Unlocking Success: How Talent Assessment and Executive Coaching Transform Management Teams with Samhita & Jamie

“Enhancing Management Teams and Company Performance through Talent Assessment and Executive Coaching

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we delve into the powerful impact of talent assessment and executive coaching on building superior management teams and boosting overall company performance. Our expert hosts, Jamie Kosmar and Sam Jayanti, both specialists in leadership and organizational development, share insights into how businesses can leverage these tools to drive growth, foster a productive work culture, and achieve strategic goals.
Key Topics Discussed:
Introduction to Talent Assessment:
• What is talent assessment?
• The role of talent assessment in identifying high-potential employees
• How talent assessment contributes to strategic workforce planning
The Role of Executive Coaching:
• Defining executive coaching and its importance
• How executive coaching enhances leadership skills and decision-making
• Case studies of successful executive coaching interventions
Synergy Between Talent Assessment and Executive Coaching:
• How these two processes complement each other
• Integrating talent assessment insights into coaching programs
• Real-world examples of improved management team performance
Impact on Company Performance:
• Metrics and KPIs affected by improved management practices
• Long-term benefits for organizational culture and employee engagement
• Examples of companies that have successfully implemented these strategies
Practical Steps for Implementation:
• How to start with talent assessment in your organization
• Selecting the right executive coach and coaching framework
• Best practices for ongoing development and assessment
Guest Bio:
Jamie Kosmar and Sam Jayanti are experts in leadership development and executive coaching with over 20+ years of experience. They have worked with top-tier companies to enhance leadership capabilities, foster talent development, and drive organizational success.
Call to Action:
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts. For more insights on enhancing your management team and improving company performance, visit our website at www.theideamix.com and follow us on www.linkedin/theideamix.
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Contact Us:
Have a question or topic you want us to cover? Email us at info@theideamix.com or DM us @theideamix on LinkedIn.
By optimizing your management teams through effective talent assessment and executive coaching, your organization can achieve sustained growth and a competitive edge. Tune in to learn more about these transformative strategies!”

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Sam [00:00:03] Welcome to IdeaMix Performance and Wellness, where world leading coaches and scientists explain how their research can help you achieve your personal and professional goals. Faster. Hi, it’s Sam Jayanti, co-founder and CEO of IdeaMix coaching. Coaching has played an important role in my life. It’s helped me through my journey to become a powerful leader, mother and wife. I, ideamix coaches, help you increase your self-awareness, improve your problem solving skills, and evolve your habits to achieve your goals. All things I’m grateful to have learned and done through my own coaching journey are easy. One minute assessment matches you with an ideamix coach that best fits your needs and values. Each IdeaMix coaches vetted and experienced. It helps clients map and achieve their wellness, professional, and business goals. If you or someone you know could benefit from coaching, visit our website at www.theIdeamix.com. We also know that not everyone can invest in coaching right now, and that’s why we provide free coaching in our Coach Shorts episodes. If you think someone you know would benefit from it, please share our podcast with them. Thanks for listening and see you next time.

Jaime [00:01:12] Welcome to coaching for Performance and Wellness. I’m your host, Jamie Kosmar.

Sam [00:01:19] And I’m your co-hosts, Samhita Jayanti.

Jaime [00:01:22] And today, we are here to talk to you about the role of talent and investment. And I’m very excited. We are going to be speaking today about an article that Sam Jayanti wrote for PE hub, entitled, The Most Important Part of Diligence that Nobody is Talking about. So this is the next frontier of investing.

Sam [00:01:43] Yeah, I think investing is such a particular industry, right? We we happen to have a really good understanding of it because it’s an industry that we do so much work in. But I think one of the biggest idiosyncrasies of it is that investment firms are making private equity investments and then have a very limited time frame over which those investments play out, which then prompts the question of what are the biggest drivers of value in an investment?

Jaime [00:02:15] And that’s what the article is about. Or one of the topics that that it touches upon. So in this article you speak about the next frontier of due diligence and the investment process being hiring a deeper, broader pool of talent and having the right organizational architecture in place to enable high performance execution. So why don’t you delve into a little bit about like, what do you mean by this? Because there’s are a lot of big words. Yeah. And big concepts. And how do these two elements lead to improved value creation.

