Overview
- Investing in leadership development increased the confidence levels of emerging leaders in their own capacity to manage others and deal with change.
- It improved their engagement as a team and strengthened their alignment with the organisation’s strategic direction.
- They were less worried about managing thorny people issues.
- They reported being more able to stay focussed during times of uncertainty.
- They felt the organisation cared about their careers and were more willing to ‘give back’.
- 80% rated their experience of 121 coaching with JMA Leadership as ‘very’ or ‘extremely valuable.’
The Requirement
Our client, a leading international development consultancy firm, was facing challenges on numerous fronts before the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. Challenges which required them to be more flexible and agile, fast-paced and responsive to demand than ever before.
They came to us concerned about decreasing profit margins, stiffer competition, declining staff engagement and lack of skills to deal with change and people issues.
One way they sought to address this was by increasing the capability of their emerging leaders so that they would be better equipped to expand their programme portfolio in key market areas.
Our clients wanted them to be more likely to win work and better able to develop client relationships.
They wanted them to have the skills to:
- motivate, engage, and develop team-members
- recognise unhealthy team dynamics and take steps to improve collaboration
- deal with challenging conversations
- set a vision for their projects and inspire others to achieve
- establish a work culture that brings out the best.
The Solution
We designed and facilitated a 4-month blended learning programme which was delivered virtually across the globe to 15 participants and consisted of two components running in parallel.
- A 10-week, 10 module online training course on Leading High-Performing Teams provided by the University of Queensland Australia
- Group and 121 coaching sessions provided by JMA Leadership which focussed on encouraging participants to bridge the gap between knowing and doing, to translate their online learning into practical action at work.
A high-level overview of the programme core elements:
What outcomes were achieved? What was the business impact?
The emerging leaders and their line managers reported an increase in their confidence levels in leading others and in their ability to manage and influence situations.
They fed back that they’d developed greater insight and awareness of how they approached issues and were now better equipped to motivate and inspire others to deliver.
This was evidenced by more bid and tenders being submitted on time and being won, and an increase in positive feedback from clients. This has set them up well to withstand the turbulence created by the COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly changing client needs.
Overall participants reported that they felt more invested in, more valued by our client organisation and more likely to use their leadership skills within the business– which means that now there is a stronger group of successors for key roles.
A formal evaluation process showed that:
- 89% of people rated their experience with the on-line training as either somewhat, very, or extremely useful
- 100% of people rated their experience of the 1-2-1 coaching sessions as either somewhat, very, or extremely valuable
- 89% of people rated their experience of the group coaching sessions as either somewhat, very, or extremely useful.
Quotes from programme participants:
“My increased leadership and confidence in being the client relationship manager is enabling us to develop new business relationships with new clients.”
“[The] training has been very helpful in helping me understand how I can manage and lead better, and how to build a team that stays and works together by choice and not by force.”
“Taking on the leadership role has enabled us to deliver a good project thus far and our client has actively sought us out regarding tendering for similar projects.”
At JMA Leadership we believe that well-led organisations outperform their less well-led competitors.
Join us on our mission to help leaders create businesses that are well-led healthy places to work, where people feel their hard work is valued and that what they do makes a difference.
We work with senior leaders to develop their leadership skills and build their team’s capability.
Find out how we can help you by getting in touch with us at info@jmaleadership.com or call us on + 44 (0)1604 340990.