Team | Developing an executive team in a charity

Client

The leadership team of a charity that funds hospital and university based research facilities across the UK.   This work was free of charge through the ORFoundation

Focus

Many of the lead team and the CEO were new in post having been appointed from leadership positions in FTSE 100 companies.

Their challenges as a team were:

• Improving the immediate financial position of the charity
• Developing future strategy – in particular to commission further research facilities and develop strategic business alliances
• Addressing employee morale and motivation which had plummeted – there was strong resistance to proposed changes

Formulation

Interviews and focus groups were held to gather information on organisational culture and the reasons for the low morale. The results indicated:

• Many of the senior staff had worked for the charity for years and did not welcome the new management regime
• Although some had left others were actively sabotaging changes including approaching the Board of Trustees to petition for a vote of no confidence in the new CEO
• The new strategic direction was not clear or understood
• The more business orientated style did not match with the values of significant senior staff

Intervention

Three workshops were undertaken with the leadership team over a period of fifteen months. The initial workshops addressed:

• Sharing the values and beliefs that bring people into charity work – there were many judgements and preconceptions about the leadership team
• Clarifying the purpose of the charity in terms of values and beliefs
• Building communications networks to increase involvement and understanding of all staff in the business of the charity
• Dealing with personal relationship issues that threatened to undermine the day to day running of the charity
• Agreeing common goals for the year ahead

Later workshops had more focus on strategy and management systems.

Outcomes

Four years on and the organisation is described as transformed. The key changes are:

• Appointment of an HR Advisor to improve recruitment and

selection processes

• The organisation is leaner
• Despite the economic turndown funding for new research facilities has been achieved
• The leadership team is highly valued by both staff and the Board of Trustees (Employee Opinion Survey results)
• Succession planning and career development processes have been introduced