Peoples Energy Corporation
Powers Future Leaders’ Success
"Steve Garrett's coaching helped me work
through
some difficult employee issues
during
a time of
reorganization," says
Arti
Shadid,
Manager - Engineering, at
Peoples Energy.
A company with more than a million customers and a 150 - year history of providing safe and reliable energy to improve the lives of people, Peoples Energy Corporation takes its role in the community very seriously. Ever mindful
of its responsibility, Peoples Energy
takes a forward-looking approach to business, seeking service enhancements and management efficiencies to control costs and to meet the demands of a fluctuating energy market and changing world. It’s an approach not commonly attributed to public utilities in regulated industries.
One way Peoples Energy embraces innovation is by encouraging employees to adopt a high performance mindset. During the fall of 2004, it launched a major reorganization designed to streamline its structure and improve operations. A number of individuals were promoted one or more levels and others received greatly expanded management responsibilities. “To show our confidence in their potential, we committed ourselves to doing everything possible to provide the tools and support these individuals would need to succeed,” says Denise Cooper, Vice President of Human Resources.
Accelerated Development Program Ensures Future Leaders’ Success. The cornerstone of Peoples’ support was the Peoples Energy Accelerated Development Program (ADP), a highlyspecialized management training program tailored to the needs of these managers in their new leadership role. “We set out to take learning and development to a higher level, offering the targeted and specialized training our employees needed to succeed in their new, expanded roles,” Cooper explains. “Lake Forest Corporate Education was a natural choice as our partner because of its track record of delivering creative and practical learning solutions that get real results.”
In close collaboration, Peoples Energy and LFCE developed a series of three, one-day classroom sessions aimed at providing the job-specific know-how and hands-on training participants needed to enhance their management and leadership skills. Key learning objectives included analyzing changing industry conditions and their impact on Peoples Energy, adjusting individual leadership styles based on the work and communication styles of others, and applying strategic thinking frameworks that would allow these individuals to better position themselves and others to meet future challenges.
“A major factor in the success of the ADP was the unwavering support and enthusiasm of the entire Peoples Energy human resources team,” says Howard Prager, LFCE Director and ADP project manager. “From Denise Cooper, who offered us her expert guidance and championed the program to gain the support of top management, to Rob Cyr (Sr. Employee Development Consultant) and Scott Hayes (Employee Development Manager) whose hands-on involvement from design to implementation to outcomes assessment ensured that the curriculum was continually adjusted to match the growing needs of each individual participant – our entire team was aligned in the vision of seeing this group of future leaders succeed.”
Management Performance Coaching Takes Learning to New Heights. Consistent with its reputation for encouraging innovation, LFCE and Peoples Energy added one more new and very powerful feature to the ADP: Management Performance Coaching. Steven Garrett, Leadership Excellence Coach and a Lake Forest Graduate School of Management faculty member, coached each of the 12 participating managers. Each participant met with Garrett in a series of six confidential coaching sessions over a three-month period, where they were free to discuss and gain personal insights on topics ranging from increasing their management skills to handling crucial performance issues with employees to managing their relationships with peers and senior executives.
“Individual coaching sessions send a powerful message to individuals of their company’s support for them as leaders within the organization,” observes Kathy Leck, Executive Vice President, LFCE. “In particular, one-on-one coaching allows us to offer a confidential source of feedback that reinforces the messages delivered during the group learning sessions. It also helps each individual focus on and address very specific individual goals, challenges and needs.”
Combining personal coaching with a specialized management training program was an exciting and rewarding first for both LFCE and Peoples Energy. Looking forward, Peoples Energy is excited about the possibility of expanding the ADP, both to serve the needs of current participants as they continue to excel, as well as to offer this training to more leaders from across the organization. As word of Peoples Energy’s success spreads, it’s certain to attract the attention of many other organizations looking to support their own future leaders.
