Review the case study : Senior Management Coaching at Vodaphone

Answer the following questions:

What stands out for you in this case study?

What changes did the employees, leaders, and the organization go through?

Why were these changes needed?

Vodaphone is a multibillion$-$dollar global communications technology company headquartered in the United Kingdom and was an early leader in the mobile telephone market $($Eaton & Brown, $2002).$ Faced with increasing competition, the company realized that in order to remain innovative and a leader in a challenging market, the culture of the organization would need to adapt accordingly. Specifically, senior management realized that its current $$command and control$$ culture of blame and political games would hinder the collaboration and mutual accountability needed to succeed in a competitive environment. Instead, the company wanted to encourage a culture of empowered teams that made their own decisions and shared learning and development, speed, and accountability.

Several culture initiatives were implemented, including the development of shared values, the introduction of IT systems that shared and exchanged information across major divisions that had hindered cross$-$functional learning, and the establishment of teams and a team$-$building program.

To support the initiatives and encourage a new, collaborative management style, Vodaphone implemented a leadership coaching program. Top managers attended the program to learn skills in conducting performance reviews, helping employees set goals, and coaching teams. Following the program, managers had one$-$on$-$one coaching sessions with a professional coach who worked with participants to help them set coaching goals and reflect on how successfully they were able to implement the skills learned in the program.

As a result of the program, managers began to delegate more as teams started to solve problems themselves. Teams began to feel more confident in their decisions as managers trusted them. Eaton and Brown $(2002)$ attribute several subsequent company successes to the program, noting that it was critical that the coaching program was integrated with the other culture change initiatives that it supported. $$Cultural change takes time,$$ they note, and $$traditional attitudes to management do not die away overnight$($p$.287).$ However, they

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point out that a gradual evolution took place and the new cultural values are now the standard.