IOD and FA - Women in Leadership Programme

1 The FA Women in Leadership Programme

The FA Women in Leadership ProgrammeIn association with The Institute of Directors

2017

The FA Women in Leadership Programme 32 The FA Women in Leadership Programme

The FA Women in Leadership Programme

In 2015, the Football Association (FA) became aware of a lack of female representation in leadership roles, particularly in the boardroom. In order to address this imbalance, The FA outlined a two-point strategy to identify, support and mentor women with potential and commitment to hold board positions specifically in football. The Institute of Directors worked with The FA to design and deliver a ground-breaking, pragmatic and impactful leadership programme. The project took place in 2017, spanning several months to ensure each participant had time to learn, absorb and implement the teachings of the programme, integrating them into their day-to-day responsibilities and behaviours at The FA.

About the Football Association The Football Association (FA) was formed in 1863 to oversee and regulate professional and amateur football in the United Kingdom. The FA governs footballing activity and management in England, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man at a national level, and locally through the relevant County Football Associations of a particular area.

The FA is also responsible for appointing leaders across the sport, including the men’s, women’s and youth national teams.

About the Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a not-for-profit, non-party-political membership organisation which represents individual business leaders from all sectors and industries. The IoD currently has some 35,000 members in the UK, with significant numbers of overseas members and strong relationships with other institutes around the world.

One of our primary aims is to actively promote best practice and professionalism within and beyond the boardroom. With over a century’s worth of experience working with directors, from start-up and entrepreneurs to FTSE chairs, we have a unique understanding of what makes an effective leader, a high performing boardroom, and a successful business.

Contents

3. About The FA and the IoD

5. About the project

6. Benefits

7. Participant feedback

8. Programme structure and coaches

10. Content and learning outcomes

13. Success factors

15. Learnings and improvements

4 The FA Women in Leadership Programme The FA Women in Leadership Programme 5

A dynamic 5-month blended learning programme encompassing diagnostic tools, interactive workshops and 1-to-1 coaching support.

The FA nominated ten female colleagues to undergo the IoD’s flagship leadership guidance and training to tackle the following overarching goals:

• To widen the football talent pool

• To clarify anti-discrimination regulation and sanctions

• To instil confidence in reporting discrimination

• To increase knowledge and awareness

These women were handpicked to receive tailored training from the IoD in order to fulfil The FA’s commitment to increasing the number of women on their board, and overall female representation in leadership roles.

Each of the ten women on the programme had exclusive access to leading-edge thinkers and practitioners, and with the support of the sponsors, had a unique opportunity to develop their leadership capability, progress to senior roles within the football industry and deliver real value to the business.

The IoD training programme also provided participants with access to a broader community of peers with whom to network – and to both informal and formal learning opportunities such as training, mentoring, events, research, specialist guidance and conferences. This made for a more enriching experience beyond the training room and aided learning transfer, business application and behavioural change.

About The FA Women in Leadership Programme

The IoD partnered with The FA to work towards four leadership programme goals, mutually decided by representatives from both organisations.


Leadership development An outcome led approach

Benefits of the

programme

Preparation for career progression

and joining the board

Greater commitment

and buy-in from

directors and senior

managers

Retaining talent and

keeping your staff

engaged

More creative outlook in business

planning

Improved management of

other staff

Building positive relationships

between people and departmentsFacilitating

the adoption of a new

culture in your business

Managing stress, change, conflict or crisis

Enhancing personal impact and performance

Identifying solutions to specific work-related

issues

Increased self-awareness

and openness topersonal leaning and development

To t

he in

div

idua

l

To the org

anisation

“ I feel more confident to do my job and understand the things that I’m not best placed to do. Previously I would try and do everything but now I try to think differently.”

“ I am going to be a mentor at the Kick It Out conference in April (something that wouldn’t have been offered nor accepted prior to this programme.)”

“ The self-awareness aspects of the programme [with course leader Zoë Cohen] have astounded me how they have all linked together in the end and always seem to reaffirm each other.”

“ I feel that the programme has enabled me to be inspired to drive forward and to make a positive difference in my role in sport.”

“ As a result of this [leadership programme] I am actively attending more networking events rather than avoiding them, and specifically trying to use the strengths I have and make an effort to build and deepen those relationships.”

