High Performance Teams

Developing the Leaders of the Future

“The course and, in particular, the one-to-one coaching sessions were excellent. I liked the introspection I went through during the course; understanding oneself (as an individual and then into a broader group, too) helped me realise that everyone works differently and how you can keep that in mind to get the best performance from your team. It also comes in handy with managing up as well as down!”

“Something we all benefitted from (which I don’t think we expected to happen) was that the group I was part of became much closer. By the end, we understood each other’s business units or offices better, which led to better communication and more cross-selling, a key issue raised by the group during the sessions.”

MDA Consulting, established since 1951 and headquartered in London, has a team of 70 professionals spread primarily over six regional UK offices, providing a broad spectrum of professional services to the property and construction industry. At their core is a culture of innovation, collaboration and client centricity. This breeds a concrete commitment to exceed customer expectations. A major component of their value proposition is that directors continue to deliver directly on client commissions.

The Challenge

With a clear, ambitious, organic 5-year growth plan, MDA recognised the need to develop their talent, their next generation of leaders, to:

Continue to build a resilient business
Grow organically through repeat and new business
Deliver stronger than average profitability AND client value as a niche player in the market
Extend their collaborative and supportive environment to continue to attract strong professionals and talent into the wider delivery and client-facing team

With this purpose, MDA commissioned Rathbone Results to design and deliver a customised management development programme. Following broad consultation with Board Directors and emerging leaders, development needs were identified. Performance emerged as a key theme.

Our Approach

A bespoke programme consisting of three non-consecutive highly-participative one-day workshops was agreed – delivered over a period of three to four months to create momentum. The programme includes pre-work, for participants to prepare to engage more quickly, and post-workshop 1:1 coaching, to support the application of learning, for cohorts of six emerging leaders at a time. From managing and leading self and others to managing and leading the business, to managing and leading teams, the workshops raised self-awareness, sparked discussion and encouraged individual and collective action.

The Results

Benefits to MDA are beginning to accrue, including the following:

Promotion to the Board of one participant from the first cohort of 6
6% sales increase in the year against declining construction activity and GDP growth of 1%
4% increase in fees per fee-earner
11% reduction in debtor days
More targeted business development (BD) activity through key account management
Greater team-working through regular team meetings and structured activity reviews
Greater collaboration and cross-selling across and within regional offices

The programme increased bench-strength across the business for greater and more sustainable success. Participants have been upskilled for succession. Several were promoted to the Board within six months of the programme’s completion, others progressively moved to more senior roles within the business.