“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In this case study
- Introductions
- Executive Summary
- What is Kaleidoscope?
- Kaleidoscope Coaching: The Components
- Kaleidoscope Coaching: The Journey
- Impact of the Kaleidoscope Programme
- Impact of the Coaching – Quantitative Data
- Coaching Challenges
- Key Takeaways & Recommendations
- Pioneering a New Leadership Development Model
- Gratitude
Introductions
GroupM is the world’s leading media investment company, with a mission to shape a new era of media where advertising works better for people.
Govani Coaching is a global executive coaching firm that combines deep commercial experience with mindful presence. Their commitment is to be a strategic partner to develop executives who can lead with presence and purpose.
Executive Summary
GroupM's Kaleidoscope programme is a groundbreaking approach to leadership development in the media industry. Over three years, 60+ high-potential leaders from across GroupM's global network engaged in a comprehensive development programme that included over 1,500 hours of 1:1 executive coaching provided by Govani Coaching. This paper explores this coaching element of Kaleidoscope.
The coaching programme's distinctive features - allowing participants complete freedom to tailor their development focus and designing a new method to quantitatively measure coaching outcomes - fostered exceptional leadership growth and tangible business impact. Key results include 75% of participants advancing within the company and significant contributions to major pitch wins.
This case study observes how coaching relationships naturally evolved from structured leadership development into trusted thinking partnerships, even when coaches changed midway through the programme. Kaleidoscope demonstrates the transformative impact of sustained, personalised coaching when backed by strategic organisational investment.
What is Kaleidoscope?
During the turbulent times of the pandemic, GroupM created their flagship leadership development programme “Kaleidoscope” to futureproof their growth in an ever-changing world. The primary intentions for Kaleidoscope were to:
- Bring together diverse perspectives and support the ongoing transformation of GroupM and the industry
- Retain talent in a competitive market, and
- Develop leaders who can navigate industry disruption
In 2022, 62 high-potential leaders across GroupM's global workforce embarked on a three-year journey to redefine leadership for the next generation. They became the first cohort of "Kaleidoscopers."
December 2024 marked the completion of the inaugural Kaleidoscope cohort. With GroupM's commitment to launch a second cohort in 2025, this time in between provides a valuable opportunity to celebrate achievements, extract key learnings and refine the approach for even greater impact.
Key components of Kaleidoscope include:
Education: partnering with business schools and leadership development experts to provide world-class education on topics pertinent to the industry (e.g., digital transformation)
Exposure: providing opportunities to meet with senior leaders across GroupM and contribute to strategic projects
Evaluation: understanding personal areas for development through 360 feedback and coaching
Experience: providing memorable moments and showcasing opportunities and challenges across the media landscape through annual regional immersions
Kaleidoscope Coaching: The Components
Govani Coaching is the exclusive 1:1 coaching partner for Kaleidoscope.
Coaching Programme Structure
The structure provided 10 hours of 1:1 coaching per year for each Kaleidoscoper, held either online or in person. Rather than prescribing a set development path, GroupM took a radical approach: Kaleidoscopers were given full autonomy to define their coaching priorities. This trailblazing approach to leadership development represents a bold departure from traditional development programmes and signals a new era of trust-based talent investment.
Managing the Coaching Programme
Govani Coaching was responsible for the scheduling and tracking of all coaching sessions, reducing the administrative burden on GroupM. It was also responsible for the quantitative analysis to measure the impact of the coaching (see Areas of Focus section below).
Govani Coaching ran monthly team meetings for the coaches to share updates from GroupM, co-design programme elements as the environment and context evolved in which Kaleidoscope was held, and build a sense of team amongst the coaches, who typically work in isolation. Govani Coaching also offered group supervision for the coaching team to enhance coach development, ensure ethical practice and maintain coaching quality throughout the three-year engagement.
Global Considerations in Coaching Delivery
The Kaleidoscope programme's global reach required thoughtful design considerations to ensure its effectiveness across diverse cultural contexts. Kaleidoscopers had opportunities to work with coaches from similar or different backgrounds as desired:
Linguistic Accessibility
As individuals tend to process information more deeply and access emotions more readily in their first language (Caldwell-Harris, 2015; Pavlenko, 2012), coaching was offered in five languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Mandarin), to remove a potential barrier to deep engagement.
Cultural Representation in Coaching Team
The coaching team was intentionally built to include racial and ethnic diversity, recognising the importance of representation in leadership development. The team was based across the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Canada and Hong Kong
GroupM & Govani Coaching Partnership
The Govani Coaching Client Lead, Farah Govani (Director, Govani Coaching) and the Kaleidoscope Lead, Emma Brock (Global Head of Leadership Effectiveness, GroupM) worked closely together throughout the three years. Their relationship quickly moved into a trusted partnership, rather than being a client-vendor hierarchy.
As the programme evolved over three years, the partnership allowed for real-time adjustments based on emerging needs and changing contexts. This fluid approach, while occasionally creating short-term complexity (such as the three iterations of the cancellation policy), ultimately created a more responsive and effective program tailored to the actual rather than anticipated needs of participants and GroupM. This partnership was fundamental to the success of the Kaleidoscope coaching.
“Working with Govani Coaching has been an outstanding experience. From the very beginning, Farah demonstrated professionalism, flexibility, and a genuine commitment to meeting our needs. The whole Govani Coaching team consistently provided high-quality coaching and adapted to our ever-changing needs! The relationship has been a true partnership with a shared purpose and ongoing collaboration. Over the last three years a high degree of trust has been built between GroupM and Govani Coaching and I truly appreciate the value they've brought to Kaleidoscope.”
Emma Brock, Global Head of Leadership Effectiveness, GroupM
Year 1: Elevating Leadership Capabilities
All 62 Kaleidoscopers were paired with a coach, based on language and time zone compatibility. After the first two sessions, Kaleidoscopers could choose to continue with their assigned coach or request a new match. This simple matching process was highly successful: just 4 people (6%) requested a different coach. Reasons were either wanting a coach with specific diversity demographics (gender or race) or acknowledging that rapport was low, even if that meant being coached in English rather than their primary language.
“Because of the coaching I feel I've made significant progress in combatting imposter syndrome, understanding who I am as a leader, and developing a means to bring people together to work for a great purpose.” Kaleidoscoper
Year 2: Deepening Impact
57 Kaleidoscopers (92%) opted in to a second year of coaching. Of the 57, 88% chose to continue with the same coach, demonstrating strong relationship development, while the remaining 12% chose to work with a different coach to experience different coaching approaches. Again, this meant that some Kaleidoscopers opted to work in English rather than their first language.
"Coaching has impacted the way I lead everyday with my team, colleagues, and clients. It has taught me how to be a better listening and advisor. The sessions have also helped me navigate a new career path within the company and how to use my strengths in new ways that continue to bring value to myself, my clients and the agency." Kaleidoscoper
Year 3: Strategic Disruption
Midway through Year 2, Emma and Farah began planning for the final year of coaching. Having observed that 88% of Kaleidoscopers maintained their coaching relationships into Year 2, they faced a design decision: maintain continuity or introduce deliberate disruption? This question was explored from the perspective of both Kaleidoscoper and coach.
For Kaleidoscopers, it was clear that many felt extremely psychologically safe with their current coach. However, the intentions for the Kaleidoscope programme included exposing participants to multiple approaches and helping them navigate disruption.
For coaches, the author had been experiencing new challenges with Kaleidoscopers she had been coaching for more than a year:
- It was getting hard (but not impossible) to maintain appropriate professional boundaries, potentially compromising coaching effectiveness.
- A growing familiarity with each Kaleidoscoper led to her making assumptions about them, risking a reduction in the level of challenge she provided.
- "Coaching drift" - where sessions become less structured over time - started to occur; conscious effort was needed to agree and maintain the contract for each session.
These difficulties represented a shift in their working relationship after an extended period of partnership. These challenges were not unique to the author: other coaches reported similar experiences as their coaching relationships evolved.
After extensive consultation with the coaching team, other seasoned coaches and through supervision, Emma and Farah chose the disruptor route for Year 3: Kaleidoscopers who had worked with the same coach for two years would be paired with a new coach for the final year.
This strategic pivot yielded compelling insights into coaching relationship dynamics:
- 66% embraced the transition to a new coach, completing the full year of coaching.
- 6% initiated work with a new coach but ultimately concluded their coaching journey early, citing sufficient developmental progress.
- 28% maintained their original coaching relationships:
- 18% refused to work with a new coach
- 10% briefly worked with a new coach before requesting to return to their previous coach.
Contrary to expectations, the coaching refresh did not reorient participants toward new developmental goals. Instead, an evolution in the coaching relationship itself was observed — shifting from structured developmental work toward a trusted sounding board relationship. This finding suggests that mature coaching relationships naturally evolve toward 'thinking partnership' dynamics, regardless of coach changes. The challenge is thus for each coach to ensure they maintain appropriate boundaries, recontract on a regular basis and maintain coaching rigour.
