Learning and Skills Council (LSC)

• Industry: The Learning and Skills Council was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Children, Schools and Families in England.
• Location: The national office was based near Coventry and, in addition, there were 9 regional offices and 47 local offices.
• Turnover: GBP£ 12 Billion p.a.
• Employees: 12,000 – 15,000

Context

This assignment was an assessment and development programme for senior managers in the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), a national government body in the UK set up to promote further education and skills for young people aged 16 and above.

The programme was a self-development initiative to help these senior leaders identify their own strengths and development areas as well as to provide support in developing both knowledge and skills.

Problem

With a comparatively new top management team, there was a need for a programme to instil a strong leadership focus, which would align with the mission, values and business plan. Many of the top team were both new to the organisation and had not recently undertaken any kind of personal development.

There was, therefore, a need to ensure that the top management team had all the skills and knowledge necessary to both undertake their roles as well as to ensure that their own professional outlook aligned with the values of the organisation.

Solution

For a top leadership team, it is essential for individuals to understand and to believe in the need for development. Accordingly, a 360 feedback programme was implemented for the top 250 leaders. This was followed by a two day development centre for the top two levels of management, using a range of exercises to elicit behaviours around the organisation’s way of working.

Once development needs had been formally identified and buy-in obtained, a programme of development and training events were created to address training needs and ensure that all top leaders had the skills necessary for excellence in their role.

Conclusion

In a matter of months, the top leadership team went from a stage of having little appreciation of either their strengths or weaknesses to a full understanding of both. Armed with this knowledge and commitment to a development plan, considerable strides were made in enhancing the leadership performance of the organisation as a whole.