Coaching a team to build competitive pricing for large projects by Pradip Shroff
My friend and fellow coach Suhas called me on a Monday morning. He had just returned after attending a meeting of all CHROs and Heads of L&D of the large engineering company. He heard a presentation from one of the heads of L&D about a very successful team coaching assignment done by me. Suhas wanted me to meet and talk about my team coaching approach to the CEO of one of the group companies. We agreed to a date. Suhas sent me an air ticket to fly down and a limo to pick me up from the airport.
Expectations of sponsor, broad coaching agenda, introduction
CEO Khan and Suhas mentioned, “We are losing out on our big value tenders because our prices are not competitive. Our competitors are reputed companies. They have comparable tech competencies and services. We lost the last three tenders because our prices were almost 10 % higher.” Khan said, “I have very highly talented engineers. Heads of various engineering disciplines focus on their part of the project. I feel we can be competitive if we can get our engineers to work as one team. "We must win global tenders."
I outlined my team coaching approach. Suhas also mentioned that he had done a reference check, and that Pradip's approach has worked well with another company in our group, see details of my approach. Khan agreed to be the sponsor and also engage with me for one-to-one coaching. There were 8 team members. Heads of mechanical, electrical, electronic, civil, control & system engineering, Head of sales, Head of Finance and Head of L&D. The team was called “A-Team."
Khan arranged a zoom meeting with the team and announced my engagement. I explained the team coaching approach. Team members welcomed this unique intervention which would help company get more business at the same time individual coaching will help them for self-development. We agreed to start work the following month.
Develop goals, action plans and measurement
Team 360 and my initial hypothesis
I started my work by carrying out a Team 360. I recognised that each team member was well respected in the industry for their technical knowledge and experience. The typical focus was on doing the best technically. However, there needed to be more focus on balancing technical work and cost. The best-in-class design was the main focus, whereas total time was less important.
There was clearly a need to bring in sensitivity to cost and balance Quality, Cost & Schedule (QCS).
Team sessions
It is important that everyone gets the opportunity to express their views and allows others to express their opinions during these team sessions. Therefore, a code of conduct was established at the start of the first session. Key elements of the code of conduct were.
Listen – When one person speaks, everyone else will listen, and no one will interrupt—only one person to speak at a time.
Positive participation –No criticism of any individual in a team session.
Respond – When responding to anyone’s views – Do not start with “No”. Instead, the response must be “Yes…. And ……”
Feedforward: Express your views keeping in mind what is the way forward for the team’s good.
Be willing and enjoy as you share and learn from each other.
In the very first team session, we also discussed that when in doubt, team goal is more important than individual goal. The logic used was “ Customer pays our salary. Management is only processing pay role”. There may be sometime an issue of timing before you get recognised for your contribution. A good company can never afford to ignore contribution of employees to the company goal. If every one is committed to “Team first”, the team and individual both will be winner.
Session 1: Developing the Team goal
The team was presented with a set of questions to think about their Present state and the journey into the future state. Typical questions were
What do I like most about A TEAM?
What do I want A TEAM to do better?
What is frustrating at present?
What are our concerns/problems/issues?
What are our opportunities – Things we always wanted to do but somehow did not do?
What do I want our customers to like about A TEAM?
What, in my opinion, will be most useful for A TEAM
Where would I like A TEAM to focus on deriving maximum benefit for the company?
Each team member was given 15 minutes to write their answers.
The team was then broken into two groups. Members of the group discussed their answers and came out with a summary of the group. Finally, each group leader presented their summary to the whole team.
With facilitation from the coach, the team arrived at the following summary.
WE WILL BECOME GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE. WE WILL FOCUS ON QCS TO ACHIEVE IT
(Note: I have found, that this process of asking individuals, to first write their answers, increases participation from everyone. We can catch views of someone who may be shy or not comfortable sharing his/her views in a larger group)
Session 2: Developing the Team action plan
In the next team session, the Head of sales presented details of a competitive comparison from lost tenders. The team earnestly discussed that they had lost their tenders as their price was 10-15% higher than the competitor’s. Soon it was clear that
“Our rate per man hour is lower.”
“Our number of hours for a project is higher.”
“Our Quality and Schedule are comparable”.
“We need to Focus on reducing our Man hours by at least 20% to become competitive.”
The team then discussed “What can we do to reduce our manhours for a given project?”
The team shortlisted the following:
Motivate and involve all engineers. Generate ideas, bring in the sense of urgency
We will need to change the mindset of our people from making the best design to making the best design at a competitive cost and driving accountability and ownership.
Encourage innovation, and think of the different business models.
Reduce all wastages
A fresh look at everything – Zero budget.
Improve our coordination and openness among all disciplines.
Session 3: Developing their personal goals and action plans
In the next session, each Head shared their personal goal and action plans that would contribute their best to achieve their shared team goals. The team members also gave suggestions to each other on their respective action plans. Sharing personal goals and action plans brought transparency and trust among the team. It also helped leverage the collective knowledge of the team.
Individual personal sessions:
After each team session, there was one on one session with each team member. We started the first session by identifying his/ her strengths. The discussions centred around the following to help discover strengths and validate the same with evidence.
