A Case Study – Using The Lions Lead Leadership Instruments and Personal and Team Development Processes. HealthSouth was the third of the big business frauds of the early 2000s. The Enron disaster was the first massive fraud implosion, followed by a larger scandal in the fall of WorldCom. The story begins with the selection of Jim Foxworthy as the Chief Administrative Officer in 2004. Fox was charged with rebuilding the culture from fraud to a company of integrity and to restore sound business practices across its divisions and departments. James McAndrews III, was hired as the EVP of the Tax Department in 2005. He quickly set out to standardize the department’s business processes and raise the department’s lackluster reputation to one that was recognized as prominent and esteemed. Jim sized up the condition of the Tax Department with the following observations:

• The Tax Department was a group of disorganized individual contributors
• Much of the tax work was overseen by outside consultants costing the company millions every year
• The department needed to be transformed into a high performing team and recover as much refunds (federal and state) as possible

After surveying talent within the department and mapping out a plan to develop professional vitality and respected expertise, Jim exercised the following plan:

• Evaluate the Department’s current leaders with an executive assessment instrument from Dr. Dan Snively, to discern individual and team strengths, weaknesses and team dynamics
• Integrate the assessment findings to everyone’s performance goals for a comprehensive personal development plan
• Develop individual and team strengths so that the Department could recover as much cash from federal and state refunds and reduce dependency on consultants

Working together and forging a high performing team, Jim and the HealthSouth Tax team produced astonishing success. From 2005 to 2009, the following are highlights of their success:

• Recovery of over $650 million USD in tax and interest from federal and state refunds (HealthSouth was issued the largest IRS Tax Refund up to that time with a refund check of $434 million)
• Reduction of reliance on outside consultants form $24.5 million USD in 2005 to less than $1 million USD in 2009
• In addition to the reduced dependence on external consultants and staff efficiencies, the Department reduced the size of the Tax staff by 20% (from 56 staff to 42 by not filling vacancies and selected transitions) in 2009
• Jim McAndrews cited the executive assessments and transformational coaching and team development of Dr. Snively as critical to its success

Near the close of Jim McAndrews’ tenure as EVP of HealthSouth’s Tax Department, he noted the following points as a pathway he learned from his amazing journey:

• Develop people in leadership positions who do not know how to lead
• Confidently select the right leaders for your company
• Detect emerging leaders for bench strength and succession
• Change a group of people into a high performing team that produces extraordinary business results
• Achieve the promise that are present in people, programs, products and your business vision
• Transform mediocre leaders into extraordinary leaders who expand their performance capacity and influence others to do the same