Wates is one of the UK’s largest private construction and development companies, with a turnover of over £650 Million. Established in 1897, the company is wholly owned by the third and fourth generations of the Wates family and employs 1,700 people across four core businesses.

Objective

In 2003, Impact were approached by Wates to design a leadership development programme for middle managers and future leaders of the Group. Impact were asked to help balance the technical training delivered to this group with the introduction of key leadership competencies previously agreed by the Wates board. 

Delegates attending this programme are already high performers within the business and the further development of business-focused leadership skills is essential to aid their transition into senior managers.  The programme also needed to be practical and directly linked to the delivery of business results.

Solution

Working in close partnership with Wates, Impact designed a two-part solution comprising a five-day residential programme in the English Lake District and a one-day “Moving Forward” module delivered 6-8 months later.

The programmes are now in their 3rd successful year and are delivered to around 40 managers annually.

This “Developing Leadership Skills” programme incorporates practical experiential projects followed by facilitated reviews, self-awareness understanding using MBTI personality profiling and a full Coaching for Performance module.

Delegates also start a number of carefully positioned real-world business projects. These are then followed through on return to the business and finally presented to board directors at the 2nd module 6-months later.

Throughout the programmes, awareness and skills are developed through the use of peer and tutor feedback and personal and group reflection.

Result

“Our Developing Leadership Skills programmes have been extremely successful, combining leadership activities and peer feedback with business-specific projects requiring inspirational leadership in the workplace.  

A key objective for Wates in this programme is the transfer of learning back into the workplace and without a doubt the business projects allow this to happen.  A number of business projects are now in the implementation phase and are already adding value to the Group”.

Anthony Surley
Training and Development Manager

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