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Leadership Development for High Potential Managers at Pep Boys
Pep Boys incorporated Abilitie’s Management Challenge™ into its Leadership Development Program, designed to enhance leadership skills and prepare participants for multi-unit management accountability.
The Challenge
Pep Boys, a full-service tire and automotive aftermarket chain, recognized that high-performing and high-potential managers needed enhanced leadership skills to be better prepared for multi-unit management accountability. Building on the managerial practices taught in the Management Development Program, Pep Boys designed their Leadership Development Program. This program focused on helping participants master the skills and behaviors required for exemplary performance at a higher, multi-unit level within the Pep Boys organization.
Pep Boys partnered with Abilitie to incorporate Abilitie’s simulation Management Challenge™ into the program. The simulation served as a capstone to the six-month Management Development Program. This simulation provided managers with the opportunity to apply their coaching and communication skills and reinforce concepts that were taught during previous sessions.
The Approach
Abilitie’s Management Challenge™ is a team-based simulation in which managers practice handling real-world management situations without the real-world consequences. This technology-enabled simulation gives managers experience delivering performance and growing employees’ capabilities.
Facilitators frame the experience around key management objectives. To enhance performance, managers find their employee’s highest point of contribution and access their discretionary effort. Managers then work to expand the employee’s skills and stimulate their potential by continuing to expand their capabilities..
Throughout the day, managers encounter workplace scenarios that test their ability to solve frequently experienced problems. Workplace scenarios take the form of video-based conversations and role-play exercises. Video-based conversations put the manager in the hot seat to hold a free-flowing conversation with one of the virtual employees regarding issues he or she is facing. Role-play exercises require managers to work with their peers to engage in conversation, discuss the interaction, and reflect on how the exercise mirrors their own experience as managers.
The Outcome
In January 2015, 100% of participants “Agreed” or “Strongly Agreed” that the experience was a valuable use of their time and that the concepts learned in this course directly applied to their jobs.
Participant reviews of Management Challenge™ included comments such as the following:
