Looking back over a 2-year Initial Leadership programme

I’ve just got back from a celebration with the wonderful @Atos graduates who began their journey in 2017 on their Initial Leadership Programme with @QA. I was fortunate to facilitate 2 of the cohorts that year alongside 2 of my fabulous peers.

The programme

The programme began with a 2-week residential learning event, where participants work not only through the day, but also in the evening. They complete a real-world case study, raise money for charity by hosting a quiz night and support a very worthy cause by donating time to renovating and redecorating The Wingate Centre.

They started with very little knowledge of one another and by the end of the first week, there were visible signs of rapport – these have progressed to solid long-term friendships and support networks which serve them well from both a personal and a business perspective.  

There are some key learning points gained early on in the 2-week residential, although many of the points and concepts become clearer over this intense programme and indeed when they transition the learning back to their day to day roles.

People learn about themselves and others (Emotional Intelligence), they find barriers and blocks – internal and external – and learn how to challenge and overcome these. They pursue the first step in development as a leader: leading self and progress to leading others.

During the 2 year programme, they are supported by mentors within the business as well as having the benefit of working with us as external leadership coaches @QA. The coaching supports the development of the participants in transitioning much of the knowledge and experience gained in the first 2 weeks into their role.

A flavour of some of the areas honed through their one to one leadership coaching:

·      Stakeholder engagement

·      Influencing skills

·      Compassion and curiosity

·      Asking for and giving help

·      Clarifying goals and actions – and owning those through to fruition

·      Imposter syndrome

·      Communicating at a variety of levels on a variety of topics

The feedback

I had the pleasure of chatting with many participants as they are exiting this journey and transitioned/ing to the next phase of their careers. Overwhelmingly the feedback was so positive about how the programme has supported them. Here are a few of the comments that were reflected:

·      I had no idea how those 2 weeks would change my life!

·      The 2 weeks were key to helping us, yet we didn’t really know it at the time – all of the activities, the skills, the fun stuff – it all had an onward positive impact

·      It was like a catalyst that drew us together, it helped us bond, allowed us to be vulnerable (although we didn’t like that at the start!) & realise we could achieve more than some of us thought

·      The power of the team is reflected in the fact that we have an active Whatsapp group, ongoing events, chats, challenge forums, etc. and it's stronger than ever

From a programme perspective, this is amazing and from an individual perspective, I’d like to compliment the participants. They have gone through a lot in a short amount of time – they've truly applied accelerated learning. They have had to embrace discomfort, vulnerability and mistake-making to become the next best version of themselves. I saw and heard some fab stories last night, not to mention the pride of so many, myself included, as the award winners deservedly collected their prizes.

Here’s to the next intake and the successful follow-through from last year’s intake.