Partnering to Span Boundaries at Whirlpool

Client Profile & Challenge

A home appliance manufacturer and marketer operating in 140 countries, Whirlpool began to invest in leadership in the early 1990s through the introduction of its corporate university, a global center where leaders come from around the world to develop in strategy and leadership, innovation, and Six Sigma.

Since the early 1990s, the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)® has partnered with Whirlpool in leadership development. In 2010, Whirlpool came to CCL to help strengthen its pipeline of future company directors and senior leaders, and lift their ability to make a higher impact at Whirlpool and beyond.

According to Whirlpool University former Global Director Tamara Patrick, “[These leaders are] the bridge to 68,000 employees, a very important leadership role. It was natural for us to partner with CCL in order to build the competencies that we needed to build, things like:

• Working across boundaries,
• Influencing,
• Being a better leader,
• And inspiring our teams to lead, despite the deep recession that we were in.”

Solution & Results

CCL worked with Whirlpool to develop and launch Leading With Impact, a 3-day program that included rigorous assessments, videotaping, and personalized coaching. First piloted with top talent directors and eventually made available to all directors, Leading With Impact gave participants new perspectives and insights on who they are as leaders and helped them develop their executive presence.

Featured Solutions

Customized Leadership Development

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Talent Development

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From the beginning of launching the program, Whirlpool knew they had something special on their hands. According to Patrick, “Many of the participants in 2010 are now senior leaders in the organization, and they come in and they teach in the program. It’s not hard when you call them and ask them, can you come to Leading with Impact and spend time with us? They’re there, and they enjoy it. Their testimony is that the program had the biggest impact in their life of any program that they had taken, and much of that’s driven by the CCL faculty. They care deeply about each participant.”

For Whirlpool leaders, their first CCL experience is only the start of a leadership development journey at the organization. After launching Leading with Impact, CCL worked with Whirlpool to develop a course for early-career professionals. These are individuals that have been in the workforce for around 3 years. This 2-day program is the start of a CCL journey of leadership development programming throughout their careers at Whirlpool. Whirlpool continued to develop a course for managers, who then attended Leading with Impact as the next step in their leadership development journey.

For Patrick, the dedication and skill of CCL’s faculty and coaches stand out: “We know that we’re in good hands with our leaders when the Center for Creative Leadership is there. We also know that we’re getting the very best practices in the classroom … consistently the program, on a 5-point scale, is up near 4.9 in ratings, and the coaches are always rated very highly. They take evaluation very seriously. It’s just a good quality organization and we love partnering with them.”

Participants Say