Aligning UNICEPTA’s leaders on a new set of leadership principles

About UNICEPTA

UNICEPTA is a globally successful provider of media & marketing intelligence. With AI-driven technology and over 450 analysis and monitoring experts, UNICEPTA analyzes available content from social media, online, print, TV and radio broadcasts as well as various other sources worldwide – in real time and at any other desired point in time. In brief: UNICEPTA allows companies to listen better and formulate a strategy on how to act. Our analyses and insights are what global companies or organizations and market leaders base their decisions on, whether it’s in management, communication or marketing. UNICEPTA has offices in Berlin, Cologne (headquarters), Paris, London, Shanghai, São Paulo, Washington D.C. and Zurich. Around 70 percent of all Dax-listed companies in Germany trust UNICEPTA’s expertise.

UNICEPTA in a nutshell:

Client:

UNICEPTA

Industry:

Media and marketing intelligence

Headquarters:

Cologne, Germany

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Employees:

Roughly 450 analysis and monitoring experts

Size:

Eight offices across four continents, with offices in Berlin, London, Washington D.C., and Shanghai

How Sharpist supported UNICEPTA

UNICEPTA’s challenges

UNICEPTA wanted to spend time focusing on improving its company culture. In doing so, the company hoped to drive recruitment and employer development, foster a company-wide culture of coaching, develop alongside a transformation process, and cultivate an empowering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy.

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Sharpist’s scope

Sharpist was tasked with aligning UNICEPTA’s leaders on a new set of leadership principles - the UNICEPTA competence model - based on three core tenets:
- Energize
- Guide
- Achieve

top 3 percent of coaches

Learner-level results

- UNICEPTA’s learners showed persistent motivation to engage with Sharpist’s coaching program, evidenced by the high utilization rate (88%) and satisfaction rating (4.9/5).
- Leaders developed in the key areas of self confidence, communication, and leading through transformation.
- When asked to rate from 1 - 10 the impact coaching had on learners’ development, learners voted 7.75 on average.

Company-level results

- UNICEPTA was able to foster a more inclusive, empowering, and engaging company culture, with leaders aligned on a set of core principles.
- UNICEPTA’s HR department was able to track learner's focus areas in order to drive strategic improvements across key leadership skills.

Project duration

6 months

Learners

30 leaders across two UNICEPTA management groups.

Top digital coaching focus areas

- Leading Change/Transformation
- Leadership Approach/Presence
- Emotion & Stress Regulation

The Challenge

Why UNICEPTA decided to partner with Sharpist

As a media and marketing intelligence organization working closely with AI tools, UNICEPTA’s business goals are aligned closely with the development of new technologies; as such, the organization has to engage with technological innovation more frequently than traditional media organizations.

Consequently, UNICEPTA recognized that supporting their leaders through change was crucial, fostering an environment of mutual trust, support, and continual learning and improvement.

UNICEPTA partnered with Sharpist to align leaders on their new principles - the UNICEPTA competence model - based on three core tenets: to “energize, guide, and achieve.”

Sharpist’s program in a nutshell

In order to ensure meaningful, measurable, and long-lasting changes in leadership practices, Sharpist conducted pre- and post-surveys to track leaders’ progress across the leadership competence model from the beginning till the end of the program.

This information was available to UNICEPTA’s HR decision-makers and company leaders, allowing them to measure the organization’s leaders’ progress using qualitative and quantitative metrics.

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88%

utilization rate

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187

hours of learning

4.95/5
Star

satisfaction rating

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90%

upvotes from rated micro tasks

The outcome

UNICEPTA’s 30 leaders received targeted coaching, aligning their personal goals with key business objectives.

Through 1:1 guidance and micro tasks, Sharpist helped cultivate leadership capabilities across the organization’s three core principles of leadership: to “energize, guide, and achieve”. The program was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from learners, achieving a 4.9/5 star average learner satisfaction rating.

Consequently, UNICEPTA’s leaders were highly engaged with the program and motivated to progress, with an average utilization rate of 88%. In terms of qualitative feedback, when asked about the impact of Sharpist coaching upon their professional development, learners were quick to emphasize greater self-reflection as a key skill they had cultivated during their sessions. For instance, one learner commented that “I learned a lot about self-reflection and that I am allowed to be much more self-confident, to be less strict with myself.” Similarly, learner feedback also highlighted how much the support coaching provided them with as they navigated transformation, with one learner noting that, “with UNICEPTA’s change, which also affects me, I have learned to plan my development steps for myself so that I can make the best use of my strengths.”

Through combining resource-based and 1:1 learning, Sharpist’s partnership with UNICEPTA coaching fostered long-term changes both company-wide and individual. When asked to rank the impact of Sharpist coaching on learners’ professional development on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the maximum, learners voted the impact of their coaching sessions as 7.75, demonstrating clear progress towards both achieving both the organization and learners’ personal goals.

What UNICEPTA’s HR champions had to say about Sharpist’s coaching

Here are some insights from two of UNICEPA’s HR champions, Beate Zipser, Chief People & Culture Officer, and Andrea Missmahl, Senior HR Business Partner.

Andrea Missmahl

Senior HR Business Partner

How long have you been working with Sharpist?

We have been working with Sharpist since Summer 2022.

Why did you choose Sharpist?

We felt that, with Sharpist, we have a digitalized coaching provider at our side who, following an analysis of our individual needs, provides customized and personalized coaching solutions for our leadership groups. The flexibility when it comes to the timings of coaching sessions is also extremely important to our team!

How would you describe UNICEPTA’s personnel development set up? What are the organization’s goals in personnel development?

Our corporate culture is global and diverse. We welcome talented individuals who are committed and have an entrepreneurial mindset worldwide. We want to encourage and promote exemplary leadership behavior and professional development. As such, we have identified three focus groups within our Learning and Development structure that we challenge and encourage in particular ways: our Core Leadership Group, Extended Leadership Group, and, last but not least, our Professional Expert Group.

What business goals would you like to achieve with Sharpist? And how do you feel Sharpist can support you in achieving them?

UNICEPTA operates in a promising, dynamic business environment. Hardly any industry is more influenced by technological progress and the increased use of AI tools than ours. To maintain our momentum, our organization is undergoing constant change. Sharpist can help us empower our leaders to embrace change processes and embrace change as a new opportunity.

Future steps

After the success of Sharpist’s initial coaching program with UNICEPTA, the organization is motivated to continue the productive partnership through digital coaching and leadership support. By offering leaders targeted guidance via micro tasks and 1:1 support through coaching to “energize, guide and achieve”, Sharpist aims to continue developing a strong, empowering company culture based on Unicepta’s shared values: “Together. Proficient. Enthusiastic.”

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