1. Equipping leaders to engage people effectively during change
Synopsis
During periods of change it is vital to increase the impact and effectiveness of individual leaders. Leading Change helped a leading European publishing business to equip their management with the tools and techniques necessary to engage their workforce effectively during a major change programme.
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The Context
- In 2008/9 used car automotive publications faced a decline in conventional printed media and increased demand for internet-based offerings. Trader Media Group (TMG) needed to restructure the company in order to generate sustainable profitable growth for its shareholders.
- TMG invited Leading Change to design and deliver a development programme to address key leadership capability issues they had identified: the ability to engage the workforce and stakeholders to lead change, coach and develop others and manage performance more effectively.
Key issues
- Business as usual in TMG had become unrelenting change due to rapidly changing market environment and the economic downturn.
- The business had reorganised formed from a group of virtually autonomous regional operations. In this process a layer of experienced senior managers had been stripped out.
- Senior leaders were extremely challenged by the need to engage and motivate staff in order to implement change while being individually affected by it.
- The company required focused and pragmatic development pitched at senior level covering fundamental change leadership and management skills.
The solution
- We helped the business to define what leaders would be capable of doing as a result of the proposed development.
- We surveyed the leaders to discover attitudes to engagement and discovered that the majority engaged too late or with limited effectiveness.
- We developed a unique engagement model and bespoke leader development programme to meet these specific requirements (called Leading through Engagement). This included modules on translating the corporate vision, setting aligned strategic objectives and involving and inspiring staff throughout planning and implementation.
- We delivered the programme to the 70 top managers in the company and followed up all participants in small groups one month after the workshop to share experiences and learning.
The results
- The tools and techniques learned on the workshop are being applied and are making significant impact. All executive team members have noted differences in behaviour and output as a result of the programme.
- 97% agreed/strongly agreed that the workshop helped to strengthen the leadership skills and techniques required to build engagement in the business.
- “The facilitators were very good, showing great experience and knowledge of our business - very well briefed.”
- 100% agreed/strongly agreed that the workshop was great fun.
- 95% rated the overall value 4 or 5 out of 5.
- “The course was excellent. I have heard so much superb feedback from all of the senior managers who attended the course too. Fantastic delivery and organisation by the facilitators”
- Peer coaching is now established in the business.
- “I really enjoyed the whole programme. I learnt new skills and it was a great refresher for things I have done before. Thought the team gelled very well and I have personally benefited from the contacts I made”
- We are now designing a modular programme for the client to address other development needs.
