Key features
- Banking & Finance Sector in Australia
- 4,000+ team leaders and managers
- Large strategic roll out
- Ongoing partnership since 2008
What was the situation?
In 2008, The Maura Fay Group were invited to partner with one of the top four Australian banks, to develop over 4,000 junior and senior leaders. The bank wanted us to collaborate with them on a strategic initiative to help develop their leaders’ ability to hold quality conversations.
As managers and team leaders, they were required to hold a variety of both spontaneous and planned conversations with their staff, covering areas such as feedback, performance, development, coaching, change, transformation, and talent management. Feedback from an engagement survey highlighted managers needed further development in this area, as conversations were either being avoided, delayed or not being executed effectively.
How did The Maura Fay Group contribute?
In 2008 we developed core conversations programs which provided the framework for holding effective conversations, and offered generous opportunities for ‘real play’. By using the model of three facilitators to twelve participants it allowed the program to remain highly experiential with a great deal of personal feedback and coaching. The program provides each person a 45 minute opportunity to practise and apply their learning to their own workplace situation. The program design has continued to evolve over the years to ensure relevance and that the participants are continually being challenged.
We were selected based on our experience and expertise in leadership development and training, focus on deliverable outcomes, motivation to participate in focus groups and our ability to work collaboratively with the Bank’s own leadership and talent team. This ensured the programs were developed to meet the bank’s specific requirements and were able to support a culture of open, honest and authentic conversation. Although the program content is structured, it is flexible enough that it can be adapted to different business units when required.
What were the results?
Our partnership with the bank has gone from strength to strength over the last three years. The results are measured by participant evaluations, anecdotal feedback from stakeholders and primarily the change in behaviour of the ‘People Leaders’.
This feedback and visible behaviour change confirms there has been a significant improvement in open communication between leaders and their teams, which has increased the level of trust and improved morale as each team member is feeling more valued. The leaders are now much stronger and more proactive in holding spontaneous and planned conversations with their colleagues and teams.
Moving forward...
Due to the ongoing success of this program the bank is now also using the conversations training as a key strategic tool to help embed new strategies which include enterprise behaviours and a new capability framework. The programs are now included in the core leadership development strategy. They have gained a high profile within the business through word of mouth so that more and more business units are expressing interest in utilising the program.