John Hancock Insurance Gail Schaeffer,
John Hancock Retail Long-term Care

State Street Corporation, Meg Kelleher, Public Funds

Meg Kelleher was a vice president for public funds at State Street Corporation, a leading global financial services company.

The answer? Executive coaching from Cheever Communications.

The first step in the Cheever coaching process was talking with Kelleher and members of her management team to get a clear sense of her role, strengths and challenges. Based on this feedback, Kelleher and Cheever initially worked on clarifying Meg's goals, developing a coaching strategy and then identifying specific communications skills and techniques for further attention.

"We focused on maximizing my influencing and leadership skills, decision-making as well as presentation training and general communications skills," said Kelleher. "This included looking at the different ways men and women communicate. I learned, for instance, to get away from using qualifiers like 'I think' or 'maybe we should' and make stronger statements like 'this is what we should do.'"

Putting this into action, the Cheever consultant worked with Kelleher to prepare for and rehearse a presentation she had to give to a regular roundtable discussion with senior management. "We strategized on the best way to approach the presentation and to express my views - to be assertive and demonstrate my commitment to my positions," noted Kelleher.

One specific area of focus was learning how to manage and tolerate stress, as well as effective behaviors for communicating during crisis situations. "In these high-stress situations, it's important that the executive is perceived as in charge and not overwhelmed," added Kelleher. "I learned how to use words, body language, pace and demeanor to create calmness, instill confidence and convey that I was energized and prepared to address the issue."

Over the course of Kelleher's coaching, it became clear that she had a real aptitude in the area of relationship management - which was not fully being utilized in her position in the public funds sector. "The question was whether I could find the right career opportunity within State Street or would have to leave the organization to do that," said Kelleher.

As a result of the executive coaching, Kelleher's leadership skills and visibility grew within the organization. In addition to being appointed chair of State Street's United Way campaign, she ultimately received five internal job offers, in addition to her outside opportunities.

Today, Meg Kelleher is a senior vice president in State Street's Global Relationship Management area. It is exactly the kind of high-profile position she wanted in an area that matches her skills and interests - and State Street retained and benefits from the skills of a talented executive - a true win-win situation.

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Gail Schaeffer, vice president, John Hancock Retail Long-term Care, asked Cheever Communications to provide executive and corporate coaching to this multi-million dollar business group, which she founded and leads. "We faced a number of major business challenges," said Schaeffer.

"I wanted to make sure that I was communicating with my team as effectively as possible and that the group as a whole was functioning in positive, productive ways."

Initially, Elizabeth Cheever worked with Schaeffer as her "guide" leading up to the division's annual planning meetings. "We developed a communications strategy for these sessions, based on the past year's achievements and goals for the coming year," noted Schaeffer. "With a better understanding of the communications needs and styles of each member, we created meeting strategy that enabled the group as a whole to reach discussions, with my acting more as a participant than leader."

One year, the John Hancock division faced a special challenge. After a year's hiatus, Schaeffer returned and realized she needed to re-energize the group. Cheever coached Schaeffer on management and communications approaches for doing this. On Cheever's recommendation, Schaeffer announced an audacious goal: to grow the business by 50% in the coming year. This tactic "shook people up in a good way," according to Schaeffer, and dramatically communicated that this was a new department with a renewed sense of purpose and direction.

The outcome? The division boosted its business by 75% that year.

"Cheever helped us - and me, in particular -- better understand the dynamics and likely reactions of different team members in different situations," said Gail Schaeffer. "Cheever helped us depersonalize difficult situations and proactively plan and manage these interactions better. With their combination of business knowledge and interpersonal psychology, Cheever is outstanding at focusing on communication and relationship management."

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