Wates

Developing Leadership Skills

Wates is one of the UK’s largest family-owned construction services and development companies. Established in 1897, Wates now employs over 2,000 people in the UK.

Objective

In 2003, Impact were approached by Wates to design a leadership development programme for middle managers and future leaders of the Group. Impact were asked to help balance the technical training delivered to this group with the introduction of key leadership competencies previously agreed by the Wates board. 

Delegates attending this programme are already high performers within the business and the further development of business-focused leadership skills is essential to aid their transition into senior managers.  The programme also needed to be practical and directly linked to the delivery of business results.

Solution

Working in close partnership with Wates, Impact designed a two-part solution comprising a five-day residential programme in the English Lake District and a one-day “Moving Forward” module delivered 6-8 months later.

The programmes are now in their 7th successful year and are delivered to around 40 managers annually.

This “Developing Leadership Skills” (DLS) programme incorporates practical experiential projects followed by facilitated reviews, self-awareness understanding using MBTI personality profiling and a full Coaching for Performance module.

Participants also start a number of carefully positioned real-world business projects (Project Pearl). These are then followed through on return to the business and finally presented to board directors at the 2nd module 6-months later.

Throughout the programmes, awareness and skills are developed through the use of peer and tutor feedback and personal and group reflection.

Result

“Our Developing Leadership Skills programmes have been extremely successful, combining leadership activities and peer feedback with business-specific projects requiring inspirational leadership in the workplace.  

A key objective for Wates in this programme is the transfer of learning back into the workplace and without a doubt the business projects allow this to happen.  A number of business projects are now in the implementation phase and are  adding value to the Group”.

Anthony Surley
Training and Development Manager 

Business Project Update

Overview

In 2003 Impact and Wates created the Developing Leadership Skills (DLS) programme. This programme is designed to help great managers understand how to become great leaders. The first module includes a mix of practical projects, dialogue and feedback sessions, facilitated to give participants insights into their leadership style and provide the opportunity to practice and develop new behaviours.

Business Project

At the end of module one, participants are tasked with forming small project groups and identifying a real business issue to find a solution to or a new idea to introduce into Wates. The project utilises their leadership, influencing and project management skills, whilst delivering real business improvements for their organisation. Participants have six months to work on their project - alongside busy day jobs - before presenting their recommendations to a member of the Wates’ Executive Committee.

The projects, known as 'Project Pearls', are often business process improvements, culture change projects or environmental initiatives.

In 2008 one team set a challenging vision for every Wates construction project to use a social enterprise in their supply chain. Social enterprises are businesses with social or environmental objectives whose profits are reinvested for that purpose. The recommendation was supported by the Executive Committee and has now progressed into a fully funded business project.

Result

This Project Pearl has provided a foundation for how the organisation engage with social enterprises to deliver goods and services in support of one of Wates' key priorities in 2010. The DLS participants’ recommendation has resulted in a contract worth £1.2M being awarded to Remploy – a labour agency used to supply and install PVCu windows for a project in Manchester. Contracts have also been awarded to social enterprises across the UK for office recycling, landscaping and catering services.

'We are delighted to see this Project Pearl becoming a business reality for Wates. The main objective of Project Pearl is to enable the DLS participants to put their leadership learning into practice. The groups learn the challenges of introducing business change, senior level influencing and project management. In this case, the Social Enterprise project will also bring real benefits to the communities we work in.'

Judith Bufton
Head of Leadership and Development

Further Information

Read more about Impact's approach to Developing Leaders