Anxious to vet some plans for a major restructuring and advance his leadership skills, Philipp Schramm, PhD, enrolled in the Program for Leadership Development (PLD) at Harvard Business School (HBS). This versatile CFO recently explained how the program enabled him to drive critical structural and cultural changes and prepare the organization for greater success.
Right after I took on a new responsibility as CFO for our North American Operations, I was focused on first making the financial, operational and cultural improvements that needed to be made in my organization. I led my team to develop and implement good ideas, but I wanted to validate them and explore different approaches. I also was intrigued by the leadership emphasis of PLD. Excited by the opportunity to learn more about myself and explore best practices in leadership, I believed that developing myself as an authentic leader would benefit not only my own personal development, but the development of the many professionals in my span of care, and my organization, as it transforms.
Participating in PLD gave me the opportunity to reflect on issues from a distance as well as from within my organization. This valuable perspective offered the time and possibility to share my thoughts about the organizational change I was helping to generate with my "living group" mates and top-notch HBS professors. During this time, my ideas and realizations around cultural change also developed. PLD gave me clarity and focus that enabled me to contribute specific action plans to change the organization's culture over time. It all began with developing strategies to engage my colleagues.
During the last module of my PLD program, our CEO added to my CFO responsibilities the role of VP Human Resources. With now a truly cross-functional leadership role, paving the way to change became much easier. I was able to bring forward even more significant ideas to define together with the entire management team the future of the organization. Results have been strong for the organization in the past 15 months:
At PLD, I gained encouragement for my own ideas, but I also learned from new ideas, insights, and practical strategies. Along with my new responsibilities, I had the authority to implement changes, in alignment with our CEO and the global and local management teams that positively affected the lives of 2,000 colleagues in my company.
I loved the on-campus modules because I could get away from day-to-day challenges, be exposed to new ways of thinking, and benefit from having time to think, reflect, and exchange ideas with faculty and like-minded peers.
Alternating on-campus and off-campus modules is extremely helpful for refining your thoughts and plans. During Module 2, you get great insights and encouragement. Then you go back to your organization and see the real-life obstacles and start thinking about what will and won’t work in practice. You then have the opportunity to go back to campus, exchange new ideas with peers and professors, ask questions, and refine your plans.
I particularly enjoyed the alumni challenge in Module 3—so much so, that in the year after I graduated, I went back to contribute to another PLD cohort's alumni challenge. I had the opportunity to give something back. I worked with one of the faculty, Eugene Soltes, to define my alumni case, and then we rolled it out to teams of PLD participants. Not only was that experience great for my personal development is was also beneficial for my own organization. Because Eugene and I were functioning as sparing partners to frame the problem, these new reflections gave me additional ideas to accelerate change.
At the beginning, I was a bit skeptical about the living group concept. What would it mean to live with other people and how would it benefit me? But this exchange with a small group of peers really fostered growth. Our group was effective in developing shared values and interacting productively—which meant that people with different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences could exchange thoughts and ideas at any time of the day. We created a truly cross-cultural experience for everyone.
Through this experience, I learned valuable lessons about how to work with cultural and professional diverse groups. These different backgrounds drove valuable high-level discussions and opened my eyes to traits in my own behavior that I had developed over time. The program then allowed me to reflect with my coach on what I needed to improve.
My interactions with professors helped me analyze my company's challenges, create feasible concepts and bring new approaches back to my company. I had great discussions with Faculty Chair Mike Tushman on the congruence model and the relationship between the "hardware" part of a business and the "software" side. I had known the importance of culture, but in PLD I acquired new frameworks that helped me understand the interaction between the formal and informal organization. Mike planted some seeds and reassured me that I was on the right track.
I give the faculty a lot of credit for creating many exceptionally positive experiences, both in the design of the program and in the delivery of classroom sessions. The real benefits of the case study method come from the way the faculty teach and lead case study discussions. They offered background information and insight we could not get from the cases themselves or supporting material. I realized this importance by designing and developing my alumni case together with Eugene Soltes.
The faculty opened doors. They brought in fascinating guest speakers—seasoned CEOs who came to share their challenges and discuss how they drove change in their organizations. We could talk with these leaders face to face, ask questions about how they had handled certain types of situations, and ultimately benefit from their experiences. In addition, the faculty gave us access to other companies and people who had executed projects similar to what we were contemplating.
The program has changed the way I interact, how I lead, and how I allow myself to be led by others at times. I'm much more people-centric now. I have realized the importance of deeper relationships and stronger communication in making successful change. Having the understanding that organizational interaction and behavior are modeling those of traditional families, has supported creating a better corporate family in my own organization and made me a more approachable and authentic leader.
During my leadership, we have implemented great ideas that emerged from the PLD program. As one example, Amy Cuddy and I discussed the challenges I faced with a disengaged workforce. Encouraged and energized by our discussions, I developed the idea that listening is the solution to our problems. By listening more closely to our colleagues, we got to learn about their hopes and fears. Understanding these things has enabled me to positively encourage and empower colleagues to take actions as informal leaders. In my organization, everyone is a leader. Everyone has a voice, everyone is listened to, and everyone is empowered to take positive and appropriate action.
We began this empowerment by aligning our company around a common vision. With my CEO's approval, we invited employees to apply for participation in a visioning session to define our future. We had 136 applications for 18 spots. The 18 colleagues we chose represented every level, site, and functional area in the organization. They also represented different ethnicities, ages, and so forth. It was a great session. We came out with values and behavioral guidelines, and those 18 participants became informal leaders who drove the guidelines throughout the organization.
We also have held "listening sessions" that have involved 1,800 colleagues, and developed a training program, "Listen Like a Leader", which focuses on listening, conflict resolution, and other strategies and skills for more effective communication with colleagues. Roughly 300 people have been through that program so far. It was very rewarding to generate this change within 12 months of assuming a broader role - and my PLD learning was certainly instrumental in all of it.
After PLD, I attended the HBS Authentic Leadership Development program, led by Bill George. Both PLD and Authentic Leadership Development emphasized how we should honor our relationships with others and what type of interactions we need to have. I truly believe that both programs opened my eyes and made me a better leader.
You can learn a great deal about yourself through your interactions with your living group and reflection with your coach. In PLD, you have the unique opportunity to explore how to further develop your leadership ability within your organization and what you want to accomplish in your life and career—and how to go about it. The value of the program is what you make of it. If you approach it in the right way, PLD can be both very enjoyable—and extremely beneficial to you and your organization.
