A Case Study
Chesterton House Financial Planning Ltd.
Dawn Hubbard - HR Director
As a business we have always recognised the importance of a leaders and managers impact on employees and how this shapes their experiences in work. A happy workforce = a successful business, so to ensure our people are happy and our business is successful, over many years we invested in the training and coaching with our existing team of managers, but in 2019 our current coach was wrapping up their business so we needed to find another coach as our business had grown. We had a whole new generation of managers and leaders who would benefit from coaching and training, as those before them had.
We were looking for someone to help us provide a foundation for all managers and leaders, equipping them with consistent knowledge levels and skills, ensuring all of us were using the same tools and speaking the same language to lead and manage our teams.
We wanted to embed the unified and consistent delivery of leadership, management and development support across all areas of our business, and to build the leaders of the future, with the ability to inspire, engage and develop teams and individuals to help us achieve all our business goals.
​
A newer member of our team had worked with Rachael before in her previous employment and highly recommended her, so as part of my research I contacted Rachael to find out more for myself.
There were instantly "good vibes" right from initial conversations with Rachael, she was already familiar with a lot of the learning we had undertaken and shared similar views on what was important, so we were already a good fit. She really understood who we were and what we wanted to achieve.
We wanted to embed the unified and consistent delivery of leadership, management and development support across all areas of our business, and to build the leaders of the future, with the ability to inspire, engage and develop teams and individuals to help us achieve all our business goals.
​
A newer member of our team had worked with Rachael before in her previous employment and highly recommended her, so as part of my research I contacted Rachael to find out more for myself.
There were instantly "good vibes" right from initial conversations with Rachael, she was already familiar with a lot of the learning we had undertaken and shared similar views on what was important, so we were already a good fit. She really understood who we were and what we wanted to achieve.
As the lockdown continued to be extended through 2020, we worked with Rachael on alternatives ways to deliver the programme, she also supported many of our leaders and mangers within 121 coaching during this period of uncertainty. Finally, in April 2021 we launched the Leadership & Management Training programme and Rachael delivered the initial modules virtually, starting with a session looking at our vision and values as a business. We continued throughout lockdown working through the modules of the programme virtually. As soon as lockdown was over and we were able, we were all back together again in face-to-face sessions from our offices to continue the programme.
We began by running two programmes in one initially, one with core modules, for those who had been though previous training, but we also had a team who were moving into management positions and had no previous experience or training, this cohort were given additional modules in sessions alongside the core modules to ensure they had had the opportunity to cover the basics, joining the main cohort after these sessions, allowing them to bring a fresh perspective to the conversations as we grew together. After each and every module was completed, each individual had a 121 coaching and follow up sessions with Rachael to really cement and embed the learning as we went along.
We were nearing the halfway point in our programme and our business was continuing to grow. We had another group of individuals who had moved into leadership roles, who would also benefit from this programme, so in 2022 we launched the second programme to this new group of leaders.
Throughout both programmes we issued feedback surveys and reviewed the results, to insure we continued to flex and build the programme successfully. It is fair to say that the feedback throughout was exceptional, there were some great ideas shared which we incorporated into the future sessions to allow the programme to grow and develop and deliver on its main objectives.
The first programme has now ended and the second group is coming to its final modules, but this isn't the end for us, not only do we have a team of skilled and knowledgeable managers and leaders, with all that we had learned from Rachael, we have created our own ongoing Leaders and managers CPD programme, based on all we have learned together. These regular sessions include face to face sessions, webinars and drop in clinics, and are a space to allow all who have taken part.
to get together, to share experiences and best practices, to refresh our knowledge on key areas. We have built our own in-house training plan allowing us to continue to teach the next generation of leaders, and we have developed a learning hub, a space for our leaders and managers to access all the resources and tools they need to get the very best results whilst working with our people.
Throughout the entire process Rachael has provided us with unrelenting patience, reliable guidance and caring support, providing the push and challenge when it was needed. We have gained so much during our time working with her, she has built incredibly strong relationships with each of us and I know that I speak on behalf of everyone when I say we could not have achieved all this without her.
