Success story

Coaching

Lane Bryant Coaching

Industry: Retail: Plus-size Women’s Clothing

Key Challenges

Lane Bryant executives and key talent leaders were in their roles for less than one year
Senior HR leader and her peers saw the leaders weren’t receiving support for a transition and/or growth strategy for their team

Solution and Services

on-target® coaching applied to understand leadership objectives of the leader, manager and HR partner

Solution Highlights

Develop a coaching plan and roadmap for implementation
Measured progress against the agreed upon objectives
Shared a final report with recommendations at the end of the coaching engagement

Key Benefits

Executives received a development tool that offered structured and customized support to drive desired change and impact.
Annual impact report illustrated an average improvement of 48% against coaching objectives in a 12 month period

Leadership Development: A Retail Women’s Clothing Store Chain Fashions a Top-Performing Team

Retailers must keep a vigilant eye upon trends in global economic growth, energy prices and even inflation. An organization must be able to shift with the rising tides and take advantage of increased economic activity when it occurs.

Lane Bryant is a United States retail women’s clothing store chain focusing on plus-size clothing. The first Lane Bryant store opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1904. Through the decades, Lane Bryant grew nationwide, offering a wide selection of fashion apparel. The chain operates over 800 stores in 46 U.S. states and is part of the Ascena Retail Group family.

In the 1990’s Lane Bryant began a transformation of the brand that has today made it the plus-size industry leader.

The Challenge: Leaders Who Are Ready to Seize Opportunity

Several members of the Lane Bryant executives and key talent leaders were in their roles for less than one year. A few were brand new to the team. The senior human resources leader and her peers understood the importance of providing each of the leaders with the support they needed to build and execute a transition and/or growth strategy for both the leaders and their team. The lack of support put each leader’s success at risk.

Connect the Dots (CTD) was asked to help get the new leadership team up to speed quickly and build the supportive relationships necessary in order to meet organizational goals.

The Solution: on-target® Coaching

Our experienced executive coaches applied CTD’s on-target® coaching methodology, beginning with discovery to understand:

Objectives of the leader, her manager and human resources partner
The leader’s level of self-awareness
The manager’s level of engagement in the leader’s development

The next steps were to develop a coaching plan and roadmap for implementing the plan. Over the course of the coaching engagement, the CTD coach measured progress against the agreed upon objectives and shared a final report with recommendations at the end of the coaching engagement.

on-target® provided the crucial frameworks, processes, tools, and perspectives needed for the selection and development of Lane Bryant’s leaders. This strategic coaching helped create a culture that supported performance from within to gain market position.

It also equipped managers to take on leadership roles for the future to guarantee long-term, workable solutions for the organization.

Customized Leadership Coaching and Support Achieves Better Results in Less Time

CTD’s on-target® coaching provided Lane Bryant executives with an executive development tool that offered a structured and customized support and perspective to drive desired change and impact.

Our annual impact report illustrated an average improvement of 48% against coaching objectives in a 12-month period.

Through their partnership with CTD, Lane Bryant’s senior human resources executive and the president were able to improve:

The overall leadership strengths and gaps
The culture of the leadership – how their leaders make decisions and respond to business performance
Their knowledge of how they should support and respond to these dynamics

One of the most effective tactics of meeting the identified challenges of retaining and rewarding the best people and attracting high quality candidates to the organization is providing professional development through coaching. This is one area where an organization can stand apart from its competitors with leadership that is equipped for future expansion. Having skilled leadership in place ensures the business is headed in the right direction. Lane Bryant’s leadership team is now prepared to help the organization further increase its market share.