“I learned how to develop and inspire others below me and manage relations with those above me in a more positive manner.”

“ I have tried to become more of a leader than a manager. We renamed our Senior Management Team to a Senior Leadership Team which now tries to empower all our staff to make decisions rather than deliver tasks.”

Programme Structure The project was based around a four-day classroom schedule, with eight hours of additional coaching delivered by handpicked course leaders, across a five month period.

Scheduling the programme across the course of a few months allowed for reflective learning between each workshop delivery, with additional coaching designed to help embed the learning covered in the workshops, and to set and track progress against agreed goals.

Expert consultants and coaches Our team of expert facilitators, consultants, and executive coaches hold a wealth of practitioner experience in a range of senior roles – as directors, chairs, company secretaries, non-executives and/or trustees. Our consultants and coaches have hands-on experience of executive and non-executive director roles across a broad range of sectors and organisations, so are well placed to act as role models for the started and behaviours being explored in the programme. The course leaders who deliver our tailored in-company packages are the same high standard as those who teach our courses within the IoD at 116 Pall Mall, the IoD Academy and our regional hubs.

Programme structure and expert coaches

Anna Bateson Anna’s expertise lies in enabling organisations to develop strategies and lead their implementation. She works globally with boards and business leaders, addressing the challenges of leading strategic change and delivering good governance.

David Kearney CDir David has over 30 years of experience of working on international negotiations with over 30 cultures across the world, developing added value deals in long-term relationships. David is a Chartered Director, a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the Institute of Business Consulting.

Janhavi Dadarkar Janhavi has over a decade of experience in advising companies, directors and enterprising individuals on company law, corporate governance and intellectual property protection. She is a recognised expert on commercial transactions with an international flavour and has worked with directors, organisations and governments at the highest levels.

Jean Pousson Jean has 20 years of management consultancy, training, facilitation and coaching experience, and is the lead course leader for Finance for Non-Financial Directors at the IoD. Finance is something that the participants felt they lacked knowledge in, so this was hugely beneficial.

Zoë Cohen Zoë is an experienced executive director who uses her own learning and reflection at board level to add value for her clients. Her portfolio is vast, and includes strategy, communications, organisational development, human resources, stakeholder engagement and more.

John Blakey John has worked in both the public and private sectors and across a diverse range of industries, being well-versed in the demands of start-ups, charities, SMEs and multi-national plc organisations. As an executive coach, he has helped over 120 CEOs from 22 different countries achieve their goals.

To learn more about which IoD course leader would be best suited to your business or project, please visit iod.com/training/iod-approach/expert-practitioners



Content and learning outcomes

Day One: Leadership and Self-Awareness

Day Two: Governance and the Role of the Board

1

2

Understand what makes leadership inspirational

Identify the actions and tools that will support your development as an inspirational leader

Assess your strengths, weaknesses and overall potential as a leader

Understand and develop the skills needed to manage your reputation and establish a personal brand

Plan your journey towards directorship and establish the actions that can help you get there

Explore who your key stakeholders are, and how you could engage them on your journey

Establish a personal action plan linked to your own objectives and the programme’s objectives

Understand what a Community of Best Practice is and how this kind of network can help you

Establish a Community of Best Practice and participate actively in it

Explore the role of the director, both as an individual and as part of the board

Understand the duties and liabilities of a director

Examine how directors engage with agendas, and consider how to deal with ‘hidden agenda’

Explore general board dynamics and develop strategies for dealing with conflict

Understand the difference between non-executive and executive director roles

Learn how to identify appropriate executive and non-executive director opportunities

Explore the competencies, skills and behaviours that enable non-executive directors to make an impact

Gain a practical understanding of how boards work by participating in a board simulation exercise

Coaching and evaluation

Day Three: Finance, Strategy and Commercial Awareness

Day Four: Governance and the Role of the Board

3

4

Understand the role of finance and strategy in the context of football clubs

Explore and understand the broader global context

Understand financial performance, including what defines it and some key success factors

Understand who drives the strategy of an organisation, including the director’s role

Understand the link between strategy and financial performance

Understand what constitutes good financial stewardship

Explore strategic priorities and the processes of strategy creation

Understand the context of stakeholders at board level and develop a toolkit for managing a complex web of stakeholders

