John was the Division President for an international company. An engineer by trade with military background, John was sometimes difficult to communicate with. He was very hard charging, and was often perceived as brash and bullying. His boss discussed these issues with him and indicated clearly that John's career would never move higher until he developed in this area. John's HR Director called Denise Altman in to work with him.
She gathered information from John and his direct reports to determine the behaviors that they found most bothersome--the behaviors that were hindering their careers. The direct reports didn't express much hope that anything would change, but they cooperated nonetheless. After identifying specific behaviors that were being interpreted negatively, Denise worked with John to understand how he was perceived, and what he could do to better manage his behavior and those perceptions. John's bottom line was results. He learned skills that would help him get better results from his team.
For the next several quarters, Denise polled the direct reports again to gauge John's behavior. His scores increased from an average of 4 to an average of 7 on a 1-10 scale. His direct reports were amazed. John was pleased that he was able to get results with less stress on everyone.
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