Leadership & Management Development Project

Context

In 1973, a number of schools and colleges in the Hendon area of northwest London, including St Katharine’s College and the Hornsey College of Art, came together to better develop their students’ technical skills and formed Middlesex Polytechnic. Middlesex University then formed in 1992.

Modern-day Middlesex University is a diverse, global university with campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. They offer a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as degree apprenticeships, short courses, and professional development opportunities.  

Since 2018, Eliesha Training has acted as a learning and development partner for Middlesex University – particularly supporting the development of their leaders and managers. In this partnership, we have supported Middlesex University with a variety of projects including:

• Delivering various leadership and management workshops and courses, including Building High Performing Teams, Coaching as a Leadership Style and Adaptive Leadership to staff at varying levels of leadership responsibility.
• Delivering a bespoke leadership programme for senior leaders, as well as a bespoke development programme for the Learning Enhancement Team.
• Delivering 1-1 coaching sessions for individual staff.
• Delivering Team Development and Team Building sessions for specific teams and departments.
• Enrolling learners onto our Level 3 Team Leader/Supervisor and our Level 5 Operations/Departmental Manager apprenticeship programmes.
• Delivering training workshops for Customer Service personnel.
• Additional design and support work.

Requirement

In early 2022, Middlesex University appointed a new Learning and Development Manager who wanted to refresh their current offerings in terms of leadership and management development. They wanted to develop a suite of workshops which would be available for leadership and management staff to book onto and attend. These workshops would also be tied into Middlesex’s values and would follow their branding and philosophy. Initial development area ideas from Middlesex included:

• Communication Skills
• Managing Remote Individuals & Teams
• Difficult Conversations
• Negotiation Skills
• Conflict Management
• Change Management

Solution

We arranged an initial call in February 2022 between the new L&D manager, our dedicated contract management team, and an experienced L&D consultant who had worked with Middlesex University for some time, with relevant Higher Education sector knowledge and who was available to undertake design and delivery work. Prior to the meeting, we sent through brochures, information and course outlines to help the L&D manager get a full sense of our offerings and how our expertise could be applied to their request.

During this meeting, Middlesex University’s requirements were discussed in full and a list of new and revised courses which fully aligned to Middlesex’s values and goals started to emerge. The decision was made to design courses that were two-hours in length to strike a balance between operational efficiency and learning impact. It was decided that these workshops would be delivered virtually, to account for the hybrid working policy.

Following on from this meeting, a list of six new, bespoke workshops for Middlesex University were defined:

• Harnessing the Talents in Your Teams
• Conflict Management for Managers
• Negotiating and Influencing Skills for Managers
• Managing and Leading in a Hybrid Working Environment
• Leading through Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA)

The decision was also made during this time to refine and redesign the following courses so that they also could be used for future delivery:

• Creative Thinking for Managers
• Building High Performing Teams

Design work for these workshops was then undertaken by our designated trainer throughout March and April 2022. Throughout the iterative design process, materials were sent through to Middlesex University to ensure that they were happy with them and felt they aligned to their expectations and values. The materials were then finalised and six sessions were initially delivered in May and June. A further five courses were then delivered between November 2022 to February 2023, following the summer academic holiday.

Results

From the courses delivered, we have received collated by University L&D stakeholders which presents the following results:

• On average, 83% of delegates felt the workshops they attended fully met the workshop objectives.
• On average, 83% of delegates felt the workshops they attended fully met their individual needs.
• 89% of delegates on average rated their tutor as excellent.
• 92% of delegates would recommend the workshop they attended to their colleagues.

The workshops we have ran since 2022 have been well attended in comparison to those who register for them. Both the learners attending and those who we work with at Middlesex University have been satisfied with the quality of the courses we have delivered.

Outcomes

Following on from the initial workshops we ran in the period of May 2022 to February 2023, we have since collaborated with Middlesex University to design several new, bespoke workshops for them. These workshops include:

• Courageous Leadership
• Managing and Leading in a Diverse Working Environment
• Smarter Risk Taking and Innovative Thinking

We have since continued to deliver these courses throughout 2023 and have delivery planned up until July 2024. When our designated trainer undertook a full-time employment contract, we quickly adjusted to bring a new trainer that Middlesex were happy with and that could facilitate the events we previously had booked. We have also continued to deliver additional learning and development support – for example, some additional Team Development sessions, 1-1 coaching sessions, etc.

From the evaluation feedback that Middlesex University has collected, delegates who have attended these workshops have highlighted who they intend to take what they have learned in the workshops through into their own work. Some examples of this include:

Conflict Management for Managers – Increased assertiveness, empathic listening, conflict management grid, generous listening, separation of facts, people, and opinions.

Negotiating and Influencing Skills for Managers – Increased preparation for negotiations, consideration of the distinct phases within negotiations, 4A Model for managing conversations, empathic listening.

Comments/Quotes:

“(The tutor) was great at explaining things and also at listening.”

“(The tutor) was absolutely brilliant and presented the session extremely well.”

“The presenter was highly empathetic and highly motivating.”

“(The tutor) was an excellent facilitator – they ensured that we were all heard, and they provided individualised feedback in response.”

“Good tips – engaging session!”