Diagnosing, developing and delivering HOD leadership impact
A 6-month, diagnosis-led leadership journey for 14 Heads of Department at a large, multi-decade Indian manufacturing group, combining group learning, one-to-one coaching and continuously tracked Individual Development Plans.
Request the Full Case StudyAll Case StudiesBuilding consistent strategic leadership across functions
The group needed its Heads of Department (senior managers, GMs, AGMs, DGMs and functional heads across Quality, Operations, Production, Design & Development, Purchase, Marketing, Finance, HR, Stores and Maintenance) to lead with greater consistency and strategic capability for its next stage of growth.
The brief was clear: design a development journey grounded in real diagnostic data, not a generic leadership curriculum.
- Competency mapping against the organisation’s own leadership framework
- Psychometric assessment using established tools such as Hogan, CliftonStrengths and Situational Leadership
- 360° feedback on a 32-item instrument across four clusters: Strategic Thinking, People Connect, Influence and Execution
- Rated by each HOD, their peers, seniors and team members
The clearest signal: self-rating vs. reality
Every HOD self-rated all 32 leadership characteristics as “Very Good”, without a single exception. Once peer, senior and team-member ratings were blended in, every cluster came down to between 3.7 and 3.9 out of 5. A programme designed from self-report alone would have started from the wrong brief.
Strategic Thinking
The lowest self-rated cluster (4.17 average) with the widest spread (3.44–4.89), showing inconsistent capability across HODs. Senior raters flagged it most strongly.
Emotional Intelligence
Rated “Very Good” by the group itself, but rated as low as “Poor” by peers, which made the case for a dedicated communication and people-connect track.
People Connect
The strongest cluster (4.48 average): a solid relational foundation for building more demanding strategic and execution behaviours.
A 6-month journey where every element traced back to the data
Diagnose & plan
Diagnosis across all 14 HODs, a one-day Situational Leadership session with onboarding to an online coaching platform, then one-to-one meetings to turn each HOD’s report into a personalised IDP.
Develop
Half-day group sessions every 3–4 weeks paired with individual coaching, on themes mapped to the gaps: Business Acumen; Ownership, Accountability & Proactiveness; Leadership Communication.
Sustain & close
Rewards & recognition checkpoints to maintain momentum, ending with a final assessment and Success Presentation on IDP achievement.
Accountability built in from day one
Each IDP was logged on an online dashboard with milestones, due dates and live progress. A dedicated VATS point of contact monitored it throughout, following up on stalled goals between sessions.
- Every session theme traceable to a specific, data-backed gap
- IDPs built from individual diagnostic data in the first two weeks
- Short, frequent sessions kept learning connected to daily work
- Gamified journey, peer learning and recognition sustained engagement
- Progress tracked continuously, so course-correction happened in real time
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Full case studies, including diagnostic detail and programme design, are shared on request with organisations exploring a similar intervention.
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