Feature: Leadership, Management and Coaching Development St Mary’s Way

Staff are a key resource to any organisation, ever more so in higher education. St Mary’s University College, Twickenham is committed to supporting staff of all levels and offers a variety of development programmes such as English as a second language, to presentation and organisational skills. What’s more, the staff development team has recognised the importance within large organisations to work with those in senior roles effectively as a way to encourage one-to-one coaching within their teams. St Mary’s Staff Development Manager Paula Keane explains how important programmes like this are to the University College. “The staff development team at St Mary’s received Approved Centre Status from the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) in March 2009. Through the Institute’s flexible partnership approach, the University College is able to provide staff with accredited programmes in leadership, management and coaching; all of which are tailored to individual needs. “Equity of opportunity is a key value of our staff development initiatives and there are equal representations from academic and professional services on all programmes. This balance has also bridged the gap between academic and non-academic staff to emphasize parity of collective leadership experiences across the institution.” For example, the ILM Level 7 Award in Strategic Leadership recognises the importance of encouraging leaders to reflect on their experiences and learn from them. The ILM suggest that ‘effective leaders are not afraid of making mistakes, only of repeating their mistakes’. Paula added, “Coaching is embedded in the culture of St Mary’s, with four cohorts of staff having completed the ILM Level 5 Coaching and Mentoring course. By training groups of managers to coach, the culture is shifting towards one of support, reflection and empowerment. Internal coaches complete the ILM Coaching and Mentoring in Management, and work cross-departmentally to improve cohesion throughout the University College.” One such professional services manager said, “I have very much enjoyed the workshops and the discussion time amongst peers from other departments; it has reminded me that I am working with like-minded people who share similar values and a common goal for the success of St Mary’s.” Many participants find that the development programmes help them in their work as a coping mechanism, to learn from other’s experiences, to think about their role, and to reflect on how they can improve in the workplace. Paula concluded, “St Mary’s has always maintained a strong commitment towards the support of learning and development. Unique to St Mary’s is the sense of community and staff regularly comment about their sense of belonging. Our staff remain at the heart of what we do and the sense of community here is strengthened by the investment from the senior team in all aspects of leadership, management and coaching development.”