Overall, the Govani Coaching team delivered more than 1,500 hours of coaching throughout the three-year programme, indicating that the coaching element of Kaleidoscope was highly valued. Govani Coaching's impact stemmed from their combination of commercial expertise, mindful presence and adaptive coaching methodology. The coaches' ability to work with ambiguity and without predefined development goals enabled them to respond to emerging needs rather than following rigid frameworks.
“The coaching has honed my ability to understand and address the diverse needs of my clients, fostering stronger, more effective relationships. It's not just about the tactical aspects of leadership; it's also about the emotional intelligence and strategic thinking that are crucial in today's dynamic environments. This holistic development has made me a more empathetic, decisive, and visionary leader, better prepared to navigate the complexities of my professional landscape.”
Kaleidoscoper
The Kaleidoscope programme delivered substantial organisational and individual impact:
- Kaleidoscopers played a key role in every major pitch win during the three-year period.
- 75% of Kaleidoscopers advanced within the company. The connections and coaching significantly eased the transition into larger roles, driving both cultural and financial impacts on the business.
- Retention rates among Kaleidoscopers outperformed industry benchmarks, with 19% turnover during the three-year period, compared to the industry average of 29% turnover during the same timeframe (average of 3 years’ turnover from IPA Annual Census 2022-24)
- The feedback indicates strong positive effects, particularly in cross-Operating Committee relationships and collaboration, client leadership, team leadership, overall impact and performance, understanding of GroupM vision and strategy, and career progression.
The ultimate testament to Kaleidoscope's success is GroupM's decision to launch a second cohort in 2025, representing a continued significant investment in developing their next generation of leaders through this innovative approach.
Impact of the coaching – Quantitative data
Feedback from Kaleidoscopers
46 Kaleidoscopers completed a survey at the end of Year 2:
- 100% agreed that they valued the coaching sessions and prioritised attendance.
- 93% agreed that the coaching sessions helped them meet their professional and developmental needs.
- 85% agreed that their coach partnered with them to consider how to move forward.
Areas of Focus
It is well known that quantitatively measuring the impact of coaching is difficult. Govani Coaching designed a new way to measure the impact of the coaching work on an annual basis and piloted it with Kaleidoscope. The approach comprised:
- All Kaleidoscopers worked with their coach in the first three sessions to identify up three coaching goals for the year, which were called “Areas of Focus”.
- Kaleidoscopers rated each Area of Focus with the question: “On a scale of 1 – 10, how satisfied are you with [Area of Focus] right now?”
- The Areas of Focus were re-rated at the end of each year, using the same question.
- All data was collected on an anonymised basis by the Govani Coaching Client Lead and grouped into categories.
- The medians and ranges of each category were reported at the start and end of each year.
- The data was grouped into two broad categories: Leading Self and Leading Others.
Year 1 (2022)
- 85% of Kaleidoscopers completed both sets of Areas of Focus ratings.
- There were 12 common Areas of Focus for which there was sufficient data for meaningful analysis – the ranges and medians of the self-assessed satisfaction ratings are reported here:
Leading Self, 2022
Leading Others, 2022
All Areas of Focus improved: coaching had a clear, measurable, positive impact. The greatest positive impact was on factors relating to “Leading Self”. Factors relating to “Leading Others” all improved but at a slower rate.
Year 2 (2023)
- 50% of Kaleidoscopers completed both sets of Areas of Focus ratings. This reduction in completion rates correlates with the observed evolution of coaching relationships into more fluid trusted sounding board partnerships, where formal measurement became less central to the engagement.
- There were 8 common Areas of Focus.
- To ensure data was not lost, all other Areas of Focus were grouped under a 9th category of “Other”.
Leading Self, 2023
Leading Others, 2023
The 2023 outcomes mirrored 2022 results, demonstrating sustained positive impact across both "Leading Self" and "Leading Others" categories. Importantly, no individual participant reported lower satisfaction scores in Q4 compared to Q1, demonstrating consistent positive development. However, there was minimal progress in "Finding Balance," reflecting ongoing demands and challenges experienced across GroupM and more broadly across the global industry in 2023.
Year 3
By Year 3, Kaleidoscopers’ coaching needs had changed. Having addressed foundational challenges like executive presence, mindset and communication skills in the first two years, the coaching work matured into dynamic, responsive support systems. Coaches became trusted sounding boards, helping Kaleidoscopers navigate complex situations in real-time with greater confidence and clarity.
