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.

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL)® has partnered with Whirlpool in leadership development over many years. 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 Tamara Patrick, Whirlpool University Global Director, “[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.”

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 for its leaders. 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

What are your talent development initiatives doing for your organization? Partner with us for a customized talent development program to fit your context and culture.

From the beginning of launching the program, Whirlpool knew they had something special on their hands. According to Patrick, “Many of the participants from the early cohorts 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 their development.

After launching Leading with Impact, CCL worked with Whirlpool to create another leadership course, this one for its early-career professionals who have been in the workforce for around 3 years. This customized, 2-day frontline manager program became 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