Sam [00:02:47] So I think if you start at the beginning and you ask the question of what are the key value drivers of value creation and investments? One of the things at the very top of that list is human capital, right? And that’s the leadership team, the management team of these companies. Traditionally, in private equity, there wasn’t much of an emphasis on a data driven methodology to actually assess management teams. Right. It was there were lots of there was lots of financial diligence. There was a lot of diligence around product market fit, around market sizing, etc. but traditionally there hasn’t been a ton of diligence around talent. And I would also argue until sort of several years ago, the awareness level of there being a variety of different assessment tools that can actually give you a data driven view of an individual and a team didn’t exist today. We’re in a very different world, and this is why best in class investment firms are embracing these tools of talent assessment to help them wrap their arms around one of the biggest value drivers that’s going to drive the outcomes of their investing.

Jaime [00:04:08] Management team effectiveness, which is which is great, because that segues wonderfully into our next question, which is you state in this article that it remains the single most important factor determining the success, actual success of an investment. So why don’t we define for our audience today what we mean by effectiveness here? Right. Because that is a very term, the term where you could interpret a lot from it. And why is it the most important factor, and how does one determine how effective a team.

Sam [00:04:39] That’s that’s a great question. So I think. The reason that management team effectiveness is such a critical driver is that you can have the best laid plans, and if a management team isn’t able to execute on those plans, then the plan falls apart, right? And the investment falls apart in many instances. Management team effectiveness is really driven by three pillars, which we spend a lot of time thinking about and working with, with coaching customers and coachees at at Ideamix, which are clarity around roles, alignment among those roles. And then last, the communication and collaboration among a management team. If those any of those three things doesn’t exist. There isn’t either clarity around what each person’s role is. There isn’t alignment around how all of those roles fit together, and that team is not able to communicate and collaborate effectively in service of executing on the investment plan. Then things fall apart.

Jaime [00:05:52] So basically, if there isn’t clarity, if there isn’t alignment, or if there isn’t collaboration, then we could say the team is ineffective.

Sam [00:06:00] Exactly.

Jaime [00:06:01] So then that leads to the question is it how how do we go about diagnosing an ineffective team. And then how do we turn around an and like ineffective team?

Sam [00:06:13] Yeah that’s a great question. So I think to answer the first question of how do you actually diagnose whether a team is effective or not? Let’s go back to the assessment tools. Right. What are the assessment tools do. There are a variety of different assessment tools. There are there’s a suite of 6 to 8 assessment tools that are really best in class and most appropriate to a professional services investment firm environment. And what those assessment tools allow us to get at are individual personality, individual professional skills. And then most importantly, perhaps, how both of those knit together across a team to either render that team effective or not effective. So here’s an example. If you had a CEO who scored very low on vision and strategy and was very high on risk aversion, that’s probably not a great set of qualities to have in a CEO, because that person absolutely needs to be driving vision, strategy and execution. On the other hand, if you had a CFO or a COO, both of which are roles really that are tasked with keep the trains running on time and moving forward, and they had no attention to detail, no clarity and ability to delegate roles effectively and manage processes. Well, then they’re not particularly effective in those roles. And so this picture that the assessment tools give us is, is the talent set and the capabilities across this management team, one that’s going to knit together and work well, or are there are some key strengths and talents that are really missing. And it allows investment firms to look at that picture and then form a view on, hey, this management team, you know, the CFO, the CEO and the CEO are great, but we now need a chief revenue officer or we need a head of sales. And that person needs to have this set of complementary skills that fit well with the existing management team.

Jaime [00:08:31] So it’s like taking a and you’re basically creating a map or a puzzle, shall we say, of an executive management team. You’re saying I have all these pieces, but I actually then need also these additional pieces. So when I’m bringing in somebody new or perhaps I’m, I’m trying to grow the talent that I have. I’m, I’m doing it for these these gaps.

Sam [00:08:55] Exactly. Think of a management team as a puzzle. Right. And if the pieces all fit together, then you get puzzle completion. And if you’re missing a piece in this set of talents and skills that we’re looking for in a management team, then the puzzle doesn’t complete.

Jaime [00:09:12] So I think, you know, we should segway into the work that we particularly and particularly have been doing in the space. Because we have now a track record of working with clients in this way to basically complete these puzzles, to draw upon that analogy. So what have we seen? What have our clients said with the right coach? What sort of feedback have we heard in these cases?

