Background: the role of the GLA
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is the strategic body with the responsibility for delivering the elected Mayor's vision for the capital city. It is made up of a directly elected Mayor - and a separately elected Assembly, the London Assembly, which has 25 members. There are some 670 staff employed to help the Mayor and Assembly in their duties.
As Mayor, Ken Livingstone, controls important aspects of the running of the city. He is chair of Transport for London, directing policy strategy for transport in the capital. He sets the budget and directs policy for the GLA and the London Development Agency, as well as setting budgets and inputting to strategy for the Metropolitan Police and London's fire services. In addition the Mayor is responsible for setting strategic plans for London covering economic planning and development, the environment and culture to name a few.
The Assembly scrutinises the Mayor's activities, questioning the Mayor about his decisions. The Assembly is also able to investigate other issues of importance to Londoners, publish its findings and recommendations, and make proposals to the Mayor. This case study concerns a programme aimed at enhanced development for female employees of the GLA. The Mayor has consistently stated that his commitment to equality and diversity is one of the underpinning elements in his vision for London. Career development is an important and complex challenge at the GLA for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it is still a relatively young and fluid organisation.
There is a strong business case for the development of women: targets are set and met for the proportion of women in the workforce. Women are represented in many senior posts in the organisation, such as Director of Finance, Executive Director of Services and within the Mayor's Office. However, despite this success and many progressive recruitment mechanisms, women remain underrepresented at the senior grades and staff turnover at less senior levels has been quite high in the past.
People move on for many reasons, but a re-occurring theme is that they feel they have plateaued, professionally, and find it difficult to see much scope for career stretch and challenge. Although they still enjoy being in the organisation, their individual job roles may feel constraining after a while. They therefore look outside the organisation for progression routes. This has led to an overall perception that the organisation does not place sufficient emphasis on career development, especially at the lower grades.
Developing the initiative
The women's coaching programme was created following focus groups that were held in May 2003. The then Learning and Development Manager, Angela Goldberg, felt that a number of women in the less well-paid jobs didn't quite know how to move on - where to go and what to do.
Two focus groups were held, one for female employees from black and minority groups and one for any female employee. Similar themes emerged from both groups. Some participants felt that the organisation had a male orientated culture; some felt that the GLA insufficiently implemented its commitment to career development; some felt they did not have adequate support from their line manager and, importantly, did not know how to address this with constructive confidence.
It was evident that a viable development solution must recognise two important issues. First, that the GLA is a small organisation with limited possibilities for upward movement. Secondly that some women don't always see career progression as vertical. Thirdly, that they have a talent for being highly skilled supporters of one another and that they naturally understand the power of self disclosure in order to move forward. Accordingly, a specification for a contract to design and deliver an appropriate and innovative programme was prepared and submissions invited from consultants. The GLA were open to different models of intervention, but the following points formed the core of the specification document:
- a sound demonstration of coaching as a development model or approach and, in particular, how it can be used to benefit women in organisations,
- a strong awareness of diversity issues, especially those facing black and ethnic minority women in the workplace,
- understanding how the success of the scheme can be measured,
- an explanation of modes of delivery, highlighting the time spent per client and the types of communication to be used. This had to include a demonstration of flexibility and responsiveness to changing needs,
- comments on the types of mechanisms that can encourage buy-in from line managers, including an explanation of their role in this.
All of these factors had to address themes identified from the focus groups. These included work/life balance, career direction and mobility, organisational culture and confidence and assertiveness. A budget costing of £2,000 per participant was agreed at this stage
The programme in practice
The successful consultancy, JJB Personnel and Training, designed and delivered a package that gave each participant twelve hours of individual coaching from JJB, a detailed workbook to complete, and participation in three workshops. Each workshop lasted for a full day, and explored the following topics:
- clarifying career and life goals, and developing strategies to implement them successfully,
- gaining greater understanding of individual styles, and how others perceive this
- reviewing approaches to personal and professional development,
- building strategies for balancing work and home responsibilities,
- encouraging networking, and drawing on mentors for support,
- growing self-confidence in own abilities, and considering how they can maximise opportunities in the workplace.
Additionally, there were three planned meetings of action learning sets over the duration of the programme, although sets often met more frequently in their own time.
The programme lasts 6 months. The first programme had sixteen participants and began in Autumn 2003; the second, with twelve participants, began in Autumn 2004. There is a transparent nomination and selection procedure. Interested participants discuss the matter at their annual performance review. Their line manager must then put forward a business case, which must be supported by the Director. Nominations then go forward to a selection panel.
So far the programme has been highly successful and to date there have been twice as many nominees as places and one key task is to give supportive feedback to the unsuccessful applicants. Some individuals have benefited in terms of immediate advancement; they have secured better jobs inside or outside the GLA. Equally important, though, have been the softer outcomes: participants feel more positive and confident about their future and their ability to manage the challenges that lie ahead. This resulted in some applying for jobs that they wouldn't have previously considered. The following statements were amongst the feedback received:
"Has helped me to clarify and prioritise - made me realise that the goals I had previously set myself were in fact not my goals but someone else's. Made me focus and re-evaluate."
"Has resulted in a change in my working hours so I can balance home and work. Would not have done this before the programme - the programme has helped me to re-assess my lifestyle."
"I'm achieving career goals as am talking to my line manager more."
"Made me think back to what I always wanted, the values I hold."
"Within the group I did not feel alone, I could see a link with us all. We all learnt something from each other."
"360 feedback was good. Was scared at first and the negative feedback was hurtful. However, as a result, my behaviours have changed."
The effect on the organisation has also been very positive. Line managers have commented on the improved contribution from participants, and improved performance feeds back into the whole organisation. The scheme has also been highlighted in the Mayor's annual report to Londoners as a tangible demonstration of the GLA's commitment to gender equality. In turn, this reflects well on the GLA's ambition to be an exemplar employer. It is intended that the approach used in the programme will continue to be embedded into the organisation. One way of achieving is by training six volunteers from each group to work as facilitators for the action learning groups. This starts to build a critical mass of useful expertise that remains with the organisation, after the programme has finished.
Learning and development
It is important to recognise that the women's coaching programme does not involve a taught element. It is based on providing the appropriate framework and support for self-development and insight.
Angela Goldberg feels strongly that this is the most appropriate response to a diverse group of women. They will all be starting from different life-points, but they will also share many universal issues. She rejects conventional thinking about women-only programmes which often start from the premise that they have skills and experience deficiencies.
Angela Goldberg, says:
"The premise that you can identify these gaps and then formulate a training programme to fill them is a nonsense. Women, in particular, respond very positively to interventions that explicitly cater for their learning styles and preferences. These are often complex and hard to define. This is why our programme was so powerful. The mixture of activities was both challenging and supportive, and offered the best of individual and group learning."
In Angela's view, a central issue for women is often confidence and self-esteem. As a result women must also consider their career development from the inside out. Angela says:
"Learning is not about remembering huge blocks of information. Too many organisations still believe this to be the case. It is about subtle shifts in how you perceive yourself which result in changes in the way you behave and the responses you get from others subsequently. It's a virtuous circle."