Making Coaching the Fabric of Your Culture: Boehringer Ingelheim Success Story

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 142 affiliates in 50 countries and more than 41,500 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, it has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing, and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.

In 2009, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of 12.7 billion euro while investing more than 21 percent of net sales in its largest business segment— research and development for prescription medicines.

Boehringer Ingelheim US Corporation, based in Ridgefield, Connecticut, is the US headquarters to seven US subsidiaries, including Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane, Inc. (BIRI) and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BIPI).

The objectives and beliefs of Boehringer Ingelheim can be summed up in a single phrase: Value through Innovation. In a competitive and fast-changing world, the value of products, services, and companies is constantly changing. Real customer value is created by constantly developing new solutions and improving processes.

Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane’s Challenge

In keeping with their strategy of continuous improvement, BIRI used data from a 2008 US-wide employee survey to assess areas of strength and opportunity among their employees. Suzanne Frawley, Manager of Learning and Development at the Columbus, Ohio division, said that some of the results indicated a need for improved coaching skills among some members of the management team.

Specific challenges included the following:

• 55% of employees said their immediate manager inspired their best work.
• 44% of employees said their immediate manager coached in career development.
• 39% of employees said they had opportunities for career development other than promotions.
• 68% of employees gave their immediate manager a favorable rating on listening to their ideas and opinions.
• 71% of employees said their job made good use of their skills and abilities.

Understanding the importance of coaching skills in employee satisfaction and retention, BIRI sought to develop a culture in which managers increased their coaching skills and more effectively managed employee performance.

According to Suzanne, “BIRI has a very strong focus on developing and growing our talent, which certainly includes members of our management team. Every manager of people is tasked with managing performance and growing talent.”

InsideOut Coaching Integrated Into “Leading at Boehringer Ingelheim”

A project team was chartered to research various coaching methods and develop a management coaching program that could be used across Boehringer Ingelheim’s US organizations to provide a consistent skill platform. InsideOut Coaching™ became one of three mandatory training components for what is known as “Leading at Boehringer Ingelheim.”

The InsideOut Coaching approach provides an invaluable tool for managers to improve their own effectiveness as a leader while helping their team members to individually grow and develop. InsideOut Coaching is based on the mindset that breakthrough performance comes more from removing internal interference than from teaching additional knowledge or telling people what to do.

With that mindset, managers coach employees using the G.R.O.W.™ (GROW) model, which is a simple, repeatable process geared to drive focused thinking and effective conversations, reducing interference, and inspiring action.

The GROW model is defined as:

G: The goal the employee wants to achieve.

R: The realities the employee should consider.

O: The options available to meet the goal.

W: The way forward or the plan for achieving the goal.

InsideOut Development Case Study As the InsideOut Coaching approach is rolled out across the organization, the seeds of manager-led coaching have begun to take root and grow. Below are two examples from locations across the US that illustrate the power behind managers becoming daily coaches.

GROW for Long-Term Results

Jackie Bourdet is the District Manager for the California Central District. She is responsible for a team of high-functioning sales representatives, whom she meets with often. Her team is comprised of committed, passionate people. “I am with my salespeople all of the time on various sales calls,” Jackie said. “So finding time for coaching conversations is not an issue for me.”

During one trip, a team member expressed her frustration about not being able to move up in Boehringer Ingelheim’s sales hierarchy. All of Jackie’s team members were hitting their numbers and were highly skilled salespeople. However, they were not exceeding goals enough for advancement.

Before her InsideOut Coaching training, Jackie said her approach to this type of conversation would have been to ask what they had already tried, and then provide some examples of what other people had done to solve the same problem or perhaps point them to some outside resources. This “outside-in” method is typical of many managers who feel expectations from both direct reports and organizational leaders to provide solutions to problems.

Using her InsideOut Coaching skills, instead of assuming the role of problem solver, Jackie was a true coach. She expertly guided her sales rep through the “inside-out” GROW model questions that allowed the team member to solve her own problem.

The sales rep’s goal was to move to the next level of sales representative. The Reality was as much a revelation to Jackie as it was for the team member. Through their discussion, they both came to realize that while individual team members were extremely effective, the team as a whole was not functioning synergistically. They were competing against each other and working in silos instead of cooperating and supporting each other.

Jackie and her team member then brainstormed different options that could solve the issue in a perfect world. The team member was able to step outside of her own paradigm and see things from other points of view. In addition, Jackie identified some options for herself as the leader of the team to encourage better synergy.

The team member selected a way forward that she felt committed to and passionate about—one that involved more active participation in team meetings to encourage cooperation and enhance the functioning of the team. Jackie’s way forward included working one-on-one with her sales reps to have additional coaching conversations in which she could address the issue of unity and cooperation. She also assigned each team member a specific behavior to work on that encouraged team support and unity.

Though Jackie has just begun using the InsideOut Coaching method with her team, she is already seeing the fruits of the GROW Model in the tone of team communication and in the action items they are generating for themselves. Jackie believes that with time GROW will help her team work harder and better as a unit.

“Pharmaceuticals is a highly-regulated environment,” Jackie said. “This is the first time I have seen a model in our culture that truly empowers our people by letting them come to their own conclusions. Using the GROW model, they can generate solutions. In the end, that is what any manager wants from their team—to think through the process on their own and make the right decisions to solve problems.”

GROW for Sustained Performance

In the spring of 2010, Suzanne Frawley of BIRI added a temporary employee to her team. Unfortunately, tensions quickly developed between the temporary employee and a long-time coordinator. The coordinator avoided the temporary employee, belittled her, seldom gave clear work instructions, and spoke negatively about her to other work team members. Suzanne had recently attended InsideOut Coaching and decided to use the techniques she had learned in that training to address the issue.

Suzanne used “Coaching for Engagement” materials when preparing for and conducting this potentially difficult conversation. She realized she owned the goal and was not observing the same commitment to teamwork and collaboration from the coordinator on her team. Using “Coaching for Engagement” allowed Suzanne to overcome the emotions of the situation. Once she had gained the support of the coordinator on the goal, she used the GROW Model.

With GROW, the coordinator articulated several options she would like to pursue. Using a mediator, the temporary employee and the coordinator came together to discuss their lack of collaboration. After deep conversation and heart-felt emotion, the coordinator uncovered the root of the issue— she was afraid that the temp had been hired to eventually replace her.

Once the reality of the situation was accurately identified, they agreed on a goal, discussed the reality, and focused on options and the way forward.

The GROW Model had a significant impact on the working relationship between the temporary employee and the coordinator. Several months later, they were asked to work together on a presentation.

“Since we had a few issues working together in the past, I worried (and told myself the wrong story) about working with her to make changes to the [presentation],” said the temporary employee. “I thought old feelings and issues would arise, and I was not looking forward to sharing my ideas with her. I am ecstatic to say that from the initial discussion through to completion we worked together to streamline the presentation, change the structure from the standpoint of when and who would present which parts, and even worked through the logistics of making the transition from one to the other easier. I can’t tell you how awesome that was—to be wrong. We worked together comfortably— like a team.”

InsideOut Coaching Proves Efficacious

Two years after the initial employee survey, BIRI used data from the 2010 employee survey to see if the focus on improving coaching skills among their management team members was having a positive impact on the coaching culture.

Suzanne said, “The numbers from the recent engagement survey are very encouraging. We have improved tremendously in areas related to coaching.”

As Boehringer Ingelheim managers and leaders model the InsideOut Coaching method, they instill coaching into the fabric of their culture. The GROW Model gives them the coaching skills that enable performers to quickly and effectively set and achieve personal, team, and organizational goals.

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