The Moment
Performance Frontiers (PF) had the great pleasure of partnering with the food arm of a large retailer, to deliver a Leadership Development Pathway (LDP) to its senior leaders during 2022. This initiative grew out of a need to equip leaders with the key capabilities necessary to thrive in the volatile climate of the pandemic years, and whatever would come next.
Specifically, the learning initiative sought to:
- develop an agile and regenerative leadership approach, underpinned by integral skills such as storytelling, courageous conversations, and influencing for better partnering
- make a shift in leadership mindset around the Old Power-New Power model. This meant moving away from command-and-control strategies to co-creative, collaborative, and authentic leadership approaches
The Method
The co-creation of these learning objectives led PF to design a peak learning experience for 50 leaders across the organisation, to be rolled out in 2022. It took the form of a LDP, where participants would be able to immerse in the capability building required to lead effectively and apply their skills to real and immediate contexts.
Designed to enable their leaders to become trusted coaches and facilitators and heighten their influence on the whole system through deepening levels of partnering, the LDP incorporated a range of mutually reinforcing elements including a leadership retreat, learning intensives, and executive coaching.
Fifty senior leaders were selected to learn about leading in a more agile operating model (switching to squads, tribes, and chapters) and in a VUCA world. The retailer, like many organisations, was also navigating new hybrid working practices, changing business relationships in the larger ecosystem, and leaders were having to flip constantly between using meta and micro skills.
The Measure
The pathway had a powerful ripple effect across the system. Impact reporting conducted at the beginning and end of the pathway, through surveys administered to participants and their direct reports, demonstrated an across-the-board improvement in a range of key metrics including purpose-led leadership, characteristics of psychological safety, conflict resolution, and recognition and appreciation of teams. Teams saw a huge benefit from leaders who were energised and equipped with the tools to empower performance.
