Changing the Guard at Trustmark
By Deborah Dorsett
Originally published in Human Resource Executive
– Training and HRD Case Study
Reprinted with permission.
HIGHLIGHTS
Organization: Trustmark Mutual Holding Company
Headquarters: Lake Forest, Illinois
Employees: 3,000
Primary Business: Health and life insurer and benefits administrator
Training & HRD Challenge: Transitioning CEOs (with different personalities and leadership styles) to enhance confidence of the senior leadership team and Board of Directors.
Whenever the organizational role of President and CEO is being transitioned, there is always the potential for confusion, misunderstandings, and upsets. When the personalities and styles of the two leaders are vastly different, the potential is amplified. As Grover Thomas, Jr moved from President and CEO to Chairman of Trustmark Mutual Holding Company, and his successor, Dave McDonough, became the new CEO, they were both aware of the differences between them. As a leader, Thomas's style is outgoing and people oriented; he has high physical energy and is quite responsive to tasks, situations, and groups. McDonough's style is reserved and thought oriented; he has high mental energy-anticipates, probes, evaluates, understands-to gain a firm footing before moving.
Trustmark Insurance had long used Personalysis as a visual and verbal shorthand for describing different perspectives in thinking, communicating, and processing. The tool helped in enhancing self awareness, building teams, resolving interpersonal conflict, understanding differences, and preventing turnover. More recently, McDonough used Personalysis to help effectively transition into his new role.
In planning to take over as President and CEO, McDonough knew he needed to gain his senior leadership team's confidence. One former peer became a direct report, and a new executive was hired. Personalysis provided a context for understanding each individual, the style differences between Thomas and McDonough, and where the land mines lay. During the transition process, each senior leader spent two days in Houston with a Personalysis Consultant gaining insights into self and others, developing a common language, and creating strategies for working with direct reports, peers, and the CEO. On day three, McDonough joined them to explore their strengths, differences, needs, communication, and maximizing their effectiveness. Not only did the CEO get to know the executive, the executive got to know the CEO and they were able to craft a concrete plan for working together in the future. During their discussions, they found the data permitted them to objectively deal with the issues rather than take things personally.
As McDonough shared, "From the team dynamic perspective, Personalysis is real value added. A well-oiled, cooperative leadership team enables us to reach better outcomes and conduct better business in general. With any leadership change, there is always the risk of unintentionally fracturing some of the team's ability to work together. At Trustmark, this was prevented by using Personalysis. The tool enabled me and each member of my new team to get to know each other better on a person to person basis. This improves the odds of achieving a well-run, cohesive organization."
As Thomas and McDonough discussed their transitions and ways of increasing the confidence the Board of Directors already had for McDonough, they felt that Personalysis would be a valuable tool. At their December 2005 Board Meeting, a Personalysis Consultant explained the technology and the data displayed in the profiles. Everyone was able to graphically see the differences in how Thomas and McDonough come across in their preferred styles. More importantly, through a facilitated discussion, Board members also understood the similarities in how they are motivated, make decisions, deal with change, and develop confidence. This was an eye-opener for the Board and gave them great comfort that the values, thought processes, decision criteria, and approaches to the business would not change significantly.
As Thomas remarked, "Once they understood how alike we are at our core and why we work so well together-that our styles actually complement each other, the members of the Board felt better. Instead of two completely different people, we are very similar in beliefs, values, goals, and business motivations. Naming Dave as the new CEO demonstrated the Board's confidence in him, and seeing how similar we are through understanding the Personalysis technology, increased their confidence level. We've had a lot of good feedback from the Board about that session."
About the Author
Deborah Dorsett is a Vice President and Executive Consultant with Personalysis Corporation, a management consulting firm located in Houston, Texas. Since 1975, Personalysis Corporation has worked with national and international companies to help them achieve higher productivity and performance. For more information, call (713) 784-4421 or go to www.Personalysis.com.