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summary
the challenges of change
the right match
outcome
Summary

A leadership development programme led by a Campion Willcocks Associate has empowered managers in Lloyds TSB Group Operations. “Executives said this was among their key achievements for the year,” says Cathie Woodward, the specialist behind the programme.

Coaching 40 managers ultimately influenced the behaviours of 2,000 front-line staff.

“We took advantage of organisational changes to motivate our back-office teams, so meeting calls for greater efficiency and improved service,” says Russell Saunders, Payments Director at Lloyds TSB.

“This excellent programme enabled us to motivate managers and so improve productivity and service levels. It was made possible by Campion Willcocks' ability to understand our needs, and then provide precisely the right person to meet those needs.”

The challenges of change

Lloyds TSB Group Operations provides essential back-office processing functions for the bank’s customer-facing units from various locations. These multi-functional centres handle high volumes of transactions to support payments, account management and more.

As part of a reorganisation that included process improvements and new IT, many managers in the centres had moved from branches. Some felt they’d moved from being a ‘big fish in a small pond’ to a ‘small fish in a big pond’. They were often long-serving employees and, with little earnings differential with their younger peers, there was a risk of uninvolved management with knock-on effects in productivity and service. A study by external consultants had already identified a perception of some managers as passive or aggressive rather than constructive.

Lloyds TSB felt a high-profile culture change programme could be met with cynicism and risked being swamped by other initiatives under way; it believed any such programme should be constructive rather than remedial: coaching for excellence within all groups of employees, whether disaffected or not.

The right match

Campion Willcocks identified Cathie Woodward as having the right qualifications and experience to deliver a programme that was low-key and highly effective. With a Degree in Behavioural Coaching and a Master’s in Psychology, she had also previously worked with financial services; this enabled her to design and deliver a customised programme far beyond the standard ‘packaged’ approach offered by HR consultants.

A diagnostic phase involved meeting participants to explore their understanding of leadership development. Six group-based classroom sessions then covered issues such as leadership style and obstacles, followed by 12 one-hour one-to-one coaching sessions. “I focused on individual needs, personalising the sessions and building them around each participant,” says Woodward. All information was treated with complete confidentiality.

Outcome: ‘magic dust’

In a short time the behaviours and attitudes of managers had changed dramatically, creating a far more positive environment, increasing motivation and improving service. Feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive: ‘This was my most empowering experience in 20 years’, ‘I’m now able to confront things and accept new ideas’, ‘I have a reawakened interest in my job’.

During a ‘goldfish bowl’ session that included senior executives, the programme was likened to sprinkling ‘magic dust’ over the managers.

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