2011 LEADER Graduates Celebrate The Completion of Year Long Personal Development Programme

The LEADER course sessions developed the communication, teamwork and people management skills of senior Personal Group employees to strengthen and unify the business’ approach to leadership.

On the evening of Thursday 26^th January, Personal Group employees marked the completion of the LEADER personal development course with a graduation ceremony, an open evaluation of the course and a celebratory meal. LEADER, which ran throughout 2011 in bi-monthly sessions, used both internal and external trainers to help to further develop the leadership skills of over 20 of the businesses’ directors, managers and senior employees.

Sessions, which lasted a day or half day, covered areas including personal branding, coaching for performance, body language, teamwork, managing change and project management to equip and update employees with a set of core skills, techniques and approaches to get the most out of the people and areas of the business they influence.

In a post-course evaluation, all attendees rated LEADER as having a ‘highly beneficial’ impact on their work and how they manage their teams. Lynne Foster, Personal Group’s, Premium Collection Manager said: 'The ‘Understanding People’ session taught me to understand that individuals within the team need different coaching approaches and how to use these skills to achieve results.' Beth Johnston, Personal Group’s, Group HR Director, also found the course valuable and actively uses some of the new techniques obtained from the course “‘Leading & Managing Change’reminded me to picture the way change is viewed, how the message can be received and the different ways changing the delivery of the message can set the tone for the proposed change.”

Tailored specifically to accommodate the development needs of Personal Group employees whilst aligning it with business and growth strategy, LEADER was completely unique and offered many course attendees a fresh take on leadership and management strategy.

Claire Chan, Personal Group’s Recruitment and Training Manager, was delighted with the results and feedback from the course. Claire said: 'The courses were designed to invest in the current and future leaders of our business to drive the business forward and continue to contribute to its success. The courses have created new working groups and opportunities to develop teamwork. Plans are already in place to continue this leadership development in 2012 and beyond.'