What are your strengths?
Why do you say they are your strength? Give examples from business and personal life to support the claim?
What have you done/ are you doing to enhance them in the last two years?
Where can you leverage others’ strengths?
Where can you help others?
They were then given a series of homework.
A. Think about your dreams and aspirations using the following guidelines:
What are your dreams and aspirations?
Where do you see yourself in the company in the next 3-5 years?
What can you do to bring more value to the company?
What do you need to learn /acquire/build?
B. Journal happy stories using my strengths identified in the personal session.
C. Observe your subordinates and give at least appreciation to one person for doing a good job.
D. Every day, ask help from one person that will help you perform better. Convey gratitude.
And in the subsequent individual sessions, we also developed
Individual goals and action plans, leading to maximum value addition for the team goal, and
An IDP for specific skills for achieving the goal.
Review of progress of implementation.
The progress of actions taken against the team action plan was discussed in three team sessions, each held with a gap of 4 to 5 weeks. Progress of individual action plan was reviewed in individual meeting. Three Individual session were held immediately after every team session.
Team sessions:
The following standard format was used by everyone while presenting the progress. Each one was given about 10 minutes to present. The team was given 10 minutes to give any comments and suggestions to the presenter
Number of gratitude given during the month to the members of the team.
Activities planned for the month and activities completed. Report % accomplished.
Lesson learnt – why could I accomplish this? And why I could not accomplish it.
Plan for the next three months. Likely obstacles to accomplish. Resources required, if any, plan to accomplish 100% in the next month.
The number of gratitude given was very useful as it reflected on willingness to ask for help. In addition, it helped break silos and respect for the knowledge and competency of other team members.
The review process also resulted in a lot of sharing and learning of ideas for everyone. At the end of each team session, everyone was enriched and more confident in accomplishing the next month’s activities.
Furthermore, the review process of presenting in team sessions created a platform for peer learning and the desire to do better than others in the next session for healthy competitive collaboration that mutually benefits the individual and the organization through the shared team goal.
Individual sessions
Individual progress review sessions followed the process, similar to the team session process. In the personal session, there were more frank discussions on learning from accomplishing and not accomplishing personal goals. We generated ideas for improving % accomplishment. This process was called R-R-R ( Reflect, Review, Refresh). I also gave confidential feedback on my observations of his/her behaviour and participation in the team meetings. Each one was committed to raising the bar session after session. I may add here that in the very first team session, we discussed that when in doubt, team goal is more important than individual goal. The logic used was “ Customer pays our salary. Management is only processing pay role”. There may be sometime an issue of timing before you get recognised for your contribution. A good company can never afford to ignore contribution of employees to the company goal. If every one is committed to “Team first”, the team and individual both will be winner.
Overall Outcome
The 8th team session was the final review of the team coaching intervention. It was held in the presence of Khan's boss, Group President Chatterjee. First, Khan made a presentation on the coaching journey. Then, the Head of each discipline presented what they achieved and how they achieved a reduction of 30 % in person hours.
Here are a few quotations from various presentations on what we accomplished
“ We worked on Automation & Innovation needed in our present work processes.”
“Mutual trust and respect of Peers and subordinates.
“System Study – optimised efforts and received an order from NCC."
“Secured order in South Africa”
“Addressed knowledge gap, revisited process, automated panel schedule."
“Ability to Plan & Execute led to a number of initiatives."
“Focus my energy on multiple projects."
“Increase in Celebrations & Appreciations”
“Accountability at the working level”
“Improved assertiveness and implementation of R-R-R”
“Improvement in teamwork – intra discipline & inter-discipline”
“Improved Listening Skills”
“Improved Communications within and across Disciplines and buy-ins."
Chatterjee was amazed to see the team's enthusiasm for what they accomplished as a team and individual. Chatterjee complimented Khan and all members of the team. Chatterjee thanked the coaching and coach for helping the team deliver this performance.
The company won the next three tenders in a row. As a result, overall profitability for the year improved. In addition, the company gave twice the previous highest amount of dividend to the group holding company.
My Reflections:
The coaching agenda was very specific and motivating, "We must win global tenders."
Team members were all engineers and quickly recognised that the secret of winning tenders is reducing person hours as I discerned from my hypothesis.
Every discipline head exhibited urgency and involved all their designers in identifying ideas to reduce personal hours.
Increased appreciation at all levels encouraged people to do their best.
Giving gratitude and presenting gratitude in the team session did wonder in leveraging strengths for the collective good.
Being an IT Bombay engineer, I could connect with the team and grasp the discussions on their real issues
Connect with Pradip Shroff on Linkedin
Pradip is a certified CEO Coach based in Mumbai, India. In last 9 years as CEO Coach, He has completed 55 Senior level Executive coaching assignments. He has done 4 Leadership Team coaching Programs. He has guided 30 Coach Interns of PG program in Executive coaching.
Pradip Shroff brings over 40 years of business experience, with 25 years at CEO level. He brings a strong business acumen and strategic thinking. He is very analytical and innovative in developing solutions. Pradip uses his corporate experience in his coaching assignment. He is a Case author in CFI's book "Are you ready for the corner office”.