Enhancing Leadership Effectiveness
Developing Leaders Who Stay
Crescent Crown Distributing, LLC
Crescent Crown Distributing, LLC sells and delivers more than 30 million cases of the world’s finest beverages annually throughout its distribution territories in Arizona and Louisiana. Established in 1982 with only five trucks, Crescent Crown has grown to be one of the largest distributors in the United States.
The Opportunity: Develop Leaders Who Stay
Crescent Crown recognized the need to develop, retain, and grow leaders who contribute to the organization’s impact and culture. The organization saw the opportunity to elevate leader performance and pinpointed a key need: easing new leaders’ transition from “peer” to “boss”. Tracy Kennedy, VP of Human Resources at Crescent Crown aimed to leverage her expertise in Leadership Development to drive improved leadership effectiveness, accountability, and culture change. Kennedy used engagement survey data, attrition data, and exit interview data to create a “leadership university experience” for all managers at Crescent Crown.
The Solution: Empowering Leaders with Predictive Index
Crescent Crown began by sending an enhanced employee engagement survey that gave more granular data, specific to individual leaders, teams, departments, and divisions. The survey results helped identify gaps and key areas to improve.
The HR team of Crescent Crown created a simple leadership model (with desired behaviors and outcomes) using the Predictive IndexⓇ (PI) Job Assessment and Job Target strategy with the help of MindWire VP & Partner Gail Paul. The team then created a training curriculum called Leadership University which incorporated modules such as leadership self-awareness, skill training, and coaching with PI. Leadership University at Crescent Crown has been successfully running for over three years.
“In year one we offered a PI overview with training on how to use and leverage the tools. In year three of Leadership University, we offered one-on-one PI debriefs with MindWire and WOW, the feedback has been outstanding. The one thing I’d change is that I would incorporate individual PI debriefs earlier, as well as more one-on-one coaching to accelerate adoption of the curriculum.”
– Tracy Kennedy, VP of Human Resources
The Results: Reduced Turnover & Increased Satisfaction
In the first year, Crescent Crown gained significant improvement with several early adopters, with one leader gaining over 20 points in their leadership effectiveness, as an example. In year two, the organization continued to notice better performance in leaders and saw improvements for the 10 focus areas from the engagement survey that aligned to their leadership model. In all cases where leaders improved, they saw corresponding improvement in employee satisfaction and engagement, plus reduction in turnover.
In year three, following the one-on-one PI debriefs and use of the tools for enhanced coaching, Crescent Crown saw an eight point overall improvement in their organizations engagement score, with all 28 focus areas of the engagement survey experiencing a positive improvement. This has translated to higher engagement across the enterprise, reduced attrition, and more cohesive teams, as measured by the engagement survey.
In terms of overall success, Crescent Crown saw an increase in the happiness of their employees, which translated to improved customer service, morale, and a more positive work environment.
Published October 3rd, 2023.
