Living the Woolworths brand
Talent management and company culture should go hand in hand. So before embarking on your next people development initiative, make sure it supports your company’s brand values. How connected is the culture of your organisation to the way you grow your most talented people? What balance have you achieved between the bespoke individual approach and the structured academic? How reflective of the values, informal and formally stated, is your company’s development approach? The first step to answering any of the above is to be honest about what is really at the core of your company’s culture. Having headed up leadership development and talent management at Woolworths until February this year, and now working with them and other organisations as an external coach and consultant, I have a varied and colourful viewpoint to consider talent and culture from. In fact, when I began writing this article, it sent me on a journey down memory lane... Casting my mind back a few years, I remembered standing in my home in the New Forest, With this reaction under my belt I should have been prepared when I joined the business but it wasn’t until I’d made the move and started talking to people that I began to realise quite how far and wide the Woolworths phenomenon has spread. Every British person, it seems, has a Woolies story to tell. Whether confessing to having pinched pic and mix sweets as kids or reminiscing on a first single purchase, most Brits have an emotional reaction when they think of the retailer. So how much does our connection to the brand matter? My earliest memories of Woolworths in my hometown in West Cornwall have definitely shaped my fond connection to the company and influenced whether I joined the team in Marylebone, The way we feel about a brand has a huge impact on whether we use a company’s services or indeed choose to join them as an employee. Retailers and service companies will have made an impression on employees when they were children. It’s fascinating to imagine how this dynamic plays out in later recruitment. At Woolworths, a four-layer framework (see Figure 1) is used to add structure to the company’s talent-management strategy. However, this is applied in a flexible way to ensure that individuals are treated in a way best suited to their specific career paths. Figure 2 illustrates the type of development activity that is applied for each population. (Figure 1) (Figure 2) For employees identified as having the raw talent to operate at high levels within the organisation, it is important to take them out of their comfort zones and place them in testing situations. The intensity of this learning approach should make individuals unaware of the growth and learning in the experience until they have achieved the goals and are looking back. The innate drive that high-potential individuals possess is perhaps part of the explanation as to why this very practical and pragmatic approach works. Key to the success of this approach is the coaching support and culture created by the The academy was set up in 2004 by what was then the People Development Team. It began by taking senior managers who understood the value of coaching and providing them with the opportunity to take part in what would be the first building blocks towards creating a coaching culture within the organisation. One of the most important steps the team took was to include members of the executive team and senior management. This meant that once the initial pilots had taken place, ‘viral’ marketing occurred naturally and interest in the training programmes far outweighed the number of places available. As the academy gained pace and the first coaches were accredited, positive impacts were seen across the business. Project teams were functioning more collaboratively across teams, while managers had more time to expand into different tasks as their teams were thinking of solutions for themselves rather than asking for the answers. Throughout the six months of experiential learning in the coaching programme, the learning and support groups ensure that individuals receive continuous contact with a member of the training team. They also encourage people across business units to develop a broad understanding of how the company operates generally. The end result is that cross-functional projects now operate more smoothly and differing perspectives from across the organisation can be considered for the first time. Most impressively of all, many individuals continue to attend learning and support groups, even during busy times. When people volunteer their time to training, this is one of the most genuine measures of a programme’s success. With the coaching approach becoming embedded in the organisation, it was time to think about what else was needed to increase the positive effect on the business and to maintain momentum. The continued professional development of internally trained coaches was a fundamental part of this process, as was finding a way to continue to engage with a changing senior team. A personal passion of mine is supporting people and teams that are going through life changing events. I wanted to take my professional training as an executive coach, understanding of the psychology of people and business experience, and make a contribution. This manifested itself in the ‘First 90 Days’ programme for senior manager transition, which created a connection between coaching culture and the talent approach, and set expectations of new senior managers from day one. What’s significant about the first 90 days? The first 90 days is based on the initial approach outlined in the Michael Watkins book of the same name and involves coaching for newly appointed senior managers and those in key roles within the organisation. The idea, as Watkins’ research showed, is that we can assist these individuals while halving the time for them to begin adding value. Add to this that they would hit the ground running and you have an extremely compelling and effective approach. What can sometimes be overlooked within organisations is the ripple effect that happens throughout a team when a new senior manager is appointed. But by coaching them through the first few crucial months, both team stability and productivity can be maintained. You may be asking yourself whether this approach would work in your industry or sector? Since leaving Woolworths, I have implemented this methodology with a number of clients across sectors from finance to media and the results certainly indicate that this approach is transferable. In essence, this is because we all have the human factor in common, irrespective of profession, culture or upbringing. In Woolworths, although courses are available, there is less emphasis on formal ‘training and support’. In fact, higher value is placed upon informal learning. Providing situations and placing individuals that are part of the talent programme with people that they can learn from by doing and mimicking is one of the most natural and instinctive ways that human beings develop. Just like in a family, we learn from those with more experience. Learning to walk didn’t come from a textbook or training programme. The company’s director mentoring and study tours play a multi-faceted role in not only demonstrating what it takes to be a director but also provides directors with quality time to form relationships with the next generation of senior managers. With the basis of Woolworths’ culture coming from ‘the way things are done around here’, I believe that how people relate to the company is a direct reflection of that culture. How you grow your people and retain your talent is intrinsically linked, so the strategies you put in place must be congruent with that culture. Imagine a media company with a hugely bureaucratic and structured graduate programme or a professional-services firm with no continued professional development – they just don’t fit. So how reflective is your talent strategy of your organisation’s culture? Sarah Lane is MD of Coaching Lane. She can be contacted on sarah@coachinglane.com About Woolworths Woolworths Group plc is principally a UK retailer focused on the home, family and entertainment. The company offers its customers value-for-money on an extended range of products. It is built around the well-known Woolworths brand, which is represented in towns and cities throughout the UK. With 32,000 employees and over 800 stores nationwide. The group also operates the entertainment businesses E.UK and 2 Entertain. E.UK is Britain’s largest wholesale distributor of home entertainment products, while 2 Entertain is an audio-visual publishing group. Did you know? The first British Woolworths opened in Church Street, Liverpool, on Friday, 5 November 1909. Frank Winfield Woolworth had scouted many locations across the United Kingdom and noted them for future openings, but Liverpool was his favourite. Little wonder when you think that Liverpool was known as the ‘second city of the Empire’ at a time when the British Empire spanned almost a quarter of the globe. So what’s ‘First 90 days’ transition coaching all about? § Ensuring new leaders stay ‘on the rails’; § Hitting the ground running – faster; § Failure prevention; § Highly visible appointments; § Powerful framework and strategies. First 90 days – What’s involved? Series of four sessions designed to focus on: § Identifying and delivering ‘quick wins’ with key stakeholders; § Exploring the boundaries of influence and responsibility; § Identifying short-term objectives and success criteria; § Managing other people’s perceptions; § Overcoming barriers; § Developing ongoing strategies. How to mirror your culture and brand
The Woolworths Coaching Academy
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