Do you have great leaders in your organisation? Are they delivering the results you want? If there is room for improvement, you’re not alone. That was the situation for one of our clients too.
The client, a community health care organisation, was looking to turn around the performance of the organisation and overcome the following challenges:
* Engage the managers and team leaders with the vision for the organisation and empower them to take ownership of delivering it
* Develop a workforce that delivers an exceptional experience to customers, partners and stakeholders as the provider of choice (a reputation for excellence)
* Develop the ability of team leaders to improve the performance of the workforce to deliver goals, targets and a high-quality service
* Create an environment where the organisation values, recognises and reinforces good performance so improvement sustains and continues
They hired us to create a leadership development programme that would develop great leaders with the skills and confidence to lead the organisation and turn around the performance.
Our starting point
Our first step was to clearly identify the needed results from the Programme and define the key measures (quantitative and qualitative) we would use to evaluate the effectiveness of the Programme and assess the return on investment (ROI).
We also wanted to ensure that we:
* Minimised extended periods out of the workplace
* Maximised participants learning experience while out of the workplace
* Encouraged informal networking and relationship building among peers
* Supported application of learning in the workplace and started a process of peer support
Designing the Programme
To meet these needs we designed a modular programme consisting of three residential off-site workshops, supported by peer coaching groups between the modules and continuing after the Programme. This variety of development experiences meant leaders developed skills over time with each experience reinforcing and building on the last.
Our focus was on providing leaders with the practical skills, tools and techniques to help them influence the behaviour of others in the way that is needed to deliver business results.
As one of the Finance Directors said:
“My role is 20% Finance and 80% psychology. It’s all about relationships. Thank you for giving me techniques that I can apply and use in my working environment. It’s given me the confidence to effect change. It’s also helped me to identify some key issues that are affecting the teams I lead and give me some practical tools and strategies to tackle them.”
We designed and delivered all modules using brain-friendly techniques to ensure the workshops combined a rich mixture of activities and challenges which made the learning accessible and memorable. In particular, we used a team of professional actors to bring the learning content to life and to ensure the demonstrations and skills practice were as relevant and realistic as possible.
And I pride myself that we made the Programme positive and enjoyable. As one participant said:
“The positive approach was infectious and encouraging. I thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm of the facilitators who made the days fun and enjoyable while dealing with serious issues – Thanks to Antoinette for a very stimulating learning experience”
Impact of the Programme – Great Leaders
In total, 500 managers took part in the programme.
The impact was wide-ranging. Significant numbers of staff at all levels noticed observable differences in behaviour and performance of those who attended the Programme. Specifically, those individuals:
* Developed and completed a vision for their team which supported the overall vision for the organisation
* Empowered their teams to take ownership and responsibility for delivering that vision
* Had difficult conversations around performance and productively dealt with underperformance
* Tangibly valued, reinforced and rewarded good performance
* Established more effective partnerships with external organisations
* Raised the profile of the organisation among key stakeholder groups
Most importantly, the organisation significantly improved its performance and exceeded its targets 2 years running. It could now say it had great leaders.
“Antoinette and her colleagues offer a more tailored solution to our environment, and they’re very good value for money. Their facilitation skills are the best I’ve ever seen. They engage their audience and they’re innovative in how they deliver. They come up with interesting ideas and think creatively about solutions, and everything they do is based on the principle that I share; that by deriving the best performance out of your people, you will make your organisation successful. Also, the feedback is phenomenal. People who’ve been on the programme speak incredibly highly of the experience.”Chief Executive
