Public Sector - Large City Council
Notion worked with a large city council to help deliver transformational change across the Housing and Constituencies Directorate following a very poor audit commission report. As part of a concerted effort to improve levels of performance and service to customers and key stakeholders, Notion conducted a programme of Executive Coaching focused on the top 70 Senior Managers across the Directorate, including most of the Senior Management Team.
We delivered a series of face-to-face, 3-hour coaching sessions for each Manager. In addition to the Client / Coach processes we supported the organisation’s HR and training team by delivering a seamless back office system organising, managing and delivering over 200 appointments at multiple locations across the city.
Within a very short period of 6 months, a noticeable and positive ‘change wave’ was identified within the organisation and the follow up audit commission review awarded them a 2 star rating, putting them into the top 3 councils in the country. Our programme was mentioned twice by the Audit Commission.
We conducted an anonymous survey to assess the real impact – 50 of the mangers who had completed the programme responded.
Here is a very brief synopsis of the results:
Highlighted Results
- 100% of the managers surveyed, reported that they are now more effective as managers as a direct consequence of the coaching they received
- 77% were making better decisions
- 81% said they were handling problems better
- 81% had brought about closure of outstanding issues (some outstanding for a long time)
- 77% had improved their team management capability whilst
- 65% had actually improved their own contribution to teamwork
- 73% of managers indicated that their personal motivation has improved as a result of working with their Executive Coach
- 92% experienced an increase in personal confidence too, with 30% scoring this as a very significant increase
- 96% reported that they found the Executive Coaching process to be more effective than traditional classroom training for management development
- 92% of managers reported having made progress on the majority of the actions agreed with their Coach
Sustaining the Momentum
The overriding outcome of the programme has been the volume of specific activities that managers have put into action to improve their performance and their relationships with others. Managers have been shown how to use a range of tools to help them determine an appropriate course of action when faced with different situations. This has helped to resolve many open issues, has strengthened relationships with key stakeholders and in several cases has lead directly to permanent appointments and internal promotions.
Sharing tools and techniques to improve Managers’ effectiveness and to help them to develop their own competencies was also a key principle for the Coaching relationship. Respondents were asked to highlight examples of those skills that
they had improved the most and that they had used effectively.
Taking Control of their Time Management
“Focusing more on my time management and giving myself thinking time ands pace to complete tasks”
“Taken a much more proactive approach to diary management and not allowingothers to dictate”
Planning Skills
“Started taking time to reflect and consideration of "Undirected thought"
“Thinking time and space and being able to delegate more effectively”
“I ask more and better questions. I know I am using some of the new skills.”
Managing Others
“Understand the reasons why my large team behave in the way they do andwhat I can do to manage this”
“Using fun techniques to draw staff into ownership issues”
“I now have a better understanding of how different types of people work andfunction as part of a team.”
The programme also delivered a broad range of intangible benefits
Whilst the organisational impact of intangible changes are always difficult to assess accurately, as Coaches we know that the cumulative effect of an increase in morale alone can have an enormous impact on organisational performance. With this in mind, the survey sought to quantify, as far as was practicable, how managers had felt that they themselves had benefited within the organisational context.
- 73% of managers felt that their personal motivation had improved as a result of the coaching
- 92% had experienced an increase in their personal confidence too, 30% scoring this as very significant increase
- 85% reported a much higher self-awareness, 38% showing significant improvements
“I am more confident. In fact so much so that I have gained a promotion as a direct result of the way I am now conducting myself, which I can directly link to the coaching received.”
