EDRMedeso is an organisation that wants to invest in employee satisfaction, and leadership is a crucial part of it. To develop the leadership culture, they decided to carry out a 360-degree feedback process and additional one-to-one coaching sessions with a Business Psychologist for all their directors and managers. “Leadership is competency and a skill, and even the experienced leaders need support and coaching in their management skills”, says Tarja Immonen-Harmaala, Chief People Officer at EDRMedeso.
The 360-feedback process and the coaching sessions conducted by Clevry were carried out for 23 people, including the Executive team and line managers in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and The United Kingdom. EDRMedeso recently earned the Great Place to Work Certificate in all their countries, and the 360 process is part of their bigger objective to develop their leadership and workplace culture. “We want to be an awesome place to work, and that means we want to provide the best possible leadership to all our employees”, says Immonen-Harmaala. “Being a high-level expert organisation, there is a requirement for a specific type of leadership. Leading skilled experts is about coaching and empowering the people and the team to perform at their best and giving them the support needed, and soft skills play a vital role here.”
Valuable insights into leadership culture
360 feedback provides a holistic view of leaders’ performance by gathering feedback from direct reports and peers. Stakeholders are asked to rate a colleague against a number of behavioural indicators measuring key competencies required for effective performance in the leadership position. “It’s valuable to collect feedback and understand how others see you and mirror that to how you see yourself. Reflecting on the results with a Business Psychologist allows you to get even deeper insights on an individual level “, says Immonen-Harmaala.
“We are very pleased with the cooperation with Clevry in this project”, says Immonen-Harmaala. We had participants from five different countries, the whole project was carried out online, and we had a bit of a tight schedule on our side. But everything went well. The communication from Clevry was excellent across the board, and the coaching sessions with Clevry’s Business Psychologists were rewarding for all participants. In hindsight, we should have opted for a longer session to get the most out of the coaching sessions – a lesson learned, Immonen-Harmaala says.
“It’s valuable to collect feedback and understand how others see you and mirror that to how you see yourself. Reflecting on the results with a Business Psychologist allows you to get even deeper insights on an individual level.”
Long-term commitment to leadership development
The 360-feedback process laid the foundation for future developments. “We want to develop our leadership culture, which happens through individuals”, says Immonen-Harmaala. She continues to explain that they want to create a continuous process where they evaluate leadership periodically. “We got instant value from this project, but we’re also able to use the findings in the longer-term. The 360 feedback results and the insights from the coaching sessions will be used to support our internal one-to-one discussions. We also created personal development plans and set goals for all participants with Clevry’s Business Psychologists.
“We want to offer the best support for our leaders and all employees so that they can develop themselves and grow professionally. Our goal is that EDRMedeso is seen as an employer that invests in its people and a workplace where people can build a long, meaningful career”, concludes Immonen-Harmaala.
