The challenge
With their unique culture and belief that leadership is the management of that culture, Investec needed initiatives and a platform that would empower them to manage and personalise leadership development in-house.
Their high standards for culture and values meant that they’d never treat development as something standardised and linear.
Investec’s leadership pathways treat people as individuals, understand their challenges and meet them in meaningful ways through learning. And they needed a platform that could help facilitate that…
The process
Alongside their leadership and coaching initiatives, Investec wanted to empower people to find resources and development opportunities independently.
This meant bringing their wealth of leadership resources into one single place and using HowNow to craft those into impactful pathways and journeys.
We spoke with Lior Chuvali, Leadership Learning Experience Manager, about their approach and the impact of using HowNow.
“What HowNow has done for us is professionalise the way leadership gets managed. Individuals can visually see how they’re moving through the program and access certain materials along the way as we flesh out a repository of resources people can find over time.”
Investec’s pain points
Overcoming the challenges
Investec’s view on leadership is that it’s not something you can standardise, especially when you’re a new or emerging leader.
Instead, each person is treated as an individual, with the individual, their leader and the learning and development ( L&D) team understanding where that person is now and what will have the most value in their growth and in overcoming business challenges.
“If you’re a new leader, you don’t have to start here to get there. We try to understand where an individual is now, what their needs are and respond to that in a meaningful way.”
That means listening to leaders and key stakeholders! Their People and Organisation (P&O) leads and People Consultants Partners team (similar to Human Resource Consultants – HRCs) might come to them and say, ‘this person has just joined. How can we get them up to speed quicker?’ or leaders might knock on the L&D door for things they need to support their team.
Investec’s two flagship leadership initiatives
Developing Team Leadership: Using modular learning sessions alongside group coaching to drive leadership development
The first offering is geared towards new and emerging leaders, offering skills-based and modular pathways that encompass key topics, skills and traits they’ll need to lead within the Investec culture. These cover areas like self-leadership, wellbeing, relational dynamics, communication skills, change and transformation, strategy and financial literacy.
Group coaching underpins this, providing a platform for leaders to help each other through day-to-day challenges and deliver learning and development in the right context.
Why? Because the program creates network and support structures for leaders, so they can access others going through similar things, learn where they’ve been successful and apply that to their role.
“Beyond the program itself is the support team. If you’ve gone through a program with a coaching team, those people often continue to meet and hash out issues. So it really enables a network and further learning along the way. Which is something by design.”
Investec’s Leadership Development Program
Targeting individuals who’ve had exposure to leadership and leadership development before (including those leading teams and thought leaders), Investec’s Leadership Development Program aims to establish several things:
This mindset is reflected in other leadership initiatives they’ve launched across the business. Lior and her team recently worked with the Digital Technology team as they managed significant transformation, providing them with content geared around leading change in dynamic and ever-changing environments.
The impact of Investec’s initiatives and HowNow’s role
When it comes to leadership development, your eyes and ears are probably the best tools for measuring success. What’s the feedback from employees? Are leaders telling you that they’re feeling more confident and capable?
Luckily for Investec, open and honest dialogue is a core cultural value, and it led to plenty of positive verbal and written feedback. But feedback is also given without saying a thing, which is why it’s crucial to monitor behavioural changes in the day-to-day running of the business.
And, as Lior explained to us, they’re seeing micro changes and better self-awareness, driven by the coaching and reflection opportunities that allow people to refine their leadership approaches. Those improvements are also encouraging people to be more vocal about what they need:
“The leadership programs have evolved alongside the business and built a brand of their own. People now understand what we’re offering, and it’s not uncommon for leaders to say, I want this for a team member or colleague, and I’d like you to have an exploratory conversation with them about this.”
So, where does HowNow come into all of this?
Well, we’ve empowered Investec’s L&D team and leaders in three meaningful ways:
1) In building a library of leadership resources and offering an effective way of creating courses that visibly show leaders what’s available to them, and how they’re progressing.
2) Organising those leadership resources into channels that make it far easier to find relevant content when it matters most. These channels are based on core values and topics like Financial Wellbeing, Culture, Purpose & Values and Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity.
3) Making all of it available on-demand so that people can learn independently and on their terms.
“Before HowNow, all the information had to run through us, and people weren’t really sure where to turn. Now we’re seeing that people are able to figure it out for themselves and come to us when they have questions. That’s been really helpful for that access and visibility.”