Leadership Foundations Programme

BACKGROUND:

Mars Information Services (Mars IS) is a division of Mars which supplies Information Technology services to the Mars business. As a global supplier of confectionary, pet food and drinks, Mars has significant information technology requirements. IS, a Division of over 1500 people, offers a global IT service that 'follows the sun'. Each of the IS teams are split over three regions: Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific (AsiaPac). The requirements of leaders within the IS business are to interface with the rest of Mars, understand key internal client requirements, develop and lead a global and multi-cultural team, and lead and manage significant and on-going business change.

Following a significant restructure in the business, IS contacted Values Based Leadership to discuss the development of their Zone 6 leaders. These leaders typically direct key project teams in the business and have a significant interface with the internal client. It was at this Zone 6 level that effects of the change were felt most as it was here that the re-structuring had a major impact.

SOLUTION:

After consultation with IS, the Leadership Foundations Programme was created. While the Zone 6's had significant functional experience and were now in important leadership positions, there had been very little specific leadership development for this level. Leadership Foundations addressed this in a programme lasting nine months which included 360 degree feedback, an experiential leadership programme and four one-to-one telephone or face-to-face coaching sessions.

OUTCOME:

As a result of the programme a significant number of the Zone 6 leaders have either been promoted or have moved to roles with significantly more responsibility. The Leadership Foundations Programme is on-going and now forms part of the Mars University suite of leadership development opportunities.

VBL is also working with IS to develop high performance multi-cultural global teams and we have developed a number of short interventions which are being delivered in the UK and Europe. IS are also using the VBL TeamPulse© tool to measure a team's performance across nine dimensions. A facilitated team session on the results of the TeamPulse© is run by VBL or internal Mars facilitators who have been trained in the use of TeamPulse©. This means it can be delivered locally across all three regions in which Mars operates. TeamPulse© is then re-visited by the team to measure the success of the TeamPulse© action plan. Where a tailored development programme is required for individual leaders, VBL is supplying executive coaching to IS. This is sponsored by the coachee's line manager so both individual and organisation's outcomes are understood and achieved through the coaching process.