Best Leadership Development Programme 2018

Working closely with the People Team at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme I designed and delivered a 12 month leadership development programme which has been nominated for the Best Leadership Development Programme in the Training Journal Awards 2018.

Engaged by the FSCS People Team to create a Leadership development programme for a cohort of 50 managers, senior managers and executives. The objectives of the programme were to give leaders the skills to take more control and ownership during a period of substantial organisational change. This included living up to their cultural values, developing a proactive & flexible leadership style and increasing their self-awareness & emotional intelligence. As part of the programme we were asked to challenge the status quo and established mindsets to help managers break out of their comfort zones and patterns of behavior.

The programme started with a discovery & design phase where we met with executives and managers at all levels to explore the challenges they saw for the organisation. We designed the Leadership Excellence programme around these challenges. The delivery phase was for 30 training days with corresponding coaching as required for specific leaders. The programme included specific workshops on management & leadership, self-awareness, leading through change, managing difficult conversations, influencing, delegation and listening skills.

The feedback from the delegates was very positive with an average feedback score of 4.77/5 for all the workshops but more importantly the perceived quality of leadership improved significantly during the programme.

Here is some feedback from the leaders themselves :-

“Very good & very thought provoking. Course is very practical and not fill of fluff which is good – straight talking to the point & useful”

“Great discussions, empowerment to challenge other leaders. It was very insightful & got us thinking”

“Thoroughly enjoyable. Great overview without being complex. At a level that can be applied.”

“Identified with the course, very relevant for us and the different types of change we are going through: people, process, technology. Very good course. I feel I have grown in confidence to communicate more openly in the group.”

“Excellent – identified issues of which I may not have been aware. Useful tips and made me think about my listening skills”

Strategy Workshop – Charity Sector

A small charity that has been running for a number of years asked us to facilitate a strategy workshop. They had been running for a number of years and had just secured a 5-year Big Lottery Fund grant. It was a good time to take stock by reviewing their existing strategy and developing a new vision for the next 5 years.

We ran a workshop with key members of staff and volunteers and first we explored where the charity was currently. This involved identifying the services they provided, who their clients were, key stakeholders and outcomes. It quickly became clear that their own idea about themselves was out of date. As one delegate said she was ‘blown away’ by the scope and reach of who they helped and what they did.

We then moved on to the future and developed a vision for what the charity would look like in 5 years time for the staff, volunteers, clients and stakeholders. A rich and detailed picture of the future was developed which was then mapped to a set of actions and next steps.

What struck us most was the difference in how this charity saw themselves by the end of the day. By stepping back for a moment they were able to see what we saw – a great charity with huge potential to develop and most importantly provide support to their clients.

“The workshop you facilitated was fantastic. We got more out of it than I ever thought we would. We have a much clearer vision and new direction and we can’t wait to get started. Peter you made us all feel comfortable in your company and quickly adapted to our working ethics and us as a crazy team. We do hope to keep in touch and will recommend your service to other organisations.”