Leadership Development

Leading through rapid and constant change is now a non-negotiable skill for public sector leaders and managers who need to think, act and react differently. Transformational change comes from cognitive, behavioural, and emotional development.

Through our insight and innovation, we’ve identified the vital leadership capabilities to focus our bespoke development programmes on:

Self-awareness
Growth in consciousness improves self-regulation and expenditure of personal energy. This leads to the ability to recognise this in others, empathising and effectively managing the dynamics of pressure and stress for themselves and their teams.

Building and leading inclusive teams
Understanding the neurology of professional performance and how psychological safety contributes to high performing teams who deliver organisational objectives.

Greater mental complexity
Developing the skill to increase divergent and conceptual thinking whilst making quick decisions with limited information.

Modular blended learning
Our leadership programs are designed to support leaders and teams in generating change through a modular blended learning experience.

This immersive experience involves a series of interconnected activities, including critical thinking and collaboration with thought leaders and guest contributors as well as exploring how to drive social change through their teams and the business.

We provide a bespoke and evolving learning approach that gives participants access to multiple leadership development interventions simultaneously.

We’re seeing and supporting a shift from individual ‘heroic’ leadership styles to more collegiate, connected, and shared approaches to tackle the volatile, complex and uncertain demands on your leaders.

This demands more sophistication than the conventional approach to team building or away days that ignore the specific needs of top team development.

With extensive experience in delivering leadership programs across large and complex public sector organizations, we understand the unique needs of senior leadership teams.

Creating team-centric, agile and networked organisations
Our Top Team Development Programme addresses all the needs of a public sector leadership team with four development paths:

– New teams
– Team performance
– Team dynamics
– Strategic teams

These modular interventions have a specific focus and learning outcomes and can be used independently or together.

Sustainable outcomes
Our program enhances team development and performance while nurturing relationships and addressing interpersonal needs. This creates a more inclusive and integrated team, allowing for collegial thinking with innovation, vision, and strategy that’s sustainable long after the programme ends.

Leading in the public sector has never been so volatile and complex with increased public scrutiny, multiple stakeholder demands and political agendas.

Being exposed to a variety of ‘risk states’ and cultural challenges can reduce leadership capability and lead to poor performance, which can have a devastating impact on the leader, the team and the wider organisation.

We understand the unique and individual journeys that each experienced and emerging leader faces, including those from diverse lived experiences, and can provide bespoke coaching to support your needs.

– Developing your potential.
– Embracing change.
– Navigating systemic barriers.
– Responding to sector demands.
– Developing a personal leadership brand.
– Harnessing individual leadership strengths.
– Improve self and team performance.

The right coach for you
We know that having the right coach who understands your unique challenges is crucial for successful coaching outcomes. We use a 5-stage process to match you with the perfect coach, ensuring that you receive the tailored support they need to achieve their goals throughout the programme.

Tailored coaching programmes
We have 4 Executive Coaching Programs tailored to the specific challenges faced by different leaders:

1. Executive Coaching
2. New CEO
3. Women in Leadership
4. Leaders from Diverse Communities.

Coachees can expect to identify their own development needs and challenges and reflect on what’s going well.

We monitor and re-accredit all our executive coaches annually to ensure the effectiveness of our coaching programs. We also evaluate the effectiveness of coaching interventions midway and at the program end to ensure coachees receive the best support possible.

We provide an extensive number of pre-designed leadership development workshops that can be delivered one-off or as a series and be tailored to your organisation.

Alternatively, we’ll work with you to create a completely bespoke programme that delivers unique outcomes and meets the needs and challenges your organisation is facing right now.

Workshop themes
Our workshops fall under 4 key areas for effective leadership development:

1. Improving personal effectiveness
2. Developing leadership skills
3. Managing people and diversity
4. Promoting equality and inclusivity

These themes cover a wide range of topics, from advanced influencing, strategic talent management and planning for recovery to conversational intelligence, disruptive thinking and many more vital skills and capabilities.

Foundational Interview Skills training is a one-day assessment masterclass that gives interviewers the tools and expertise to run effective, consistent and inclusive interviews and processes. Designed to incorporate best practice within the world of assessment and organisational psychology, this training will provide interviewers with the confidence, skills and practical experience to become world-class interviewers.

This training is designed for hiring managers or individuals who are newer to interviewing. It has a mix of learning methods to ensure an engaging and informative day, including breakout sessions, practical experience and a workbook for delegates to complete alongside their training.

As a standard Interview Skills training, we cover:

• Understanding and mitigating our own biases and judgements
• Tailoring an interview process [using your framework]
• Neurodiversity and reasonable adjustments
• Interviewing effectively and authentically
• Best practice in competency-based interviewing [STARE and ORCE models]
• Practical interviewing and scoring experience
• Working within and challenging others on an interview panel
• Providing meaningful feedback

We can also work with you to tailor our training to your context and requirements.

Delivered in person or online by our leadership and talent assessment experts who bring deep organisational psychology knowledge and personal experience to the training.

As an award-winning provider of Leadership Development Programmes across the public sector, not for profit and education sectors, we take enormous pride in our client relationships.  The team at GatenbySanderson truly believe in being a business partner and extension of your organisation to provide the development solutions that your organisation needs and that deliver results. We invest time up front with every client to discuss and provide development that delivers results for your current and future leaders.

This commitment is exemplified by being awarded EY’s Client Centric Award 2024 as a Government Learning Framework Supplier. Particular praise was given to:

“the outstanding contribution to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency Grade 7 Elevate Leadership Development programme and the exceptional client experience GatenbySanderson delivered.”

Designed and delivered by Liaquat Lal, this leadership development programme achieved a 98% approval from learner feedback, the highest of any programme that any of EY’s suppliers have delivered.