The Company
East Midlands Railway is a train operating company in England and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise.
Based in Derby, the company provides train services in the East Midlands, chiefly in Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire.
The Business Situation
Part of EMR’s strategic plans is to develop Leaders and Managers in the organisation and ensure new up and coming managers are developed into the roles for the future.
I was engaged to design and deliver a range of programme which would develop the skills and behaviours of both current and future leaders of the business.
The client was looking for a bespoke programme which specifically met the needs of the business.
Key areas identified:
- Making the transition into Leadership
- Stakeholder management
- Mentoring for Leaders
The Approach
I worked in partnership with EMR to develop a series of programmes that would fully satisfy the organisation’s requirements by providing interactive, organisational-focused leadership training with on-going support via mentoring back in the workplace. The leadership programme was aligned to EMR’s management competences. The leadership programme was aimed at both existing leaders new into the role as well as emerging leaders who had been recognised as having the potential to become competent leaders within the organisation. The training focused on leadership behaviours, developing a leadership mindset, awareness and implementation of different styles of leadership and building effective relationships in the workplace and stakeholder management. Personal action planning was undertaken to ensure on-going development in the role, accountability and checking-in with both their mentor and line manager.
To support the leadership development programme, I set up and delivered a mentoring programme for EMR, the objectives of which were to use mentoring as a way of supporting the development of people who are talented and have the potential to do more senior or different roles, in the future.
Mentoring, in this context, provided an opportunity to help individuals achieve personal and career growth. Typically a mentoring discussion focused on agreed personal objectives around the following areas:-
- Clarifying personal goals for the future
- Finding solutions to specific work problems
- Encouraging creative thinking in self development
- Increasing individual contribution to corporate objectives
- Developing relationships and networks
Benefits of Mentoring for EMR:
For Mentee
- Greater exposure to Senior managers /execs who may well have a different perspective
- Personalised and tailored development
- Improved performance in current role
- Increased readiness for senior / alternative roles
- Improved self-confidence and self-reliance
For Mentor
- Mentoring skills are transferable to other aspects of leadership
- Mentoring encourages managers to adopt different and very distinct roles. A mentor may need to be a coach, advocate, catalyst, role model, or guide
- Recognition from others /kudos –developing others for the benefit of the organisation
For Business
- Improved performance
- More people ready for senior jobs
- Increased engagement
- Improved retention
Measuring Success
A number of actions were used to assess the benefit to individuals and EMR
- Sponsor follows up with mentors and mentees to establish (without breaking confidences) what sort of progress is being made.
- Sponsor holds periodic review meetings with groups of Mentors and Mentees to explore benefits / challenges
- How often are people meeting and how long are relationships lasting. If meetings are repeatedly cancelled for eg – what is the underlying problem?
- Improved performance measured through performance management process
- Mentors and Mentees make an assessment against criteria on initial matching forms
The Benefits
- Managers managing key stakeholders to maximum effect, improving communication with key stakeholders
- Strategy in place to recognise and select leaders who are talented and have potential to do more senior or different roles, in the future.
- Leaders and managers becoming more confident in their current role
- Future leaders feeling confident and equipped to step up into a management position.