Leadership training can help the leaders of any organisation learn and apply fundamental leadership principles that enable them to build high quality relationships, characterised by trust, with their individual team members to enable high performance.
At Zeal, we adopt a collaborative approach to design leadership training programmes, that are suited to each client’s needs. Although all leadership training programmes are designed whilst keeping the latest psychological research and evidence in mind, we can adapt the content to align it to each organisation’s strategy, values and mission. Furthermore, the structure and format of each training programme is designed to meet each organisation’s requirements depending upon their budget and working context (e.g., virtual/face to face; one-off masterclass/seven-part series spread over three months). A ‘train the trainer’ approach allows organisations to run their leadership training independently. This enables organisation trainers to facilitate training whilst leaning on Zeal Solutions for support as and when necessary. This proves to be a financially viable approach for organisations who have in-house training teams, empowering them to operate independently.
The Challenge
LPT approached us with a need to design a mandatory leadership training programme for all leaders within LPT. The leadership training programme needed to be bespoke and aligned to the Trust’s strategy, values and behaviours. Our approach was two-fold:
- Work with the Trust to understand the challenges that LPT leaders face alongside LPT’s strategy, vision and values.
- Take a collaborative approach to design a leadership masterclass using the latest psychological research and evidence alongside LPT’s strategy, vision and values.
- Train the Trust’s trainers to be able to deliver the leadership masterclass with confidence.
What we did
We began the process by speaking with the organisational learning and developmental team to understand the gap in leadership training as part of the mandatory LPT leadership pathway. We also took the time to understand the approach that would work best to meet LPT’s needs. We understood that LPT required a short masterclass (e.g. 2-3 hours) to be delivered virtually to all leaders. We then reviewed the latest academic literature on leadership theory and leadership within the workplace. We designed a leadership masterclass to translate and explore some of the complex topics around leadership in a more accessible way. We ensured that the masterclass was designed to be engaging and interactive, despite the virtual format. We then facilitated a face-to-face ‘train the trainer’ workshop to ensure that LPT trainers felt competent and confident in their ability to deliver the leadership masterclass independently, and so reducing their dependency on Zeal Solutions.
Conclusion
LPT now have a Supportive Leadership masterclass that they are able to deliver to all LPT leaders in a virtual format. This training is used to support the development, growth and learning of all new and existing leaders within the organisation. LPT were keen to deliver the supportive leadership training on an ongoing basis, and so relying on external trainers to facilitate the training would have been impractical from both a logistical and financial perspective. Instead, LPT now have a cohort of trainers who are competent and confident in their ability to facilitate the Supportive Leadership masterclass. Therefore, the training can be delivered to suit LPTs needs as and when necessary. Currently, LPT deliver the training between one to two times a month. The training that has been delivered to LPT leaders has been received positively. Specifically, 95% of attendees agreed that the training was enjoyable, 90% said that the training was relevant to their job role and 95% of attendees said that they were keen to apply what they had learned from the training back to their job role. Furthermore, as a result of completing the training programme, attendees reported an increase in their knowledge and understanding about key topics discussed as part of the supportive leadership training programme.
What LPT said
“Thanks so much for going through everything with us. I thought it went really well and we were able to discuss all aspects of the content with you both which was great. I feel a lot more prepared now in terms of co-facilitating and then delivering the session solo in due course. Think between us all we filled in all the gaps in knowledge that I had, without even realising it – thanks so much!”
“The walk and talk through the slides and content was the perfect way to build confidence for solo delivery. I also now feel I have a greater depth of knowledge and understanding of the sources behind the slides. I feel I can now convey the contents to delegates with much more self-assurance and credibility.”