Transforming a Misaligned Group of Senior Leaders and Partners into a Cohesive, High-Functioning Team
PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc. comprises a team of landscape architects, urban designers, and site planners, with a senior leadership team of four partners and nine senior leaders.
The Challenge
Before engaging The Leader’s Edge, the PWL leadership team was misaligned, lacking a clear unifying goal. The team was growing and transforming—affected by new arrivals, recent retirements, unclear goals, and a lack of focus—leading to conflict, miscommunication, and disjointed efforts.
They previously hired a consultant to help define their vision, but it had little lasting impact. When they reached out to us, they were looking for a more effective approach to visioning and driving lasting change.
Identifying a Unifying Goal: Establish a bold long-term goal to excite, engage, and unite the team.
Building Trust: Foster an environment for open, efficient communication where concerns and ideas can be safely expressed.
Driving Lasting Change: Maintain focus on the goal and ensure consistent progress.
The Solution
Our Organizational Alignment Program:
Two-Day Visioning Retreat: Facilitated collaboration to identify an audacious three-year goal and set the priorities needed to achieve it.
Creating a Tracking Tool: Worked closely with the team to developed a system to monitor progress, breaking down the goal into yearly priorities, quarterly initiatives, and weekly activities.
Ongoing Coaching: Conducted monthly check-in meetings with the leadership team to review progress, address obstacles, and celebrate achievements.
Provided one-on-one coaching for the managing partner to develop effective leadership skills, strengthen relationships, and hold people accountable in a proactive and compassionate manner.
The Results
Alignment and Clarity: PWL now has a shared vision and a concrete goal: for 100% of their practice to be impact-driven.
Improved Decision-Making and Industry Differentiation: The increased clarity makes it easier for PWL to make strategic decisions. They created a scorecard to track whether they are truly living their vision and goals. Grant Brumpton, PWL’s managing partner said, “this focus on impact has become a differentiator for us in the industry.”
Measurable Progress: With the implementation of their tracking dashboard, everyone can see how the work they are doing this week, this month, and this quarter contributes directly to the team’s vision for the future.
Purpose and Camaraderie: Grant also shared that the leadership team is showing up differently since doing this work. He felt a greater sense of camaraderie and purpose, saying, “now we know why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
Testimonial
“The Leader's Edge's expertise and approach led us to invite them to work with other members of our partnership group. Their ability to build trust, facilitate collaboration, and drive results was evident throughout our engagement. Thanks to The Leader's Edge, our senior leadership team is now aligned, motivated, and better equipped to achieve our ambitious goals. Their support has been instrumental in our journey toward becoming a more effective and united organization. I highly recommend The Leader's Edge to any organization looking to strengthen their leadership team and achieve meaningful, lasting results." - Grant Brumpton, PWL Partnership Landscape Architects