders from across its nine brands, globally, while creating a greater sense of shared purpose. At the time, those brands included Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Bedat & Co, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron, Gucci, Sergio Rossi, Stella McCartney and Yves Saint Laurent.
Our stakeholders wanted to confront all participants – including the brand CEOs – with the possibility that ‘What got you here might not get you where you want to be’, to paraphrase Marshall Goldsmith. We needed to help people face that authentically and with true courage.
How we approached the challenge
We first met the client when Richard was asked to work with the Global Head of HR to create a unifying competency framework that captured the common DNA of the nine brands – inspired in part by Leonardo Da Vinci’s habits for high performance. He then crafted a bespoke 360° feedback tool for the brand CEOs and their teams.
Off the back of that work, the client asked him to lead a team of coaches – some in his own team, some independent – to deliver one-to-one 360° feedback and coaching to the leadership teams of all nine brands, across the US, Europe and Asia. Richard then distilled the themes into an anonymised summary, benchmarking the Group’s senior leadership against other organisations’.
The success of that work led to further collaboration with the client and other suppliers to design and facilitate two 3-day leadership programmes for the Group’s global top 200, who attended both in groups of 30-50, in Milan, Madrid and London. These challenging programmes blended psychometrics (MBTI and FIRO-B) with coaching and input on topics as diverse as stress, personal impact, and choosing the most suitable leadership style for specific points in the business cycle. The bonds that formed were incredibly powerful, for participants and facilitators alike – some of those other suppliers even joined the team LeaderSpace.
The client also invited Richard to run sessions on innovation at the Group’s biennial leadership conference in Miami, alongside guest speakers such as former US President Bill Clinton. It was a great piece of work – and one hell of a party!
The impact we had
100% of participants in the 360° feedback programme said they would recommend it to colleagues, and other events were typically rated ‘exceptional’.
The work delivered greater cross-brand co-operation, career movement and promotions than ever before – and the Group’s growing reputation for leadership development prompted its French owners PPR to bring it closer into the fold.
It also speaks to the quality of our work and relationship that Richard is still in touch with the Group HRD, who retired at the end of this work. She wrote an endorsement for the cover of his book, ARC Leadership, and they still see each other from time to time, despite living on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
“Richard has an incredible ability to listen and understand how you are trying to impact your business... methodical in his thinking. He has an ability to think creatively… and an enthusiasm that is delightful to work with. I thoroughly enjoy working with him and would highly recommend him.”
