The Co-op Bank was a company people wanted to work for, with talented people queuing up to get a foot in the door.
But succession planning across the company was inconsistent, and capability across management was mixed. So, they needed to level up their current leaders and get their future leaders fired up and ready to go.
What we did
We created a 12-month talent programme called Prodigy that combined skills training, mentoring, leadership coaching and academic and reflective learning interventions. We aimed to level the playing field internally, but also nurture talent that could compete with the best external talent too.
We worked with existing managers to standardise capability, and with ‘prodigies’ to encourage emerging talent to progress, creating consistency and frameworks that encouraged people to move throughout the organisation rather than moving on.
…The Prodigy programme really did take me out of my comfort zone but I am so glad it. I definitely feel it has developed my Leadership skills and changed my outlook to focus on leading the team rather than simply managing them. The workshops were engaging & thought-provoking and found that reflecting on them and referring back to the topics covered really helped in a practical sense in my day-to-day work!
The results
We made it enticing for all current managers in the organisation to play a part in supporting the ‘prodigies’ while also developing themselves. The programme meant: