CaseStudy /

Tailored leadership development programme equips 70 newly promoted Executives from three global regions to deliver better business results

A leadership academy that helps investment bankers deliver in a high performance culture

01/ The Client Barclays Capital is one of the world’s leading investment banks. It provides large corporate, government, and institutional clients with a full range of solutions for their strategic advisory, financing, and risk management needs.

02/ The ChallengeFollowing a review of its people development strategies Barclays Capital recognised that it had no coherent strategy for developing leaders in its sales distribution division. As a result, when senior leader positions became available, these were often filled with external recruits rather than having internal successors pre-developed to take over. “That meant there was a clear gap in our development strategy within the leadership space,” explains Reed Sylvester, Lead Learning & Development Consultant for Barclays Capital Sales Distribution division.

In 2011, there were 70 newly promoted Executives in the sales division of the investment bank, spread across the bank’s three main regions: Americas, EMEA, and Asia. Barclays Capital was looking for a leadership development programme that would enable these new Executives to deliver a high performance culture in their teams that was aligned to a new corporate strategy.

Because this target audience was made up of analytical investment bankers who were very focused on delivering results and were not used to having leadership training, the development solution needed to be carefully designed to meet their needs. It had to be relevant, tightly focused, and geared to producing practical results that would make a tangible difference in their job performances. A further challenge was the need to deliver a consistent message to leaders from a variety of cultures in the three regions.

03/ The Solution

Barclays Capital contacted various suppliers with expertise in the leadership space, and rogenSi was one of the companies on its shortlist. During the pitching process, the solution offered by rogenSi stood out from the competition for a number of reasons. Sylvester says, “They were offering a very innovative way of delivering leadership development that wasn’t prohibitively expensive and their proposal excited and engaged our senior managing directors.”

This innovative solution was an academy built around a programme called Extraordinary Leader (EL), a strengths-based approach to development that is entirely research-based. EL was developed by psychometric experts Zenger and Folkman who conducted research and took data from 220,000-230,000 people in leadership roles. From their data they established 16 differentiating competencies that contribute to extraordinary leadership.

RogenSi developed a three-phase academy around this programme. In the first phase participants completed a 360 degree feedback review and then received a report that compared their results in each of the 16 competencies against the norms in the database and gave them a ranking for each one. Second, the rogenSi consultants held a 1:1 coaching session with each participant to decide which three key strengths they would benefit most from developing. The final phase of

the process for each individual consisted of attending the development workshops they had agreed would be most beneficial.

Barclays Capital particularly appreciated the efforts of the rogenSi consultants to design and deliver a solution that really fit the needs of the target audience. Sylvester comments, “They didn’t look at it as a generic programme to be delivered, but something that was designed very specifically for this particular population at Barclays Investment bank.”

The focus on strengths, measurement against competencies, and ability to tailor the development modules to the individual participants were crucial and key factors in the success of the programme. Sylvester comments, “That sort of philosophy was something that appealed to us, but it also meant that instead of them going through every development workshop that was available, the participants could select the ones that would have the most impact on them as a leader.”

In addition to making the development programme more time efficient and more relevant to this busy population, this approach also ensured that the participants were more invested in the development workshops and were able to add more value to the sessions.

04/ AchievementsAs a result of this training and consultancy project Barclays Capital:

• Has a clear picture of what leadership looks like• Has embraced and developed the strengths of 70 newly promoted Executives• Has equipped its leaders to deliver results in a High-performance culture

“I think we are now able to talk about what leadership looks like within the investment bank at Barclays,” says Sylvester. “We are able to hand on heart say: ‘this is where we’re strong as an organisation, and this is where we are less strong’.”

While it is difficult to measure the success of the 2011 pilot programme at this stage, early indications are very favorable. The academy is being run again in 2012, and extended through the whole front office to include the investment banking, trading, and global finance divisions. This means that all the newly promoted Executives within the company (120-130 people) will be going through the programme in 2012. It is anticipated that tangible benefits from the programme’s continued success will include more business with clients, better staff retention, and clear alignment with the company’s overall strategy.

What can we do for you?rogensi.com

05/ The LegacyThe measurable results of this programme may not be quantifiable until it has been running for longer, but Barclays Capital anticipates that it will have a very significant impact on the executive population. Sylvester concludes, “In 3-4 years we will have had 400-500 MDs go through the programme. If we assume that most of those are still with the organisation, you’d like to think that all of our leaders would be employing really good practice around how to create a vision, how to deliver on a strategy, and how to engage their people around it.”

06/ The Verdict“RogenSi has a good global footprint with excellent communication capabilities. As well as a lead consultant who looks after the Barclays relationship, there are a number of people within the business we can refer to and ensure things are running smoothly in whatever region they’re running.”

“We have a very good, honest and open relationship with RogenSi. Their consultants are very strong in the leadership and coaching space. I have no qualms about them working with senior players within an investment bank.”

Reed Sylvester, Barclays Capital’s lead Learning & Development consultant for the sales distribution division of the investment bank