COSTAIN - Senior Leadership Development 2008
The Challenge
The Costain Group is one of the UK's leading construction companies. It has a strong set of values and a strategy ‘to be number one in all we do’. Having invested in a three day leadership workshop, Jeremy Galpin, Skills and Development Manager, wanted to find an innovative way to sustain and embed the learning. Behavioural and values-based training is notoriously difficult to sustain and hard to measure a return on investment but, working in partnership with Coach in a Box, the Senior Leaders were able to translate their good intentions into tangible benefits.
The Solution
Coach in a Box worked with Costain to develop a tailored six month coaching programme. The programme comprised of three steps of insightful material, ten coaching sessions and lots of practical application. The coaching product gave each individual a chance to personalise their learning and to find ways of changing patterns of behaviour. We worked on real issues around their ability to role model the Costain values, develop their teams and become more efficient in their role as a leader.
Introduction:
An initial Coach call reviews the 360 and other feedback and establishes coaching objectives for the programme.
Step One:
Focusing on the difference between ‘good intentions’ and on the job impact. Using our own ‘mindtraps’ technology we help individuals unlock a particular change that they want to make to their own leadership. We also examined how they can be an authentic role model more of the time.
Step Two:
This step focuses on how a leader can create a culture which nurtures talent. We explore approaches which are less natural for the individual and show how to bring them into more prominence at work. We pick one really challenging individual, whose performance needs to improve and, with the Specialist, look to transform this relationship and the impact the leader has on them.
Step Three:
The final step takes a step back and helps the leader translate their values into action and articulate the changes they would like to lead for within the business. We then complete the programme reviewing the progress that has been made.
The Results
This six month coaching product cost Costain £670 per person. At the end of the product we asked the leaders to assess the behavioural changes they had made and then to put a monetary value to this change. Here are some of the tangible gains leaders identified:
“I am more confident to engage and inspire my team which has resulted in retaining a key Project Manager within Costain. Saving £10,000.”
“I am now coaching and delegating more effectively which has given me more time to lead rather than manage. Creating a return on investment of £6500 at the time of completing this product.”
“Where I had difficult relationships with some of my team members, the issues between us have been largely addressed. Consequently, our latest EFQM score has shown an improvement of over 100 points since it was benchmarked 18 months ago.”
“Since starting Coach in a Box in April, there have been zero leavers within my business, of those staff within my immediate control. Given that we have a churn rate of some 15%, this could have easily have amounted to 4 leavers at £15,000 per person to re-recruit. A financial saving of £60,000.”
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