Developing future talent for global mining company

Client need

Develop and deliver a global capability program that would enable leaders to make practical and measurable changes in:

• Build greater self-awareness and an understanding of the coach mindset
• Flex your coaching style to different people and conversations
• Make activities and leadership routines which rely on coaching skills more meaningful and engaging
• Empower others to commit to and solve their own problems
• Use everyday conversations to embed our values and behaviors

Solution

The learning and application was staggered with 90-minute learning bursts across a 6-week period. This gave the participants an opportunity to experiment learning between sessions.

Sessions were structured with small groups which serves as a platform to share and discuss challenges with peers, while guided by a professional coach.

As the learning was not location bound, this provided participants with the opportunity to share learning and network across diverse regions and functions

Results

Over 20 Pod group sessions with over 150 leaders during a 6-week journey.

Participants outcomes:

• 9.1 out of 10 for overall Leader as Coach experience
• 9 out of 10 likely to recommend experience
• 8.9 out of 10 found the group Pod sessions to be interactive and engaging

“The facilitator made everyone comfortable to share and engage. The responsibility on performing better as a coach immediately on the individual which makes you feel more engaged. No one will do it for you.”

“Loved the interaction and openness. The facilitator was wonderful and really engaging, which I find makes my experience very real and valuable. Love the varying levels of attendees also as offers a diverse perspective”.

BTS partnered with a multinational bio-pharmaceutical company to create a scalable and accessible virtual version of its in-person assessment center administered to talent with the potential to ascend to critical, senior leadership roles. Central to the design was giving high-potential talent the opportunity to experience a “day-in-the-life” of a senior leader at the company.  

To deliver on that, BTS worked closely with the company to develop a multi-component Virtual Individual Assessment (VIA) experience that included a business case pre-read, written business challenges, role-play exercises, and a debrief interview. Since 2019, around 30 unique VIA experiences for critical roles that span all functions of their business have been developed.  

The partnership has proven very successful, providing data on high-potential talent’s current performance in the capabilities critical to success in those senior leadership roles. The assessments also provided insights on targeted talent planning and development initiatives to close the capability gaps at both group and individual levels. In 2022 alone, 500 participants worldwide engaged in one of these experiences, resulting in a 41% promotion rate, compared to a 14% promotion rate for non-participants.

Client need

A $6 billion federal contracting company in the U.S. needed to build a future-focused leadership bench capable of executing its strategy to deliver on growth and extend their position of industry leadership. While the company has a successful history, they recognized an opportunity to invest in critical capabilities that would ensure their continued success in a rapidly changing environment. The CEO and the leadership team were looking for an innovative approach to accelerate their leaders’ ability to lead and influence others, while simultaneously strengthen their capabilities to make data-driven decisions in critical moments.

The development journey they took with BTS began by grounding these high potential leaders in the capabilities and behaviors that create executive presence and influence as measured by the Bates ExPI^TM leadership model, while connecting it to the business-critical themes of strategic thinking, entrepreneurial thinking, and innovation. The Leader Lab integrated experience enabled their leaders to develop and practice strategy execution, while flexing key elements of executive presence. As the leaders worked through the journey together, they were able to practice collective leadership based on collaboration and trust, a key goal for the enterprise.

Solution

The development journey was spread over two dynamic and fast-paced development sessions.  The audience was 50+ high-potential and cross-functional leaders, who manage some of the company’s largest, multi-million-dollar client relationships.

Building the capabilities of executive presence

Participants started by going through the ExPI^TM assessment, combined with virtual coaching calls and debriefs, to understand their strengths and opportunities to lead effectively. They then attended a 3-day classroom-based program. The first two days focused on strategy, entrepreneurship, and innovation, taught by a local university’s business program. On day three, BTS facilitators highlighted behavioral elements of leadership presence and influence. Post-program the leaders took the practical, tangible learnings back to practice in the business and build their skills.