This evolution resulted in fewer Areas of Focus being identified and thus there was insufficient data for analysis.
The open-ended nature of the coaching scope was challenging for some Kaleidoscopers at the start. Some struggled to identify their focus areas without prescribed development goals. Some coaches also initially struggled with the lack of defined coaching goals. However, over time, the freedom offered by this approach was embraced by all.
Some coaches found the Areas of Focus methodology too rigid. However, after the first year, all coaches appreciated the tangible metric and the focus it provided for coaching sessions.
Switching coaches in the final year was met with pockets of resistance as discussed above, despite the intention to provide varied coaching styles and perspectives and maintain coaching rigour.
Key Takeaways
- Coaching evolves over time: Participants started by focusing on foundational leadership skills but organically shifted toward using coaching as a strategic thinking tool—reflecting the natural evolution of leadership growth.
- Trust-based development yields results: Empowering leaders to self-direct their development focus creates deeper engagement and accountability than prescribed programmes.
- Measurement matters: The innovative "Areas of Focus" methodology offers a practical framework for quantifying coaching impact—adaptable across industries and development programmes.
- Coach-switching considerations: Strategic coach rotation can maintain development momentum, though this needs to be communicated upfront at the start of the programme.
- Business integration: Kaleidoscopers played a direct role in every major pitch win during the three-year period, demonstrating how well-executed leadership development drives tangible commercial success.
Recommendations
- Communicate more upfront about the shape of the whole programme. This could not be done with the trailblazing first cohort as the programme design was under constant evolution. For the second cohort, a clearer roadmap can be provided outlining the coaching journey, introducing key concepts like Areas of Focus, and balancing structure with the flexibility that participants valued.
- Continue with the matching approach used at the start of Year 1. This simple approach works for large-scale coaching programmes.
- Encourage the switching of coaches in Year 2. This will reinforce the Kaleidoscope theme of working within disruption and maintain coaching rigour, whilst allowing for depth of exploration. If a coaching relationship lasts for more than a year, formal recontracting needs to occur between the coach and Kaleidoscoper.
- GroupM to implement more comprehensive metrics to strengthen programme evaluation. This could include quantitative data such as promotion rates, retention rates, 360-degree feedback scores and employee survey scores, all in comparison to non-Kaleidoscope peers.
- Govani Coaching will roll out the Areas of Focus methodology to other clients. This provides a valuable tool for quantitatively measuring the impact of coaching and providing focus for coaching sessions.
The success of Kaleidoscope demonstrates the power of true partnership in programme design and delivery. The mutual trust and respect between Govani Coaching and GroupM created the foundation for collaborative creation and allowed the programme to evolve.
Kaleidoscope has blazed a trail for a new approach to leadership development at GroupM. The company plans to launch a second cohort in 2025, demonstrating its continued commitment to developing its leaders.
Govani Coaching is proud to have played a key role in nurturing the next generation of leaders at GroupM. We look forward to repeating the proven elements of this pioneering programme while remaining ready to adapt and forge new paths as the leadership landscape continues to evolve.
"Coaching was a critical element of the Kaleidoscope programme. It provided our leaders with the time and space to navigate their own personal and professional challenges and opportunities which in turn enabled them to successfully lead themselves, their teams and their clients.”
Emma Brock, Global Head of Leadership Effectiveness, GroupM
Gratitude
With gratitude to all the trailblazing Kaleidoscopers for their trust in the coaching process, trust in their coaches, and for their courage to go deep into this work.
With gratitude to Emma Brock, whose vision, trust, and collaborative spirit made this innovative program possible. Her willingness to embrace new approaches and co-create solutions exemplifies the forward-thinking leadership that Kaleidoscope aims to develop.
With gratitude to the Govani Coaching Kaleidoscope team for their presence, their commitment to the work and for their support:
Client Lead
Farah Govani
Team Assistant
Charley Godding
Coaches
Alison Mackay
Amy Fung
Barbara Kleeb
Farah Govani
Jane Brendgen
Kanchan Prinsloo
Maria Arredondo
Michele Grant
Natalie Goni
Neil Pretty
Shalyma Cambridge
Tim Segaller
To discuss how we can support your leadership development priorities,
email Farah Govani or schedule a call
References
Caldwell-Harris, C. L. (2015). Emotionality differences between a native and foreign language: Theoretical implications. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1055.
Pavlenko, A. (2012). Affective processing in bilingual speakers: Disembodied cognition? International Journal of Psychology, 47(6), 405-428.