Employee Training and Development 6th Edition by Raymond Noe

Exercise 2

Trustmark provides more than 2 million people with flexible medical, life, and disability benefits and fitness and wellness services. The company, headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, has more than 6,200 full- and part-time employees working in twenty-five locations across the United States. Trustmark experienced steady growth until mid-1990, when it experienced financial pressures that forced it to reevaluate its operations. Trustmark concentrated on core competencies, sold off businesses, and focused on generating capital. Once the company was financially sound, Trustmark executives moved to create a culture that would be open to innovation and opportunity. The challenge was to create a culture where all employees felt they could challenge the status quo and seek new opportunities. The key to creating this culture was developing effective leaders who supported it.
Trustmark used workshops and 360-degree feedback to help the "Trustmark Renaissance," a radical change in the organizational culture and mind-set, succeed. The leadership program includes sessions, attended by senior leaders, directors, and managers, during which participants learn about leadership practices, such as how to inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage with the heart. During these sessions, participants also receive feedback from their 360-degree assessments. Participants also get one-on-one coaching where they can discuss their leadership challenges and their feedback. Participants are asked to identify development areas to focus on during the next step in the process, a two-day workshop. At the workshop, participants learn more about the leadership practices and how to improve the areas identified in their feedback. Participants leave the workshop with an improvement plan for improving their leadership effectiveness. Participants are paired with partners who are expected to provide post-workshop support, exchange action plans, and commit to follow-up to ensure success in using what they learned.