Case Studies
Kings College London
RKB Coaching Consultancy Ltd developed and delivered a leadership programme for both academic and professional services staff designed to build leadership capability and to break down silos and foster collaborations across disciplines as well as across academic and professional services.
Kings College London (KCL) established in 1829 is the fourth oldest university in England and alumni include Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the renowned physicist Professor Peter Higgs.
Background
As KCL approached its 200th anniversary, the University had to adapt to new challenges, from tough competition for resources to increased student expectations. Within this fast-changing higher education environment leaders need to be able to think strategically, as well as dealing effectively with day-to-day operational matters.
Raising the bar for effective leadership at Kings was important in developing an inclusive, high-performance culture where staff felt supported, able to adapt to changing circumstances and empowered to work collaboratively.
Hitting the ground running
Building leadership capability was a priority for the Director of Organisational Development (OD) at the time. There was a recognition that Kings needed to transform its culture to grow and informed by a rigorous development needs analysis, the OD Director wanted a new bespoke programme for those in a strategic leadership roles. It was noted that:
“We had an existing development programme for new heads of department and divisional heads but there was a lot of demand for something more holistic. RKB Coaching Consultancy Ltd had provided coaching services for Kings but when I asked around, I discovered they also had a really good track record in delivering the type of leadership programme I had in mind which was modular, experiential and had elements of peer learning and project work. In fact, they had delivered virtually what I wanted for a number of other universities, and they already knew us and understood our population so for me, this was low hanging fruit! We worked with Rajwant to design a bespoke leadership programme and included Professional Services and Academic staff because one of our strategic aims was to increase collaboration between Academic and Professional Services colleagues. We needed to work as one university towards one goal and the best way to make that happen was to have a shared learning experience.”
The Challenge - Delivering the programme
The pilot programme was launched for 32 senior leaders that the Executive had nominated for their long-term potential or they needed support in their current leadership roles. As the programme evolved Kings developed a more structured nomination process and the role of sponsors became more clearly defined to increase accountability.
The University developed a Leadership and Development Framework for current and emerging leaders and required applications from participants setting set out how the programme would develop them as leaders. All the applications were submitted to a selection panel and assessed what people wanted out of the programme, how committed they were to the process and how beneficial it is likely to be for them. The selection process also focused on Kings Diversity and Inclusion agenda.
“Even from the pilot stage one of the things we were very careful about was reviewing the balance of different disciplines, genders and protected groups. One of our explicit aims is for this to be a truly inclusive programme so that, over time, we can impact the culture around inclusivity as well as leadership.”
The programme consisted of 8 one-day modules including action learning sets as well as one-to-one coaching with one of our highly skilled and experienced coaches. Participants could focus on personal, professional and leadership challenges as well as future career progression.
The Result/Impact
The Director of Organisational Development and the Head of Talent were participants in the initial cohorts. The Director of OD said at the time:
“We made a very deliberate choice not to set ourselves apart as evaluators or observers but to actually take part and see what it feels like so we could make recommendations going forward. As a participant, what I took out of it was the opportunity to refresh my outlook and to apply what I was hearing and experiencing to my new situation and context and to develop my network and feel part of the community. So on a personal level the experience was very useful and from a sponsor’s perspective I could also see what was working and what wasn’t.”
The feedback from participants was similarly positive who commented on the value of coaching.
Participants commented that the Action learning sets were very powerful experiences even though initially they found it a challenge focussing on listening and not using their highly developed muscle of offering solutions and advice. With time there was recognition of the long-term benefit of using questions to facilitate the thinking of the other person.
Moving the dial
There is a major transition to be managed in moving from being an academic focussing primarily on research and teaching to taking up the Department Head role with a need now to lead people who had previously been peers or in some cases seniors. The Director of OD observed that participants on the Programme felt empowered to step up into their leadership role and to set the strategic direction for the Department.
“The feedback from senior leaders has been that we are beginning to move the dial. People are more open-minded about change; better at communicating; and there are better quality conversations between leaders and people reporting to them. We can also point to some of the innovative projects that have come out of the programme with collaborations across the university, including across Professional Services and Academia.”
The RKB Effect
Our expertise and ability to effectively partner with the client enabled us to deliver a highly successful leadership programme with tangible outcomes and impact beyond the individuals on the Programme.
