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Case Study

Empowering Diverse Talent

Outcome
  • Raised confidence levels by approx. 65%.
  • Over 72% of participants feeling confident enough to apply for promotions, with 50% of them getting promoted within 12 months of the programme starting
  • Over 90% of participants stated the programme was ‘valuable’ or ‘extremely valuable’.

Anecdotal feedback also indicates that participants feel more accepted as unique individuals and are proud of the value they bring to the organisation.

The Challenge

We were engaged by an organisation of 5000+ employees with major concerns about lack of diversity in their senior leadership population. We partnered with them to create a bespoke empowerment programme for all dimensions of diversity to address this issue. We spent time with key stakeholders to understand the organisation’s culture, strategic priorities and future leadership requirements.
Collaborating with their HR&OD team and the Programme Manager of their Tackling Racism Inequality & Disproportionality group, we sought to address
the overarching aim for the programme: to enhance the confidence of all participants, encourage and empower them to apply for promotion, reframe their leadership brand, and position them for success through both their promotional application and once awarded, their new appointment.
Success was maximised through Line Manager engagement, providing additional support and sounding boards for participants.

The Programme

The Developing Diverse Leaders Programme ran for 6 months with 20 participants. We used a blended delivery approach – in-person and virtual, with a broad range of activities to cater for different learning styles. Development activities included:

  • Enhancing self-awareness through the completion of the Lumina
  • Spark personality questionnaire with group feedback
  • Creating personal development plans for each participant
  • Group and peer coaching sessions
  • Strategic projects mentored by an internal Executive sponsor; each project team presented their final recommendations to senior leaders at the closing event
  • Practical, interactive masterclasses and work shops focused on:
    – Understanding and optimising career headwinds
    – Enhancing career confidence and embracing imposter phenomenon
    – Understanding and developing personal leadership styles and brand through storytelling
    – Winning that promotion, including writing a compelling application and impactful CV, raising visibility and overcoming interview anxiety.