BUSINESS owners across Cumbria are developing their own leadership skills to implement more effective methods of managing teams in order to upskill their staff’s professional capabilities and encourage business growth.
Centre for Leadership Performance (CforLP) is experiencing an increase in bosses signing up to its popular Leader 2 Leader programme which upskills delegates’ leadership qualities by tailoring learning around their own working environments and experiences.
Since 2020, there has been a 100 per cent increase in people completing development and training courses run by CforLP, with a rise in Chief Executives, Managing Directors and other top bosses reflected in the overall increase in numbers.
Sarah Purdham founded specialist project planning and project controls consultancy Prima Uno 10 years ago and was able to develop the leadership skills she has picked up over the past decade after taking part in the Leader 2 Leader programme in 2022.
She said: “As a business owner who had never had a business nor managed a team before, I have learned a lot over the past decade but there is still so much to learn.
“I have always wondered if I am a good leader and, as Prima Uno is continually growing and my leadership team will expand accordingly, I thought it was imperative that I had some help and guidance in being a good leader of people.
“Attending the course allowed me to make time for my own personal and business plans, and I learned how to listen more effectively and how to plan for the next stages of the company’s growth which will enable me to get the required support and a better quality of life.
“I learned some really important lessons throughout the course such as taking time out to reflect and plan ahead, thinking more about who my audience is and improving techniques to listen both in and out of a working environment.”
Bursaries for the Leader 2 Leader course are available to SMEs, educators and non-profit organisations in the Allerdale and Copeland areas of Cumbria through OneAIM, a joint venture between Jacobs and Mitie, supported by Sellafield Limited and CforLP.
The grants were made available to reduce financial barriers preventing small businesses upskilling their staff, widening the pool of applicants and encouraging more people to participate in order to support the economy across the county.
Lee Grears, the managing director of destructive and non-destructive testing, mechanical testing and industrial training company Responsive, was one of the first delegates to receive a bursary place for the Leader 2 Leader course – and was so impressed with what leadership traits he developed that he has since supported three members of his management team through the course.
He said: “What I enjoyed most about the Leader 2 Leader was that it wasn’t a scripted, one-size-fits-all approach and the learning journey was adapted to fit the delegates and their aspirations for leadership.
“As a business owner, you always question whether what you are doing is the right thing so being on the Leader 2 Leader programme and sharing experiences with other delegates was helpful in reassuring me I was doing some things the perceived right way while I also picked up hints and tips about leadership that you might never have thought of yourself.
“I have always worked better in a peer-to-peer environment, and having that approach with fellow delegates helped all the learning fall into place, and we could relate to the examples shared among the group.
“Since I completed the course, I have put three members of my staff through the programme as it’s so useful to develop leadership skills and, although you won’t apply everything you pick up during the programme, there are many elements to it that stick with you and you unconsciously bring into your daily environment to make running the business more efficient.”
The Leader 2 Leader programme is run over the course of eight months, and encourages delegates to learn from one another’s shared experiences to complement the theory taught by experts from CforLP.
Catherine Eve, a co-director of CforLP, said: “The Leader 2 Leader programme is popular with employees who are being promoted to, or are already in, management positions and are wanting to develop ways of implementing more effective practices among their staff.
“The programme is also increasingly in demand with business owners themselves who are seeing the value in evaluating their own leadership methods and ultimately learning new techniques to ensure there is a fluid way of working at their companies.
“A lot of owners find they struggle to let things go as they are so invested in everything about their business, so they learn through the shared experiences on the course how to delegate, manage their time better and similar methods to help ease the pressure on themselves and effectively share the workload among trusted members of staff.”
To find out more about the upcoming Leader 2 Leader programmes or to express an interest, visit www.cforlp.org.uk, email catherine.eve@cforlp.org.uk or sign up to its mailing list at Centre for Leadership Performance (list-manage.com).
