The Challenge: Building Leadership in a New Company
Following its separation from Hewlett-Packard in 1999, Agilent Technologies, a new 47,000-person "start-up," needed to establish a strong leadership culture aligned with its new corporate values: Speed, Focus, and Accountability. The CEO identified leadership development as a critical priority.
While executive coaching existed in the past, it was uncoordinated and lacked strategic integration. Agilent wanted to create a standardized, corporate-recommended coaching program that delivered measurable results and leveraged preferred pricing.
Designing the APEX Program
In 2000, Agilent launched the APEX (Accelerated Performance for Executives) program, a behaviorally-based executive coaching approach designed in collaboration with Alliance for Strategic Leadership Coaching & Consulting. The program focused on improving leadership behaviors on the job, not on remedial coaching, career planning, or strategic planning.
Initial Objectives
The design of the APEX program was guided by several key objectives:
- Senior Leader Focus: Target vice presidents, general managers, directors, and other high-potential senior leaders.
- Global Reach: Provide access to local coaches across Agilent's facilities in over 60 countries, ensuring awareness of cultural nuances.
- Flexibility and Ease of Use: Offer a simple menu of options for different budgets and make it easy to start and administer a coaching engagement.
- Accountability for Results: Require participants to demonstrate positive, measurable change in leadership effectiveness, as judged by their colleagues and direct reports.
Key Components of the APEX Program
To meet its objectives, Agilent built a multi-faceted program with several core components.
The Agilent Global Leadership Profile
A critical first step was creating a new leadership profile that reflected the company's strategic priorities and values. This 360° feedback instrument, the "Agilent Global Leadership Profile," was developed through an iterative process involving senior management and reviews from global business units. It provided a consistent framework for assessing and developing leadership behaviors across the organization.
Worldwide Coaching Pool
Agilent established a network of over 60 certified external coaches located near the company's key global facilities. This global pool ensured leaders could be matched with a coach in their region, often with local language capabilities.
The "Pay for Results" Guarantee
A unique feature of the APEX program was its results guarantee. The program linked payment for coaching services to follow-up measurements of leadership improvement. This ensured that the company's investment was tied directly to demonstrated positive changes in a leader's effectiveness.
Measuring Success and Key Results
The APEX program was officially launched in May 2000. Its success was measured through a follow-up "mini-survey" process.
- Proven Effectiveness: Over its first two and a half years, the program served more than 100 leaders.
- Measurable Improvement: Based on feedback from raters, over 95% of participating leaders demonstrated positive improvement in overall leadership effectiveness.
The lessons learned from the APEX program provide valuable insights for any organization seeking to develop its key leaders through a structured, accountable, and globally consistent executive coaching process.