In the final chill of winter, Patrick and I traveled back to the Himalayan region of Kumaon in Uttarakhand. Although the nights were still cold, the early sunshine on the magical snowy mountain tops of Nepal was pure bliss. In this inspirational environment we spent a week working with the management team of Avani on management development and the managerial system.
Coaching management to next level
Avani is an artisan cooperative which produces textiles, natural dyes and lifestyle products through an end to end traditional, natural and handmade process. The top seven managers of the organization completed a self-assessment and two personality tests. Through group coaching they then turned their insights into an Individual development and performance plan. The purpose of this exercise was to enable the managers to close their competency gaps and to ensure that performance management in the entire organization is brought to the next level.
Defining roles and responsibilities
Throughout the week we spent equal time on the second objective, creating a comprehensive managerial system for Avani. Together with the CEO and the two business line managers we established roles and responsibilities, performance dashboards with KPI’s and targets, a meeting schedule with clear agenda’s, an action tracker and a team charter for the management team. The challenge here was to keep things as simple as possible so the tools are easily used and maintained.
The energy and engagement was very high throughout the week and we received very positive feedback on the usefulness and fun of the program. A very successful visit and we already look forward to the next one!
Rosalie van Ruler Thaker
Note: Thanks to the financial support of ASN Foundation, Women on Wings can work on Avani’s management development program.
