The Marine Conservation Society are the UK’s leading ocean charity fighting for cleaner, better-protected and healthier seas. They came to us to design and deliver a development programme for their team.
Their leadership challenges included a geographic spread of team-members located right across the UK, lots of remote/hybrid working and the additional dynamics of managing seasonal voluntary workers. Rather than traditional management training, they wanted to work on the underpinnings of all management interactions – the ability to have fearless conversations of any nature.
We designed and delivered a 9 module Leadership Development Programme for them, which was delivered over a 6 month period for 30 leaders and managers, including the CEO and her Executive Directors.
The programme was aimed at helping them to have better quality conversations and covered topics based on emotional intelligence, conflict management and resilience.
As a result of the training, the charity saw a significant change in how their managers behaved in terms of strategic thinking and how they planned their time.
As Sandy Luk, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“It is probably true for most charities and non-profit organisations that our staff are highly passionate and motivated to make real change in the world, which makes it a real privilege to work in such an environment. When it comes to managing yourself and others, all that passion does not necessarily always translate into the most constructive and effective behaviours.
With limited resources to spend on training and management, it is so important to choose right. Elaine’s approach, which is all about each of us managing our own behaviours and communication, and being aware of the impact we can have on others, has been incredibly effective.
Many of my colleagues have told me what a difference this training has made to them, how they’ve suddenly understood themselves better and how they are now doing things differently, and I’ve also seen managers showing different behaviours, thinking more about the organisation and less about themselves or just their teams, planning their time differently and more.
Everyone (manager or leader) in an organisation – at whatever level – can benefit hugely from Elaine’s thoughtful and challenging training.”
