Case study: Developing leadership skills in financial services
Effective leadership takes place at work so that is where support should be delivered
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Business Challenge
␉A Financial Services company wanted to enhance its leadership capability to compete more ␉effectively in a highly competitive market sector and to develop a benchmark for 'A player' ␉performance. A modular, blended leadership development programme was sought, that ␉would build on existing skills and experience of senior and middle ␉managers, would provide ␉workplace support and sustain development of both the cohort and each individual.
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Echelon’s Solution
Echelon designed a blended learning experience that accommodated the differing skill levels and preferred learning styles of the managers. A blended solution of workshop learning was integrated with a library of online modules accessed through the company Intranet.
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Key Benefits
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Consistent leadership approach across the organisation.
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Ability to access content on an ‘as needs’ basis as well as for continuing personal development.
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A knowledge asset for the business.
Echelon’s approach
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Research
Desk-based research into management competencies and a review of balanced scorecard approach to performance management. Learning outcomes aligned to both. One to one meetings held to test out proposed learning content and styles.
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Buy in
Senior management held in-house forums to launch the programme and to communicate its purpose, learning methods and programme functionality.
A regular series of emails forwarded to participants alerted ‘leaders’ to content and events.
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Training
The programme design was linked to the organisation’s leadership competencies, appraisal scheme and business cycle. It enabled managers to:
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register for a series of training modules and lunchtime workshops. These were integrated with pre-course development material and work-based support material accessed through the Intranet
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attend courses that would prepare them for upcoming business activity, for example business planning skills before the annual business plans were prepared
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arrange for a series of coaching sessions on for example how to conduct performance appraisals
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access and download practical 'how to' management and career development solutions to use at work. These were more 'Delia Smith' than 'Adam Smith' in that they were practical skill recipes for the key aspects of branded leadership such as 'How to conduct a 10 minute caching session'.
The on-line Leadership Zone acted as:
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a reference point for leadership development
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a source of continuous development and practical advice
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a benchmark for ‘A Player’ performance
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a knowledge asset for the organisation.
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Communication
Ongoing application of learning was encouraged with regular emails to workshop participants and quarterly newsletters. For example, uptake of work based materials available on the website increased 35% following personal communication to users.
All employees were issued with mouse mats advertising the website address for the Leadership Zone to support the organisation’s inclusive culture by providing the wider organisation with access to the so nobody was excluded from the learning materials.
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Sustaining the initiative
The project ran for over 3 years and contributed towards the successful sale of the business. It aided business success in 3 significant ways:
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Successful role development during a period of transformational change for the company. Senior managers were tasked to multi-skill and stretch their roles beyond their specialism using a combination of executive coaching, workshops with over 22 work based development methods identified by participants.
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The streamlining of procedures, for example a workshop on project management developed an online project management tool for all managers to use at work.
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Integration of training with PDP’s and appraisal. Managers accessed an online support tool to help them develop their PDP and link their personal development programme to specific competency development and business goals. Being able to select from a range of methods has enabled personal development to remain closely aligned with the business planning process.
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Evaluating the outcome
Ongoing account management and regular quarterly reports identified that workshops were highly rated and seen as very practical and contributing to business results. Text solutions such as ‘How to lead a meeting’ have provided helpful work based support.
Echelon, Angles House, 210 Sheen Lane, London SW14 8LB; 020 8274 9965