La Fosse Associates

“I’ve heard very good feedback from everyone who joined you, including the management team. I am positive the team have learnt a lot which will be instrumental in them becoming amazing leaders and managers here at La Fosse.”

About the La Fosse programme

Bowles was approached in February 2017 to help bring to life the 2-month modular Management Development programme at La Fosse Associates. This programme was designed specifically for their Future Business Leaders and delivered as a  4-day residential programme.

The challenge was for them to step away from what they are good at within their roles and to engage others to become successful.

The objectives of the programme

One overall programme objective was identified as Managing Self before being able to Manage Others. To achieve this the programme was designed to incorporate the following elements:

Managing Self

  • Identify the difference between a sales/professional role and a first line manager role
  • Develop an awareness that success in a first line manager role involves a shift in mindset: from “all about me” to “all about team”
  • Describe how they want to be perceived as a manager and create their management brand
  • Discover own and identify other’s preferred ways of working and communicating
  • Recognise that the first line manager role involves a balance between completing your own tasks and managing your people
  • Plan and prioritise tasks to hit daily, weekly and monthly objectives (Time Management)

Managing Others

  • Use different approaches to motivate individual team members
  • Identify the willingness and ability of team members to perform job tasks (Situational Leadership) and delegate accordingly
  • Coach individuals to achieve their potential (GROW)
  • Provide regular, constructive feedback to the individual about progress being made (AID Model)
  • Practically apply coaching and feedback skills to run effective 121s
  • Select appropriate strategies to help them handle challenging situations

Did the Bowles programme achieve these objectives?

The programme ended with a session aimed at cementing all learning and developing concrete action plans which were then copied to individuals’ Line Managers. This helped to ensure that they were all answerable to their own commitments.

The feedback received following the delivery of this programme clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the activities and the subsequent debrief sessions. Delegates identified their own learning points and have successfully put them into practice back in the workplace.

“It’s definitely given me a very different perspective on how to manage and empower teams more effectively. Was critical for this role to work!”

“We learned through doing. I really liked the detailed analysis of each task at the end to reflect on different scenarios and how things worked etc.”

“Great few days training…usually I’m quite sceptical with away days, but honestly the sessions were insightful, engaging and challenging. Secondly, it was great to work closely with the other managers within La Fosse, some of whom I don’t tend to work with daily.”

“Night run – Challenging scenario, competitive environment and occurred in the evening after a long day of activity. Really showed the level of self-motivation, enthusiasm and collaboration our team must complete the objective. ”

“I will put some of my development areas into my PDP and will engage more with my team in the office using better coaching techniques and giving full attention to my team’s development.”