CDA consulting - Developing managers and leaders

Developing managers and leaders

What is the leadership and management style of your organisation? Is it appropriate for the challenges facing your organisation? How effective are your managers as leaders? How do your people develop their ability to lead?

Whether it is a major change programme, a key initiative or a drive to improve the overall performance of the organisation, you can be sure that effective leadership and management skills will be a key requirement. Is your organisation equipped to succeed.

Here at cda we are experienced in working with client organisations to review the leadership style and proficiency of key players, and provide a range of development to build leadership skills and competence of managers and leaders.

Our leadership programmes provide a mix of development activity which is focused on helping to develop the leadership group to meet the challenges of change. These programmes can focus both on developing individual leadership competence and developing the overall performance of the leadership team.

We also have a successful track record in designing and delivering bespoke management development programmes, aimed at equipping junior and middle managers with the skills required by their organisation. Once again these are closely aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation. Some of our management development programmes are also geared towards the achievement of an external qualification.

Both our management and leadership programmes are designed using a range of blended solutions, mixing e-learning and classroom training to deliver the best outcome for the organisation and the individual. Programmes typically include a mix of self-study, project work and classroom activity, supported by a coach. For some organisations, the programme includes a community project, structured to provide real learning opportunities for the participants and practical benefits to the local community.

We recognise that many managers and leaders today work through geographically dispersed teams, where there may be little face to face contact. Our programmes include development activity aimed at helping managers and leaders to maximise the performance of these remote teams, by equipping them to manage, motivate and develop at a distance.

Talent management is rapidly making its way to the top of the HR agenda. Its meaning is broad, covering a range of HR activity aimed at strengthening organisational capability through individual development, performance enhancement and succession planning.

We have developed an innovative approach to Talent Management which integrates a broad range of HR processes to identify, develop and retain key leadership talent. Central to our approach is a set of ‘ Leadership Talent Factors’. These define the essential characteristics of both fully-developed and embryonic leadership talent, and can be used to drive a wide range of assessment and development activity.

Our training and development experience also includes development programmes for non-managers, which is included under Developing and training your people.

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Case studies

BP Retail wanted to increase leadership responsibility skills across their team leader population. We worked with the Development and Training team to design, develop and facilitate a workshop for 85 team leaders. The outcome of the workshop was an agreed definition of leadership and a commitment to implement both team and individual action plans to bring their 'leadership promise' back to life in the business.

LHA ASRA Group , a social housing organisation, selected cda to support their ‘Leadership for All’ programme. As a first step we designed a leadership competency set, which reflected the organisation’s priorities and challenges. We subsequently designed and delivered series of one-day development centres which delivered individual development plans for the managers taking part in the programme. We trained and supported a group of in-house coaches and developed a range of on-line and face-to-face development activities to help the participants build their management and leadership skills

We worked with Northern Foods to develop the people management skills of its 600

Managers. The 'Effective Manager Programme' was a 16-week timetable of guided learning, workshops, and project work which was only available to managers who had been nominated to join the programme. For those who wish it, the project work can be submitted to Sheffield Hallam University as part of a Certificate in Manufacturing Management, providing external recognition of the programme.

Plus Dane Housing Group , a neighbourhood investor and social housing organisation, selected cda to support their management development programme. We designed and delivered a 360 feedback process (using cdafeedback) and developed an internal team of development coaches to work with programme participants to review the results of the feedback and agree individual development plans. We also developed and delivered a series of ‘Bite Size’ workshops, focused on the key development areas which emerged from the 360 feedback process.

We worked with Toyota Retail Academy Europe (TRA) to develop their new management development programme for Toyota retailers across Europe. The programme included training courses on 'Managing in the Toyota Way', 'Leading in the Toyota Way' and 'Delivering Business Improvement in the Toyota Way', each closely reflecting the key principles of the Toyota Way and the Toyota Retail System, which utilises continuous improvement techniques to deliver sustainable uplifts to customer service. Each training programme was developed specifically for TRA in a culturally-neutral, translation-ready format which was also suitable for localisation by each country to recognise local culture and language. We launched the programmes via a series of 'Train the Trainer' programmes for trainers, who then delivered the translated material to retailer managers in their own country.

Welcome Break invited us to work with them to improve the leadership capability of the General Managers who run their Motorway Service Areas. Using the Welcome Break competency model, we designed a programme that consisted of work-based learning activities, modular workshops, assignments looking at the development of leadership styles and the implementation of change project within the business. A comprehensive coaching framework also supported the programme; each General Manager was assigned a coach to help embed and apply the learning.

Yahoo! Europe wanted help in improving the capability of their European Management team to enable these managers to respond to the rapid growth in the business. Working closely with HR and European MDs we developed the framework and evaluation processes for a European Management Development Programme. The programme was successfully rolled out across 7 European Countries, delivered in local languages to meet the requirements of each country. We provided project management support to ensure that quality and consistency was maintained as the programme was implemented across Europe.