Leadership Program - Outer Metro Sydney Council

Challenge

PBC was approached by the council to design and deliver a Leadership and Management Development Program. The Council had identified gaps in the skill set of their leadership team and overall cultural issues which it felt could be addressed in part by a customised leadership program. The Council’s primary objectives of the program were to: Improve existing leadership behaviours, identify and develop future leadership potential and align with existing personnel plans & systems.

Solution

The design of the original Leadership and Management Development Program was undertaken by PBC senior consultant, Jamie Sinclair; a council representative, and an academic specialising in leadership development from the University of Western Sydney. The curriculum for this program was not only developed in a collaborative manner but was also reviewed by an internal reference group representing the senior management team at the Council prior to being formally adopted.

The program includes:

Two core modules each consisting of two days.  Module 1 emphasises Individual Improvement revolves around an individual 360 assessment and a Hogan personality profile. Module 1 is followed by 1:1 coaching with a facilitator from PBC which fine tunes an individual development plan for each participant to work on over the next 12 months.

Module 2 focuses on Business Improvement and includes modules that address key issues affecting most participants (as identified in the 360 assessments). Typically, units in Module 2 include business planning, managing poor performance, negotiation skills, coaching for high performance.

In total, participants also participate in three 1:1 coaching sessions at the beginning, middle and conclusion of the program.

Participants also work on a group project as part of the program.  These projects are signed-off by CMT and are subsequently developed and implemented during the program (usually over a 6 month period).

12 months after the program commences a further 360 assessment is conducted to gauge individual progress against their development plans.  This assessment is presented to each participant by a facilitator from PBC and represents the conclusion of the formal program.

Results

Initially implemented in 2007 aimed at the 20 most senior managers in the organisation, the LMDP has been so successful and well-received that by 2010 almost 80 managers and coordinators have completed or are currently undertaking the program.

Additional outcomes and benefits to the Council, its leadership group and the broader employee group include:

• Evaluations of the modules ranged from ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’.
• The program used 360 Degree Feedback analysis to measure participant’s improvements over the course of the program.  The majority (almost 60%) of participants improved their 360 ratings between the start and completion of the program.  The two participants who received the lowest 360 scores made significant improvements. Scores improved on average by 17%.
• Projects were conducted as part of the program and the initiatives identified through the project kick-started a broader workforce review – the review currently includes 6 focus areas.
• By the end of December 2009 at least 6 of the participants had received a promotion.