Sam [00:09:42] So I think. There are two things that have really stood out to me from the variety of feedback that we get, both from the coaches, as well as the board members to whom these C-suite teams report in the end. And those two things are that, from a board perspective, they see a clear raising of the game and a clear positive change in the way that the management team is both working with and using the board, communicating with the board, and executing on strategy as evidenced by the performance right and the results, the financial results. Second, we’ve heard very consistently from CEOs and their direct reports, the rest of the C-suite team that in each case, even in cases where individuals have been averse to coaching or not understood the value of the coaching right, because of the hybrid approach that we use, where some of the work happens in a team based coaching session. But equally, some of it happens in individual sessions that even people who felt it would not deliver value to them have derived huge value from it. In fact, to the point where some of those skeptics end up becoming the biggest users of the coach’s time. And really, the reason that they do this is because in achieving greater clarity around what they’re meant to be doing, how that aligns with the rest of the team and the efforts underway, and the rest of the operational areas of the business, and their own communication collaboration with one another. It works a lot more smoothly, and as a result, they feel they’re achieving their results and sort of achievement against plan a lot faster, and it’s actually providing them an accelerant to their own performance individually and as a team, but also ultimately to the business as performance.

Jaime [00:11:44] Yeah. That’s amazing. So let’s let’s hypothesize where we’ve got a team there. Super effective. We’ve got all the right skills. Is there any reason to bring in a coach for a team that’s already deemed effective? And and if so, why?

Sam [00:12:05] So I think and I it’s a great thing to draw an analogy here for a second, which is effective management teams are like high performance athletes and high performance athletes, even when they are at the peak of their success, are constantly asking the question, what should I be doing better or differently? Right? Like, what’s the next thing? How do I keep improving? How do I set off that flywheel of continuous improvement? That’s exactly the question that effective managers constantly ask themselves. When that question is asked, I think managers quickly realize that the best person or the most well-equipped person to provide an objective view on the individuals and the team is a coach. It’s not a board member, or a mentor or some other party with some other interest, effectively in the team or the individual or the company. Right? It is a true outsider who is a trained professional as a coach, in the variety of methodologies and assessment tools that we use, who is able to act as a thought partner to these individuals and teams and give them a view in a completely confidential environment of trust to actually help them do their best work.

Jaime [00:13:37] Yeah. It’s it’s interesting as we’ve been talking about coaching as a performance enhancement tool rather than a remedial tool. Right. So like you know I I’ve also been contemplating why is it that, you know you can have somebody and we’ve had our clients tell us that you can have somebody within the team that’s telling sort of this person who maybe is struggling that they need to be doing X right and they need to be, you know, leading better or whatever it is. And and for some reason, that advice, when it comes from somebody internally is not as impactful or as effective, or maybe it just doesn’t get through in the same way as when it’s coming from an independent party. And I don’t know if you have an answer for this, but I’ve been thinking about why is that?

Sam [00:14:22] Well, I think we all bring our own cognitive biases to each situation. Right. And those biases are very much driven. And there’s a whole body of research on this that these biases are very much driven by the person delivering the feedback. So when we hear, for example, from a peer or even a boss, that we should, you know, do x, y or z to improve A, B or C, we receive it in a particular way that is rife with that cognitive bias. And in a sense it includes, hearing like we don’t actually hear what’s being said. We hear sort of what we want to hear through the lens of how we perceive that person in our relationship. Right. I think when a coach delivers exactly the same feedback, right. It’s coming from an objective third party who’s not only delivering you that feedback, but then is your trusted party with whom you can be vulnerable, and you can have an honest discussion about a behavior that you might have or a mannerism that you might have that might be leading to then an unconstructive situation at work. You’re just not never going to be able to do that with a boss or a set of peers or a set of direct reports, right? And I think that’s where the coach is not only able to get you to hear a piece of feedback and a piece of advice, but also work with you in a very tactical, practical way to help you interpret that advice. So how do I actually do this in my workplace tomorrow and next week, in the following week, and then hold you accountable for actually trying it, coming back to them and reporting on how that went. Oh, this work, this other thing didn’t work. Let’s change it up. Let’s try this other approach. That entire process of iteration is only something that you can go through with a coach.

Jaime [00:16:18] Yeah. I think I think also just getting to your point in general, you as the coach, you will have an openness to a coach that you will not have to all these people that you know, right. Because you’re, you’re you’ve already formed a relationship habit with whoever that individual is. Right. And so I think that maybe your mind is open. I also think that a coach provides an environment just thinking about the accountability piece where it’s safe to fail.

Sam [00:16:47] Absolutely. That is such a great point.

Jaime [00:16:50] Yeah. So so it’s like if you if it doesn’t if they tell you to try something, it doesn’t work out. There’s no repercussion.