Be familiar with financial fair play and insolvency – including the legal position

Explore brand leverage and the monetisation of football brands

Identify the specific stakeholders in their network who are most important in terms of influence

Recognise a range of different influencing styles, and review your 360 results to understand your own preferences

Identify the most important objectives in your journey towards becoming a director, and build on this to:

• develop a relationship map of the people in your current network that you should engage

• establish a plan for extending and maintaining your network appropriately and effectively

Identify which influencing styles might help achieve your objectives with each person

Understand the difference between coaching and mentoring, and the potential benefits and uses of each

Become familiar with a simple model for peer coaching, which can be used to support your work towards your objectives

Plan strategies to tackle the key issues or relationships in your network that are most likely to be problematic


How we measured success

Reaction

What• Measures participant

satisfaction

How• Via online post-course

questionnaire

• Automated

• Issued before delivery of first module

• Tailored to assess impact when combined with follow-up assessment

Learning

What• Measures participants’

assimilation of knowledge, skills or attitude

How• Via pre and post-course

assessments

• Automated

• Pre-course assessment issued at or before first event

• Based on learning outcomes

• Asks participants to rate their current level of understanding and the relevance of each learning outcome

• Review of learning plan

• Feedback gathered from coaches and course leaders

Behaviour

What• Measures application of

the learning to daily role

• Longer-term activity focused on assessing behavioural change, and the impact and improvement this causes to performance

How• Via post-course

assessment of participants and sponsors

• Issued 12 weeks after completion of the programme

• Sponsors observing changes in behaviour and/or performance of participants

1 2 3

Tailored evaluation approach based on the Kirkpatrick model

“ The programme has given me more confidence in my role as County FA Chair and has enabled me to deal with challenging personalities on the Board.”

The FA Women in Leadership Programme 15

Benefits of dedicated coaches Within the programme, the coaching sessions were rated as the most valued element of the course, with an average satisfaction score of 10. 100% of participants rated the coaching as the input which changed their behaviour and business awareness the most, and as a result, The FA invested in additional coaching sessions for their participants and staff.

Peer learning Despite not all participants taking full advantage of collaborative peer learning outside of the classroom environment during the programme, The FA found that bringing together participants from different regions, clubs and roles within the organisation was incredibly valuable for both The FA and its employees, opening doors of communication, and promoting idea sharing and group working approaches to a receptive group of individuals.

Blended approach The leadership programme was taught as a blended learning approach, with a combination of 1-to-1 teaching, group coaching, interactive case-studies and assessment, a course structure that The FA found suited their participants, and reflected the way the organisation is governed – with input from many sources to reach a common goal. The practical elements of the programme, which included simulations and group work, were cited as valuable to the learning experience by 40% of participants, something that is reflected in the opinions of members of the IoD. Many courses taught by the IoD involve practical working, including the Diploma in Company Direction, the second stage of the prestigious Chartered Director qualification.

What The FA learned Through detailed feedback, The FA was able to understand more about the participants of the programme, which will help to shape the rest of their career progression at the organisation.

Programme outcomes and improvements

To learn more about other courses offered by the IoD for your business, please visit iod.com/training.

We’re always ready to help – please don’t hesitate to contact our training team for advice, assistance or further information.

T: 020 7766 2601 E: [email protected]

14 The FA Women in Leadership Programme

Raising the bar Be part of an innovative learning experience that is setting the standard for directors and business leaders everywhere. The Academy exists to help you become a confident and skilled director with the power to shape your future and drive society forward, whatever your background or industry.

Learn the craft of leadership from experienced business professionals whose talent and ability has been proven in the marketplace, with practical insights that academic study can never match. Your fellow learners are all leaders too, so you’ll grow your network alongside the business world’s top performers.

Whatever stage you’ve reached in your career, you can expand your business knowledge, perfect your skills and develop the mind-set of a true leader with personalised learning — all focused around the Director Competency Framework.

Contact us for a personalised, independent development review for yourself or your board.

Phone +44 (0)20 7766 2601

Email [email protected]

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An Institute of Directors publication

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IOD and FA - Women in Leadership Programme