UK Wealth Management
Building and leading an inclusive leadership and team culture
Opportunity
Working with a multinational investment bank and FS company’s Savings, Investment and Wealth Management team, Sheridan took a whole system approach designed to support the business’ cultural and operational change agenda. The aim was to foster a shift to an inclusive culture. Our two coaches led two parallel workstreams
The solution
Firstly, working with the Executive Leadership team, we explored ideas for evolving the strategy against a challenging context, while deepening the trust, alignment and commitment needed to work together more collaboratively and inclusively. In parallel, we worked with 200 leaders to develop a deeper understanding of Inclusive Leadership and of the actions which can be taken collectively and individually to create inclusive team cultures.
At the heart of the workshops was a felt experience of inclusion and exclusion which acted as an anchor to motivate and remind individuals of its significance and lasting impact. Capturing real stories and developing bespoke scenarios through film, helped leaders to confront their own assumptions, behaviours and biases. A variety of team activities were used to engage different learning preferences to great effect.
“Our leadership offsite was designed to set our vision and draw up an actionable plan to deliver on our strategy, as well as build a leadership team that could trust one another, collaborate effectively and lead inclusively. The two days were expertly led by the coach facilitators, who struck the perfect balance of vision, strategy, inclusive leadership, and team bonding. The team arrived as individual contributors and left as a collective ready to forge ahead to deliver the business strategy and become inclusive leaders. Their teams (200) benefited from varied activities that were engaging and tailored.to create synergy and followship
Impact
The Executive offsite was designed on the principles of an inclusive Thinking Environment integrating strategic, operational, and relational elements. The team expanded their capacity for high-trust, candid dialogue, enabling them to constructively explore areas of conflict. As a result, they were more able to consider a diverse set of perspectives on their challenges and were quickly able to co-create and prioritise a set of scenarios to progress together. Months on, the team had maintained their commitments to tangible actions to power the progress of the business strategy and relationships had improved dramatically; the team were holding each other accountable for sustaining a positive, inclusive, and productive team culture.
Building on these outcomes, Sheridan began working with key business sponsors, D&I champions and Learning & Development to co-design and deliver workshops designed to communicate the inclusion strategy and challenge and support leaders to examine their own and others behaviour and to take immediate action to effect change. The workshops focused on action, with leaders agreeing individual and collective actions to take forward to contribute to the desired working practices and norms in their business areas.