Leadership Development

People who are promoted or recruited into jobs demanding greater leadership responsibility are identified at specific times in their careers – for example, when they become:

• A leader of people for the first time
• A leader of managers 
• A leader of a business unit

We have invested significantly in our leadership development centre, Westwood, and in our partnership with the University of Warwick, one of the UK’s top ten business schools. We develop and deliver programmes for thousands of our managers every year to equip them with the skills and capabilities to achieve the ambitious goals and targets set out in our Business Plan.

Programme content

Our leadership programmes are designed to help our leaders improve their:

• Management skills – such as managing teams, setting objectives meeting deadlines, creating business plans, managing budgets, managing risks, addressing under-performance and dealing with conflict 
• Leadership capabilities – creating shifts in their approach to thinking through issues, inspiring others and developing people and achieving goals.

Programmes are delivered either at Westwood or at state-of-the-art regional training centres by our preferred training partners, including the University of Warwick, the Centre for High Performance Development, and other world-class training consultancies as well as our own internal and associate trainers. Most programmes are modular, with opportunities to use the learning back in the workplace, where participants are encouraged to identify a real business issue and apply what they have learnt to propose and implement a solution.

Many of our leadership programmes are accredited to National Standards. Managers who successfully complete a programme receive credits towards an award, certificate or diploma which can be carried over into further study leading to recognised managerial or professional qualifications.
 

Focus for 2009/2010

Every year, we focus on the skills that our managers need in order to deliver the Business Plan. In 2009, we commenced delivery of the Leadership Skills II programme to approximately 3,000 people managers across all parts of Network Rail.  This programme is designed to support managers in conducting performance management conversations and performance appraisals that achieve results and performance improvements. This has strengthened the capability of leaders throughout Network Rail to cascade objectives, set performance targets, review progress, coach, motivate and support people to achieve new levels of performance, both individually and in teams. It will help us in our strategic objective of recruiting, retaining and developing great people.

We have also launched a new modular programme called Foundation Management Skills aimed at first and second-line managers, which aims to provide them with a consistent, high-quality introduction to leadership and management. The programme has been designed to enable participants to learn the simple and practical skills for day-to-day management.  It is part of the drive to equip our new leaders with the means to move Network Rail towards its objective of being a World-Class organisation.

New for 2009 is the Practical Leadership Programme designed for front line managers within Infrastructure Maintenance and Operations functions. This 8 day programme, delivered at the Fire Service College in Moreton in Marsh differs from other management and leadership courses and emphasises a highly practical and non theoretical approach. The programme focuses upon developing delegates to react in a learned, planned fashion with consistent behaviours patterns that allows for dynamic assessment of risk and high performance.

2009/2010 will see an increased focus on our Leadership Toolkit elearning tool, strengthening the number of learning interventions available to all Network Rail managers. This valuable resource is supplemented by a number of other elearning resources focused on Management skills and methodologies for effective management. Network Rail will also be looking to launch nationally accredited management training modules through its own Awarding Body status.

We believe that creating a coaching culture in which people are supported in taking ownership and responsibility is key to our success. It leads to richer and more rewarding roles for our people.

Coaching is one of the most effecting ways of developing people. We define it is “supporting people in getting what they want, without doing it for them, or telling them what to do.” Our focus in Network Rail is on coaching for leadership – encouraging people to take responsibility and ownership. That starts from them knowing what they want – what goals do they have, what values do they hold? Coaching is a style of leadership that great leaders adopt - they know when to support their people in developing themselves, encouraging them to take ownership.

In Network Rail, we provide accredited training at Westwood, for managers to learn the skills of coaching for leadership. Many of these people also join our internal coaching pool, using these skills to support graduates and people in the talent pool.

Professional Development

We aim to equip our people with the qualifications they need to deliver our business objectives.

Our professional development programmes are designed so that our people have the technical and professional qualifications they need to do their jobs.

We offer a range of accredited programmes that meet national educational standards and we encourage people to become professionally qualified with the engineering institutions pertinent to their specialism’s. For other non technical staff we encourage studies with bodies in their area of specialism such as the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS).

We have strong relationships with many first class universities. Of particular note is the work we do with Sheffield Hallam University on our Foundation Degree in Railway Engineering and the University of Warwick for our leadership development programmes. We also partner with Warwick and University College, London to deliver our MSc in Project Management.

We also sponsor selected high performing employees to do a range of educational qualifications, necessary for the roles they perform as well as their own personal development at a range of universities and further education colleges.