Leader Lab: tapping the power of business acumen

In the next phase of the learning journey, participants attended a live, classroom-based Leader Lab. This customized experience included a three-day business simulation. Together in teams, leaders assumed different positions from their day-to-day roles, grappling with tradeoffs similar to those they would encounter in real life and practicing making decisions in a safe learning environment. This experience was designed to inspire leaders to adopt enterprise-wide thinking and strengthen their decision-making capabilities. The Leader Lab experience included:

• Two rounds of simulation dedicated to executing their team’s strategy by running their ‘business’ in a dynamic market where unexpected moments force the team to make quick decisions.
• Observation-based assessment of individuals on each team, based on behaviors core to executive presence and communication
• Introduction to an intuitive yet powerful approach for applying data-driven decision making
• Practice delivering persuasive presentations in small groups with peer and expert feedback

To reinforce behavioral change resulting from the sessions, participating executives committed to simple actions that would facilitate accountability and help leaders carry learnings back to their teams. Facilitators continuously provided feedback, encouraging leaders to collaborate across the enterprise and invest more time in getting to know one another.

Results

The collaborative spirit generated in the session was highly visible and contagious – just the kind of mindset and energy the company needed to move its culture forward to achieve new growth. Both sessions were ranked highly by participants, garnering a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 82 and 93, respectively.

Following these development efforts, the company’s high potential leaders advanced their ability to work together more collaboratively, and problem solve at a peer level, reducing the need to escalate issues and increasing the speed of execution. This is reducing risk and increasing work efficiency. It has also improved their ability to lead and manage their multi-million dollar-client portfolios as they apply their new leadership skills with their teams and their client partners, reinforcing the longer-term sustainability of that revenue.

Client need

A global fintech organization was navigating rapid growth amid increasing business and talent market volatility. As the company scaled, senior leadership recognized the need to strengthen leadership effectiveness and cultural alignment at the top of the organization.

The goals were to:

• Accelerate the effectiveness of critical C‑1/C‑2 leaders.
• Rebuild confidence and alignment around the company’s values.
• Gain deeper, actionable insights into the culture and leadership realities.
• Inform future senior‑talent decisions (selection, fit, succession).

The organization partnered with BTS to design a scalable approach that would both develop senior leaders in role while simultaneously generating insight to shape the future of the enterprise culture.

Solution

The result was a multi-year, integrated leadership partnership combining executive advisory and cohort-based simulations.

Together, BTS and the organization built a multi-year leadership partnership designed to accelerate senior leader performance while generating enterprise-wide insight.

The solution combined two core components:

• Executive advisory - targeted 1:1 engagements to shift behavior in real time
• Leadership simulations - cohort-based experiences to align leaders around operating principles and surface patterns at scale

By strengthening leaders in role while creating visibility into cross-organizational themes, the partnership supported both immediate performance and longer-term talent strategy.

Executive advisory

The work began with a six-month engagement for the top 7–8 senior leaders and expanded globally toC1/C2 roles critical to future success.

Each engagement:

• Followed a structured BTS advisory protocol
• Anchored development in the company’s values
• Focused on live enterprise challenges, stakeholder alignment, and decision-making

Because the work was grounded in real business priorities, impact was immediate. Themes across engagements provided leadership and HR with clear insight into strengths and friction points across the senior population.

Leadership simulations

Annual simulations reinforced enterprise priorities at scale.

These immersive experiences:

• Translated leadership expectations into applied decision-making
• Built a shared language across regions and functions
• Generated cultural and behavioral insight

Findings from both workstreams informed decisions related to selection, succession, and senior talent planning.

Results

During a period of growth and market pressure, the partnership strengthened critical leaders and clarified the future of the leadership bench.

Leader impact

Senior executives demonstrated stronger enterprise decision-making, clearer stakeholder alignment, and greater confidence navigating complexity. Leaders described the experience as one of the most valuable investments of their careers.

100% of participating leaders:

• Would recommend working with BTS
• Left with a clear development plan
• Valued their advisor as a thought partner on  live business challenges

Cultural insight and talent strategy

As the work progressed, patterns emerged across leaders, revealing cultural strengths and previously unnamed friction points. HR and executive stakeholders gained across-organizational view of how leadership behaviors were shaping performance.

Expanding the work together

What began with a small senior cohort grew into

• Ongoing annual simulations
• Expanded advisory across global C1/C2 roles
• A pilot to scale coaching capacity and flexibility

Today, the work is embedded in how the organization strengthens and advances its senior leaders, a core component of its leadership strategy.

