IMRSV Data Labs Case Study

Growth Outpaces Leadership Acumen

‍

During the global pandemic, many technology companies rapidly expanded and IMRSV was no different. 

“We ran for a long time as a purely professional services business. For a long time, we had this very linear growth trajectory. Until we had a contract that justified hiring a person, that person was not hired’, says Sam.

Pivoting into software meant entirely new roles were needed and created. The impact of this was a doubling of IMRSV’s headcount in less than two years. It led to a common challenge found in surging startups. The company transitioned from a small team, where people wore multiple hats and inherently understood the culture and leadership structures, to having a larger team, more specialization of skills which need to be actioned and recently appointed leaders struggling to find their footing. 

“Some of the original employees were really struggling to manage people. Yet we're very fortunate that everyone is quite humble about what they do and don't know. We have a strong culture of self-improvement. We quickly realized, within this new version of the company, the entire executive team needed help.”

Sam says rather than taking some basic training, they wanted someone who could help them forge new ground. An experienced leader who could bring fresh perspectives about the challenges they were facing and provide a roadmap for improvement. 

Finding the Right Fit

‍

Sam says deciding what he didn't want in a leadership program was much easier. Similar experiences, where he participated in team-building or coaching, had been dreadful.   

“I’d been part of peer groups for executives before and the advice around building high-performance teams felt antiquated or cheesy. Sometimes we would be asked to participate in weird ice-breaking activities. It does not resonate with me at all. 

Some people are thrilled by that kind of stuff. I always wondered why I was giving over half of my day for this.” 

One of the biggest disappointments for Sam, when evaluating the landscape, was a lack of understanding and guidance for IMRSV’s needs as a fast-growing software company. There seemed to be few leadership programs which had that expertise. Some coaching and executive training programs had been referred to him, but nothing was the right fit. 

“I didn’t want someone working with the team who had all these outdated practices. I wanted someone relatable. Someone who was hungry and invested in us getting better as a team”.  

A post on LinkedIn from another SaaS founder caught Sam’s attention. The founder had just gone through some leadership training with Unicorn Labs and described exactly what IMRSV wanted. Leadership coaching and training, that didn’t “feel like” leader coaching and training. Fresh and original, not fake and obsolete.

“At the end of the day, I want to work with someone who shares our ambition of building a great company; making an impact on people’s lives. My first impression of Fahd was that he was the perfect fit. He’s one of the most driven people I’ve met. We love working with him.”

Getting Started on The Right Foot 

Unicorn Labs uses five different assessment exercises to gauge and benchmark how teams are currently performing:

‍

1. Employee Engagement Survey: Taken by a manager’s team members before and at the end of the program. If the manager is engaged with the material and implementing the learning, the score should increase over time.
2. Team Dynamics Assessment: This scores the team scores against benchmarks on the six levels of Unicorn Leadership.  
3. Leadership 360 Degree Review: This assessment is taken by the manager and a group of people who interact with them the most. It assesses how the manager performs on the leadership capabilities taught in the program. 
4. DISC Personality Assessment: This helps determine a manager's personality type. We will teach them how to leverage and adapt their communication style to the individual and situation. 
5. Emotional Intelligence Assessment: This assessment helps managers determine how in tune they are with their emotions and those of others.

‍

These assessment tools help leadership teams and individuals determine where their strengths lie and where they can improve. Unicorn Labs then builds a training program which ensures they focus on the right areas. Sam says he was skeptical of their accuracy or usefulness, due to his past experiences with “executive training”. Yet those concerns instantly disappeared after speaking with Fahd. 

‍

“We talked about personality testing and my resistance to it. But Fahd reframed their importance in a way that still sticks with me today. These are not 100% guarantees of your exact personality. The assessments are a tool for guiding conversations about where we can improve as leaders. I needed to work on being less direct and using more emotional intelligence. It wasn’t about “figuring me out” or following some dated methodology. It was about identifying the strategies we needed to become a stronger, high-performing leadership team”