From the inspirational launch event at Loughborough University, with speakers such as a nutritionist, a coach for football penalties and Olympic athletes, through 4 residential workshops, the programme has equipped delegates to drive change.
Sporting activities and gamification of learning, reinforced by periods of reflection, communicated tough lessons in an engaging way. In just one instance, moving people around on a chess board through an intermediary demonstrated the frustrations of letting go when delegating.
Many delegates initially questioned the value of taking significant time away from their ‘day job’.
Aaron Ali, who joined the programme as the newly appointed Head of Customer Deployment Centre, observes: “Most management courses tend to teach you how to suck eggs in different ways. I was sceptical; the programme would take a whole year and I had a new job to do. But what made Leading 4 Success special was that I could apply so much of what I learnt right away.”
The action learning groups formed on the programme have gone on to make collaboration, networking and peer mentoring the norm. Another delegate, Paula Homan, Director of Claims, comments, “I now have a peer group of 50 key leaders, any one of whom I can pick up the phone to. You can’t buy that level of trust.”
As a powerful example of the programme’s real-world impact in breaking down organisational siloes, sales teams in Walsall now support Paula’s claims-handling staff in Preston during the peak winter claims season.
