Organisations

Helping organisations to achieve a culture that delivers results

I support leadership teams in ensuring that the strategy they have defined to bring about success for their business is supported by the culture of their business.

Too often, in my experience, there is a disconnect with what the leaders say and do and what people experience on the ground. So for example, an organisation may herald its culture as being open and honest and yet the experience of staff is they cannot raise issues with Line Managers. Talking culture but not living it can derail the most well thought through strategy and often means that the considerable investment that has been made goes to waste

close up and selective focus of group of Jeruk Mandarin Ponkam or Mandarin Orange Fruits,

The much-quoted line from leadership guru Peter Drucker, that culture eats strategy for breakfast is apt – and in my view is not always understood by business leaders.

If the strategy and the culture cannot be aligned with the real experiences of people, then there won’t be buy-in. And that will impact negatively on performance and won’t help deliver the expected bottom-line results.

Never before has culture been so important, given the seismic changes in in the world of work. Leaders now need to lead and manage in a different way than they did a few short years ago. They need to address a whole set of different issues:

How do you develop a culture and a team spirit when people are not physically in the same space, but spread across different locations and work environments?
How to respond when people expect more from their leaders and want them to be more open and honest than maybe was the case in the past?
What to do if there is a disconnect with the aspired culture and what people say they feel?
And how do you ensure that this does not feed into attrition and disengagement?

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES WITH TEAMS THAT
YOU ARE ASKED TO DEAL WITH?

SOLUTIONS

I work with leaders to define the values and behaviours that underpin the cultural tenets they set. I collaborate with them on a root and branch diagnostic which defines whether those behaviours are being lived day-to-day. I give the leaders a detailed view of the gaps and what needs to happen organisation-wide to close them. I then support leaders to come up with their own solutions because when they do that there will be more engagement and support.

One CEO described how the diagnostic was like lifting the bonnet of his organisation and finding out within a month what typically would have taken four years.

I coach the leaders, teams and individuals in closing the espoused culture/ strategy gaps .That’s when the real magic happens – and when the tangible results are evident.

PROGRAMMES

I develop bespoke programmes for organisations, mainly on leadership. Typically I design such programmes from scratch and spend a lot of time up front with the client defining what challenge the programme is trying to address. Often that’s not easy, but I probe and challenge to get to the heart of that need – and then design the programme accordingly.

Examples of programmes designed and delivered include:

Developing an organisation wide 1-1 coaching culture
Personal goal setting for enhanced success
Leading and managing hybrid teams
Developing an organisation wide mentoring culture
Having hard performance conversations

I have a particular interest in female leadership and what stops women achieving senior leadership positions. I designed and delivered the WomanUp Female Leadership Programme, which targets women at mid-career level .