Pre- Programme Assessment
DISC behaviours assessment – Optional but we consider this to be an integral part of the programme and key to knowing their own management style, understanding personal strengths and relationship building all outcomes you specify in your tender specification at paragraph 16.2
Delivery
1 full day
6 x half day sessions on line
Module 7 will be delivered 3 months after last delivery day – Half day online: Impact and Reflection
Duration
Approx. 2 to 4 weeks between modules so 2 to 5 months (excluding the 3 month gap to module 7)
Delivery will include 1 day face to face workshop for /event for Module 1 followed by 6 virtual online workshops.
NB – Modules 5 & 6 could be delivered in a single day in a face to face format if this was thought to be appropriate.
Objective
The programme will help support new/aspiring managers and leaders with the fundamentals of leadership including the skills, behaviours and mindset required to be effective in their management and leadership roles as well as cementing consistency in approach.
Outcomes
To be agreed in consultation with OfS but will include the following:-
- They will not only understand leadership models but learn how to positively apply them;
- Heightened Self-Awareness -They will understand themselves , the way they behave and how this impacts on others;
- Gained an understanding of what an effective team looks like and how to build one;
- Greater understanding of their own strengths and how to use them to deliver high performance through others;
- Greater understanding of the responsibilities of leaders;
- Be able to build a leadership playbook incorporating best practice;
- Be able to build a peer support network;
- Be able to reflect on and review ongoing practice for continual improvement.
Module 1: Understanding Myself and Others: The Building Blocks of Understanding You and Your Team.
This full day in person workshop asks the new manager to consider who they are at work, what are they like to work with and how others perceive and experience them? On the flipside it focuses your new manager on difference at work, building their understanding of different people/behavioural styles at work, how to flex and improve their ability to work with others (especially colleagues they find more tricky) and how to utilise colleagues differences as a strength. The module covers:
- The behavioural styles tool DiSC and how to use it to understand your own preferences/approach to work and how to improve communication and the ability to work with people who are different to you.
- Emotional Intelligence as a key aspect of being an effective manager. How emotionally intelligent are you? What are you doing to address and develop your EI and understanding EI as a cornerstone principle of effective people management.
Module 2: Understanding Leadership Styles & Their Positive Application
- Defining leadership styles (transformational, transactional, etc.)
- The role and responsibilities of a leader
- Leadership vs. management
Do we really understand how to be an ‘impactful’ leader. What does positive leadership really mean. How can we enhance performance through the science of positive leadership
- How do we cultivate a growth mindset
- How do we lead with curiosity
- How do we foster a positive mindset
- Am I an ‘impact player’ or a ‘contributor – what’s the difference
Module 3: Building Highly Effective & Diverse Teams
This half day workshop takes your new manager into the realm of developing, building and sustaining a highly effective team. While many ‘teams’ are in effect merely a collection of individuals this module looks to develop their skills and awareness of being a high performing team and the building block elements that create such a team.
- The future leader – the 4 mindsets & 5 skills to lead in a VUCA world. The second element of the workshop looks at the five functions of team and how beyond individual skill, role clarity etc, there are five functions/behaviours a team must master in order to be highly effective.
- How to deal with multi-generational teams
- Hybrid working and leading from a distance
We recognise the exiting provider is currently delivering a Leading Teams session but we think the content in our module could compliment rather than duplicate what is already being delivered. If this is not the case, as we don’t know exactly what is being delivered, then we are happy to change the content or substitute to:-
Time Management, Delegation & Trust-Building
- Learning to delegate effectively
- Trusting your team
- Building strong, effective working relationships
Module 4: Being a Great Coach-Leader
This workshop introduces new mangers to the power of coaching – asking not telling. Why is coaching a powerful leadership style and why does it benefit your colleagues as much as it benefits you? It also flips on its head the more direct and top down approach to management and is an important balance for all new managers who may lean too much on directing colleagues.
- This starts simply by exploring what coaching is and why it is such a powerful tool and moves to look at the skills that make you a good coach (listening, questioning, summarising etc) together with some simple coaching models to use at work. Followed by practice on live work place questions.
- We will also explore how to develop your coaching and working towards an integrated coaching model – coaching in the moment, rather than seeing coaching as a more formal process with colleagues.
We can discuss with you how this can compliment what is already being delivered to support that work rather than duplicate. It is in our view important to touch on this topic given it is a powerful tool in the leadership toolbox. We can also focus on mentoring in this module which may not be covered in that being delivered by the existing provider.
Module 5: Listen To Be Heard – The Expert Communicator
This half-day workshop asks the new manager to think about how effectively they communicate with others across three key areas and to initiate the learning of foundational people management and communication skills:
- Holding difficult conversations. A frequent source of concern and anxiety for new managers, the aim of this session is to reduce fear, increase skill levels (through practice and knowledge), think about aspects of preparation and unanticipated difficult conversation. Through this increase confidence and the willingness to have difficult conversations with colleagues.
- Giving feedback is a skill often talked about and much less frequently done and yet most people want to understand how well they are doing in their job and receive effective feedback. The key being receiving effective/useful feedback which is both positive and developmental. We will introduce a simple model for giving feedback, practice using it and focus on taking the emotion out of feedback to improve how much the recipient ‘hears’ their feedback and sees it as a benefit rather than a source of discontent.
- Performance conversations. Get your new managers to start as they mean to continue by making performance a conversation not an event. By building on the above two skills and looking at how to set and monitor goals, this element of the workshop focuses on making performance a permanent feature of how you manage people.
Module 6: Building your leadership ‘playbook’ – What are your ‘smart plays’ that will be within your DNA
This module brings all the learning together. The group will come together and work through their main takeaways from each of the sessions, and build their own leadership ‘playbook’, built from learnings in each session
- I understand I am ….. and I understand my team need something different, what are those things (taken from module 1)
- The practices I am putting into play for difficult conversations, how I give and receive feedback and performance management are……… (from module 5)
- I am going to build a high performing team by……. (from module 3)
- I am going to practice these 3 key coaching principles…. (taken from module 4)
- I am going to demonstrate positive leadership by……. (taken from module 2)
- Building a peer support network
- Building best practice
Module 7: Half Day session Evaluating the Impact
This session gives the opportunity for learners to reflect on their time back at the workplace and assess how well they’ve retained their learning, how well they’ve applied it and if well what impact has it had on them their teams and the organisation. If barriers have been encountered are these common to others and how have they been overcome.