Testimonials

“My coach was instrumental in helping me to align with my manager on where and how to create more focus in my role. They held me accountable for results and follow-through. They helped me think through how to work the system with all of its’ big personalities and ever-changing dynamics.”

“My coach helped me to learn and claim my superpowers and stay focused on spending my time and energy in that space and to let others do that same thing.”

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Client need

A leading global life sciences company was operating at the forefront of scientific innovation, delivering therapies to millions of patients around the world.

The organization's strategy called for Medical to play an increasingly visible and influential role across the enterprise, not as a scientific function operating in parallel with the business, but as a core contributor to strategic decisions spanning pipeline priorities, governance forums, and commercial direction. The ability of medical leaders to operate at that level had become a strategic imperative.

These leaders were not generalists. Many had built careers in academic and research settings, developing deep expertise in science and medicine. In their roles, they operated at the intersection of R&D and commercial, translating scientific insights into strategy, influencing governance forums, and shaping both pipeline and brand decisions. These were among the most complex and high-stakes leadership roles in the organization.

As these leaders took on broader, enterprise-facing responsibilities, the nature of their work shifted. They were expected to work across functions, influence diverse stakeholders, and contribute to decisions that balanced patient, scientific, and commercial priorities in increasingly complex, cross-functional environments.

While highly capable, many had not yet had the opportunity to develop these enterprise leadership skills. With strong competition for talent, the organization recognized the need to accelerate development from within and ensure its leaders could operate as true enterprise contributors.

Solution

BTS partnered with the organization to design and deliver a four-month immersive leadership journey focused on building enterprise leadership capability in some of its most critical roles.

The program engaged 165 leaders across six cohorts, primarily senior leaders in medical affairs, market access, and health economics. Designing an experience that would genuinely resonate with this audience required more than adapting a traditional leadership curriculum. These leaders operated in highly specialized roles, navigating governance forums, balancing scientific and commercial trade-offs, and influencing cross-functional stakeholders without formal authority.

To reflect that complexity, BTS co-created the experience with senior stakeholders across the business, grounding the journey in the actual decisions, stakeholder dynamics, and enterprise challenges participants faced in their day-to-day work. That specificity was essential to making the experience credible, relevant, and immediately applicable.

The program focused on strengthening three capabilities critical to enterprise leadership:

• Enterprise mindset
• Influencing across the organization
• Communication and storytelling

To build these capabilities, the journey combined assessment, practice, and application through a set of integrated experiences:

Enterprise simulation and assessment (in-person)

The journey began with a simulation based on real governance forums and asset-level decisions. Leaders worked through role-based scenarios with assessor-coaches, navigating trade-offs and stakeholder dynamics in a realistic enterprise setting.

Each session included immediate feedback supported by:

• Simulation observations
• 360 executive presence assessment
• Personality insights assessment

This established clear, evidence-based development priorities tied directly to each leader's role and business context.

Experiential workshops (2 x 1.5 days)

Leaders then participated in two immersive workshops focused on decision-making and influence in cross-functional environments.

Using real business scenarios, participants practiced aligning stakeholders, navigating ambiguity, and communicating complex scientific insights with clarity and impact. The workshops emphasized active practice and real-time feedback.

Individual coaching (throughout the journey)

Each participant worked with a dedicated assessor-coach to translate insight into action.

Coaching centered on upcoming business decisions and stakeholder interactions, with manager involvement helping reinforce alignment with enterprise priorities and day-to-day application.

Peer learning and application (ongoing)

Leaders participated in small peer groups that met throughout the journey to reinforce learning and accountability.

These sessions created space to reflect, share experiences, and apply new approaches in real time, helping build consistency across the organization.

Across every element of the journey, the work remained grounded in real business challenges. Leaders built capability by practicing the same decisions, conversations, and trade-offs they faced every day.

Results

The program's success led to continued investment, with new cohorts of more than 200 critical role leaders now underway. Overall, the program strengthened how leaders think, decide, and influence, improving both decision quality and cross-functional execution.

Impact was assessed through:

• Post-program surveys
• End-of-journey evaluations
• 49 structured interviews with participants and their managers

Every manager interviewed reported sustained positive behavior change. The most significant shift was in how leaders approached decision-making. Participants engaged stakeholders earlier, clarified trade-offs more effectively, and showed up with greater confidence in governance discussions. As a result, decisions moved faster and with less friction.