Sam [00:16:56] Exactly, exactly. Whereas a workplace that’s never the sentiment right. We live in a workplace that is defined by constant evaluation and performance reviewing. And that’s constructive. But what that’s created is a void, which is is now the space that’s being filled by coaching and by coaches. That creates an environment where someone actually can ask the self-aware and introspective questions of, how do I do this thing? Or why do I behave this way? Or how can I make this better?

Jaime [00:17:33] Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. And so, you know, we’ve been talking about this in the context of investment. But, you know, and we largely have worked with professional services firms, but. The work that we’re doing for alignment, clarity and collaboration is it particular to sort of that type of situation. Or is it applicable to other industries?

Sam [00:17:58] It applies across the board. Right. And when you talk to CEOs today, whether it’s the conversations we’re having or what you read in the research. The single biggest worry that CEOs have is leadership development, right? They all feel that they’re struggling somehow to develop a bench of talent that then can stand the company in good stead going forward. One of the reasons for this, and there was an article just recently about this in the Financial Times, talked about how the everyday demands of most leaders are, in a sense, so overwhelming that it leaves no room for that introspective moment of how can I do this differently? And there’s no thought partnership, as we said earlier, because you’re in an environment which is fundamentally competitive. I think that. Particularly in the age of AI, as we think about how the world is going to change as a result of AI, the biggest change is going to be the what we call soft skills today are going to become hard skills, because a lot of the simple technical tasks will be outsourced to the AI. But the skills of managing a team, managing a process, collaborating across borders or across distributed teams, or even among teams that are all sitting together. All of those tasks fall to leaders, and without individuals having leadership and management skills, companies will just experience reduced productivity.

Jaime [00:19:52] And do you think that, for example, today that’s something that business schools are teaching future business leaders?

Sam [00:20:01] So I went to business school 100 years ago at this point. But yes, based on some of our conversations with, for example, Professor Amy Edmondson or Professor Modupe Akinola, there are now a number of professors at business schools thinking about topics like in the case of Medupi, stress and anxiety and the impact of that on leaders and teams. Right. Psychological safety in the case of Amy Edmondson and the impact of that on organizations and teams. Francis Frye’s work, where she, in fact went into Uber to rebuild trust in an organization where trust is really being destroyed. So all of these topics are of paramount importance as companies grow in scale. It’s very different to manage tiny teams that are effectively startups, with not a lot to lose compared to larger, more scaled organizations with a reputation to guard. And ensuring that delivery is as consistent over time is really all about the organization’s culture.

Jaime [00:21:15] Yeah.

Sam [00:21:16] And if you can define a culture that is a safe environment of innovation, but also acknowledgment of mistakes and a mechanism to teach people to do things differently or better, then how does one progress?

Jaime [00:21:33] No. And I guess that then circles us back to what we’ve been talking about today, which is the importance of role, clarity, alignment and collaboration amongst the management team so that they can take an organization and help build a culture, particularly amongst large organizations, that enables people to thrive absolutely effectively.

Sam [00:21:53] When you think about most investment firms, they’re buying companies that are transitioning from one stage to another. They’re going from small to medium or medium to large, or they’re getting ready for some other transaction, or they’re acting as aggregators in their industry, whatever that may be. But there’s some sort of significant step change that is going to be expected of the company operationally over this investment period of 3 to 5 years. Given that this question of management team effectiveness is all the more important. And increasingly, I think over the last 5 to 10 years, we’ve seen as the markets and and the politics, the geopolitics have become more volatile. Companies have had to deal with a set of external inputs that affect their industries and their businesses and all sorts of different. Ways. And so it’s led to a more complex task in terms of managing teams and organizations and businesses than ever before. And that’s here to stay, it seems like.

Jaime [00:22:59] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It’s not going away, that’s for sure. So if any of our, any of our audience members would like to read the article that you wrote, where can I find it?

Sam [00:23:10] It’s on PEhub. And, it’s it’s a short piece, under 800 words. And, it really talks about why this is such an important driver as we’ve talked about, but also how we do this work and why this work works in a sense.

Jaime [00:23:29] Great. Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us today. And we look forward to to you joining us for the next episode of coaching for Performance and Wellness.

Sam [00:23:40] Thank you so much.

Narrator [00:23:42] Thanks for listening. Please subscribe wherever you listen and leave us a review. Find your ideal coach at the IDM X.com. Special thanks to our producer, Martin Malesky and singer songwriter Doug Allen.