Best Practice

Leadership Excellence

Tubus System GmbH on its way to becoming a Purpose Driven People Company - a success story

Tubus System GmbH on its way to becoming a Purpose Driven People Company – a success story

Tubus System is an innovative company that has no less goals than to promote its employees holistically, to develop their talents with passion and to create a meaningful working atmosphere.

Let’s turn the clocks back a good year. In the fall of 2019, Strametz & Associates began working with the management of Tubus System GmbH, the global market leader for pipe rehabilitation technology based in Berlin. The goal: to create an inspiring, meaningful leadership and corporate culture and to multiply it throughout the entire company.

Background and core concerns

Tubus is a dynamic growth company with hardly any competitors thanks to the unique selling points of its product. Although this unique and excellent innovation speaks for itself, it is a core concern of the management team to carry the spirit of the company and the mission behind it out to the construction site and make it tangible for customers on site.

Our task was to support Tubus on its way to becoming a purpose-driven company and thus lay the foundation for even more customer focus and healthy growth. Essentially, the aim was to create and strengthen a culture that is based on partnership, trust and purpose, characterized by a high degree of transparency and appreciative feedback processes.

A holistic approach

The Tubus team wanted a holistic leadership development concept: on the one hand, this should be well-founded and based on modern scientific findings and, on the other, offer enough flexibility for individual, company-specific topics. In addition, it should be action-oriented, consist of short formats and extend as a process over at least twelve months in order to have a lasting effect and enable real development (also as a team).

We at Strametz were able to convince them with our Next Leadership practice model and an interval concept, so that we were able to start with a kick-off event for the Leadership Excellence Program at the end of 2019. Since then, we have been supporting the top management team at Tubus System GmbH and can already look back on many months of fruitful training situations, micro-impulses, group discussions, workshops, inner awakening and valuable work based on trust.

Two consecutive half days were agreed with the management team as the format for the events. We scheduled the start of the workshop for Monday lunchtime so that employees could arrive comfortably and complete the most important to-dos at the start of the week. The joint dinner at the end of the day gave us additional valuable time to get to know each other better and discuss what we had worked on. On Tuesday morning, we were able to continue our program with motivation before parting after lunch to travel home, be back home at a family-friendly time or take the first steps towards implementation “on the job” in the office.

Modular concept

The concept of the Leadership Excellence Program is based on six modules that build on each other, each with a different focus. Between the modules, participants receive intensive support through individual personality and performance coaching

The structure of the modules follows the principle of the Golden Circle:

In the kick-off, the Eigenland® methodology was used very effectively to identify similarities and differences to the existing cultural characteristics and to formulate a common set of values for further collaboration and impact on the organization. In the first module, managers were then able to shape the “playing field” from various framework conditions for companies and teams. The second module dealt with methods of decision-making and when to use which method best in a given situation. The third module consisted purely of practical training with the Strametz Leadership Simulation, in which what had been learned could already be applied. In this way, everyone was able to experience how employee and team leadership can succeed or fail in dynamically complex and sometimes quite stressful situations, as each participant received clear feedback on effectiveness and specific development recommendations from several perspectives.

In the fourth module, we were able to delve deeper into the topic of employee management and team development and build directly on our practical experience. Building on these basic skills, the next two modules focused on the art of leadership. Here, the participants learned what it means to convey a sense of purpose in their daily leadership role and to lead with vision and passion. Finally, the inner circle focused on leadership personality and what constitutes natural leadership authority. After all, all participating managers had resolved to act as role models in the organization and to be seen as such.

Conclusion and outlook

The fruits of the Leadership Excellence Program are already clearly visible, and the consistently positive development can be felt at all levels. In addition to the skills learned, the continuous support, constant exchange and growing group spirit have also created a basis for trust – a breeding ground in which elementary values such as honesty and openness find their place.

Where vulnerability is lived, trust can grow. This is the climate that is needed to be truly successful: Turning employees into companions, achieving corporate goals together with a clear vision and having a positive influence on individuals and society – that is the people company of tomorrow.

And because it became clear to everyone involved how valuable this off-time with the management team away from the day-to-day managerial routine is, the decision was made after the penultimate module to continue the meetings at somewhat greater intervals for an indefinite period. The aim is to keep working on leadership topics and to consciously take time as a team for topics such as leadership, culture, purpose, etc., which are otherwise quickly neglected or lost sight of in everyday life.

In parallel, a Leadership Excellence Program II has now been launched with the next management level, for which the participants in the first group act as mentors.