The impact extended beyond the Medical function itself. Colleagues across commercial, R&D, and other functions began noticing a tangible difference. Medical leaders showed up differently in joint forums, communicating complex scientific trade-offs more clearly and building alignment more effectively across competing priorities. Conversations that once required multiple rounds of clarification increasingly moved to alignment more quickly.

Leaders consistently improved in several key areas:

• Earlier alignment before formal decision forums
• Greater confidence navigating ambiguity and enterprise trade-offs
• Stronger influence across cross-functional groups
• Clearer, more concise communication of complex scientific insights

Collectively, these shifts improved cross-functional decision-making and execution across the organization. Leaders were better able to prioritize enterprise value, align diverse perspectives, and ensure medical insights were clearly understood and acted upon.

The impact extended beyond individual participants. Leaders applied these approaches within their own teams, reinforcing more consistent ways of working across the organization and helping position Medical as a strategic enterprise partner rather than solely a scientific function.

Client challenge

Wellstar Health System, one of Georgia’s largest healthcare systems, had already invested heavily in leadership development for senior leaders. But as the organization navigated rapid growth, a major acquisition, and the demands of a shifting healthcare landscape, it became clear that the greatest leadership challenges were happening at the front and midline.

“Some of the greatest leader challenges are really at the front and midline levels… we’ve invested heavily in leadership development, putting more emphasis on our front line and mid-level leadership in terms of outcomes, said Laura Dannels, Chief Talent Officer at the time.

We’re not an organization who believes in just investing in high performers… you’ve got to invest in your entire workforce.”

Wellstar partnered with Sounding Board to bring a more scalable, flexible coaching solution to leaders across the organization.

The solution

Partnering with Sounding Board, Wellstar designed a scalable, personalized coaching program to extend leadership development across the organization while maintaining the quality of one-on-one coaching.

A proprietary 360 assessment, aligned to Wellstar’s leadership behaviors, served as the foundation for each coaching engagement. This ensured development was directly tied to how leaders show up and lead in practice.

“We really wanted to ground the coaching to a framework that matters to our organization,” said Garry Gross, Executive Director of Leadership Development. ‍

“Helping our leaders create an environment where our mission, vision, and values come to life was paramount.”

Program goals:

• Develop leadership capabilities aligned to Wellstar’s mission, vision, and values
• Deliver personalized, relevant development for leaders at all levels
• Strengthen the leadership bench and support succession planning
• Foster a culture of innovation, learning, and engagement

Program overview:

• Personalized, one-on-one coaching for leaders at all levels
• Capability development aligned to Wellstar’s values
  • Serve with Compassion → Builds relationships
  • Pursue Excellence → Drives results, leads teams, and plans strategically
  • Honor Every Voice → Fosters inclusion and respect for differences
• Scalable delivery across frontline, mid-level, and clinical leaders
• Digital tools to track goals, capture insights, and measure progress

This approach made it possible to deliver consistent, high-quality coaching across roles and locations while keeping development relevant to each leader’s day-to-day work.

Results

As the program unfolded, Wellstar began to see a shift in how frontline and mid-level leaders showed up across the organization. Leaders in these critical roles had more consistent support navigating day-to-day challenges, and managers gained better visibility into how their teams were developing. Coaching became a more practical, embedded part of how Wellstar supports leaders in a complex healthcare environment.

Higher engagement and satisfaction

• 96% of participants said the coaching experience was worth the investment
• 99% said they could immediately apply what they learned to their day-to-day work

Measurable leadership growth

Participants reported double-digit growth across leadership capabilities including:

• Executive presence (+16%)
• Organizational collaboration (+14%)
• Strategic thinking (+13%)
• Time management and prioritization (+13%)
• Communication (+11%)

Stronger retention and mobility

• Coached leaders achieved a 90% one-year retention rate
• Retention for coached leaders was 31% higher than non-coached peers
• 3% of participants were promoted into new roles, exceeding organizational goals and industry benchmarks

Learn more about Wellstar’s leadership coaching journey with Sounding Board in this feature in Becker’s Hospital Review.