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Leadership Development
Human Synergistics helps brewery change leader behavior. By Brian Stout
Alcoholic beverage company Lion Nathan experienced growth and success in the early 1990s, when the New Zealand-based company acquired Nathbrew Holdings and two additional breweries in 1993.
But by the beginning of 1996, Lion Nathan's profits, revenue, and market share had begun to slip. Douglas Myers, the CEO at the time, responded by critically evaluating the effectiveness of Lion Nathan's key functional areas, orgaanizational structure, and brand strategy. Myers's actions started a 10-year journey that has revitalized leadership and improved employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Recently, the company was named one of the top 10 companies for leadership in the Asia Pacific region by Fortune magazine. To achieve these successes, Lion Nathan leadership learned that accomplishing lasting organizational change means changing behaviors and that everyone, starting with management, needs to commit to change.
The journey
In 1997, around 100 Lion Nathan leaders attended change and development workshops that included receiving feedback through Human Synergistics's Life Styles Inventory 1 and 2 (LSI) assessments, which helped managers gain insight into their self-reported thinking styles and their behaviors as perceived by others. LSI results are presented on a circular graph that shows the relative strength of 12 thinking and behavioral styles, grouped into constructive, passive-defensive, and aggressive-defensive behaviors.
The constructive styles characterize self-enhancing thinking and behavior that contribute to one's level of satisfaction, ability to develop healthy relationships and work effectively with people, and proficiency at accomplishing tasks. In contrast, the leaders' individual profiles showed primarily aggressive-defensive styles, which was painful for many to fathom, including Gordon Cairns, Lion Nathan's CEO at the time.
"Having a visual of your profile is very helpful," says Bob Barbour, Lion Nathan's people and culture director. "We encouraged our leaders to share their LSI profiles with each other. Talking about the profiles and sharing goals helps people externalize their commitment to change, and creates a network for feedback."