72 Development Case Study #1 _____________________________________________________________ How a Highly-Talented Manager Turned Good to Great and Grew His Career. I love a great success story - or in this case a great growth story! T his story is about a highly-talented Local Sales Manager with whom I have had the opportunity to work for many years now. Like all great leaders, this manager was driven to grow - both in his performance and in his career with the company. This manag- er’s focused determination made it clear to me that he was a perfect candidate for our Talent Insight Executive Coaching program! Talent Insight is a 360-type survey but is very different than any other performance survey out there because it starts with a clear un- derstanding of the manager’s innate talents. While others focus primarily on improving in areas of weakness, Talent Insight works to help the manager understand their own unique strengths and build a sure-fire plan to lever- age those strengths to be more productive and successful. Over the course of the year, we surveyed his team, determined the areas in which he was already reaching his greatest potential, and identified areas in which he had additional room for growth. With this information, we created specific strategies for him to use to maximize his strengths and we worked with his manager to support and coach him. He was highly engaged in the program, his se- ries of coaching calls with his Talent Analyst, and his defined goal to grow. He took it all to heart and ran with it! Curious how this story ends? Six months af- ter the completion of his Talent Insights Exec- utive Coaching, this manager was promoted and he attributes much of his promotion to the Talent Insight program. We take great pride in that and he earned it! Here’s what he had to say: “Although I be- lieved I was already a strong manager, I be- gan the training and was fully committed to learning about myself and how I manage. Throughout the year, the survey reports and insight calls gave me much needed informa- tion about how my sales team perceived me. There were areas I thought I was strong, but the team thought otherwise. This allowed me to concentrate my management efforts in ways that would make the biggest differ- ence overall. "Now, one year after being promoted from Local Sales Manager to General Sales Man- ager, I look back and give a lot of credit for