Leadership training has many identifiable benefits including higher productivity, increased morale and improved decision-making, all of which contribute to helping people to lead their teams with vision, to communicate and collaborate effectively and also to perform better under pressure.
Medequip’s commitment to investing in leadership development through the LEAD programme is designed around helping individuals to develop the skills, behaviours and confidence to become effective and capable leaders with the ability to manage and inspire others.
Introducing the LEAD Initiative
The company’s bespoke LEAD initiative (Learn, Engage, Accelerate, and Deliver) is a comprehensive development programme designed for first-line managers at Medequip. It is headed up by Management Learning and Development Partner Karen Baldwin, who joined Medequip in June 2024 with the brief to prepare Medequip people to face the challenges of leadership into the future.
Karen, who spent a decade working for one of the UK’s leading leadership, management and talent companies, is tasked with developing and implementing leadership development initiatives which will eventually cover every management level within the company. Her focus initially is the development of team leaders and supervisors; as Medequip continues to grow as a business, it is imperative to equip people with the right skillsets to achieve this.
Defining the Competency Framework
Work began initially in consultation with Medequip’s General Managers across the depot network to revise the current competency framework and build this out to different band levels with clear indicators of what good looks like at each level. The revised competency framework has been used to define the skills and behaviours needed for team leaders and supervisors and has provided the basis for the LEAD programme.
Putting the Plans into Practice
Using her own experience and knowledge of methodologies and processes which dovetail with workplace requirements, Karen has successfully begun the rollout of the LEAD programme across the Medequip depots, with 105 managers now actively participating in their LEAD journey.
One of the key challenges has been logistical, in terms of releasing people from their vital operational roles to attend training sessions.
“We have been able to successfully mitigate this challenge by working closely with Medequip depot managers, who have all demonstrated the vision to see the advantages and benefits,” said Karen. “Their engagement has been excellent - they have bought into investing in their teams and developing their people, so it has been relatively easy to overcome this challenge.”
“The depots are successfully cross-collaborating, sharing resources to enable individuals to be released at different times,” explained Karen. “Effective sharing of best practice has proved to be an unexpected benefit of this, so what was initially a challenge has yielded advantageous results!”
Initial Feedback
Covering a national depot network, forward planning has been an important consideration to enable Karen to be as creative and effective as possible. So what does Karen identify as the key successes to date?
“In terms of impacts, we are still at a very early stage,” she said. “For me, one of the biggest wins has been individuals feeding back on how they are using what they have learned in order to be more effective in their roles. The Insights Discovery tool has proved invaluable here, encouraging levels of self-awareness of their own styles and recognising how they need to adapt to get the best out of their teams and achieve better communications.”
“Insights Discovery uses a simple and memorable four colour model to help people understand their style, their strengths and the value they bring to the team. Insights helps people understand themselves and their colleagues so that they can have more respectful, productive and positive working relationships. Using Insights, people can understand their own and others’ communication preferences, they can better connect with their colleagues to improve collaboration, and they have a common language to help them overcome challenges and conflict.”
Into the Future
Medequip’s new LEAD programme began in November 2024, with the first stage scheduled for completion in Summer 2025. Impact sessions will take place at the end of this first stage, to discuss and evaluate results and progress made.
“The programme has been extremely well received within Medequip,” stated Karen. “I have been very impressed with how open people have been at all levels. The participants are really engaged and can clearly articulate the perceived benefits. In short, the response across the depots has been positive and receptive, with teams happy to look at how to do things differently to achieve our goals.”
There are indirect benefits for everyone involved with Medequip too—from commissioners and prescribers through to the people who use the services. Engaged managers and team leaders are sharing best practice, new ideas and innovations, working towards continuous service improvements.
The LEAD programme is also up and running at Medequip Connect, tailored to the specific needs of the technology-enabled care side of the business. Karen is now starting conversations at Medequip Head Office level to identify developing needs and to examine how to escalate the programme to different areas of the business.
“Leadership development drives positive change and enhances company culture within a business, improving team performance and engagement,” stated Karen. “It’s about empowering people to be the very best they can, leading with passion and integrity.”