University of Warwick

Background

The University of Warwick is one of the UK’s leading universities, with an acknowledged reputation for excellence in research and teaching, for innovation, and for links with business and industry. 

In 2022, the People Strategy at University of Warwick included a new focus on leadership and management development. They needed to build the mindset that being a leader implies being accountable, and they also wanted an accessible approach to leadership development.  

“If the University leaders and managers are thriving, everyone else will thrive.”

Anna Chapman, Leadership Development Manager  

The University considered the best approach for their programme to be one based on positive psychology, which is why they chose Strengthscope. 

Our solution

We started working with the University of Warwick with the design of a Leadership Development Programme. Based on the strengths approach, the program includes: 

• A half-day introduction to strengths workshop
• The StrengthscopeLeader™ assessment: an online questionnaire and 360 feedback tool 
• A 90-minute private coaching session 
• A full-day leadership development workshop focused on developing an authentic leadership brand
• A 60-minute private coaching session following the workshop
• Two full-day workshops focused on developing practical leadership habits 

The StrengthscopeLeader™ assessment, at the heart of this program, measures a leader’s 24 strengths and their effectiveness on using those strengths. It’s also the first strengths assessment in the market to provide 360 feedback ratings from up to 20 people. 

The assessment includes a section on the Four Leadership Habits (sustaining progress, sharing vision, skilfully executing, sparking engagement), and how the leader scores on those habits against their chosen colleagues’ responses.  

The program runs over approximately a 6-month period, to cohorts of 10 leaders. The coaching sessions are widely cited by participants as the most valuable part of the programme along with the StrengthscopeLeader™ assessment. 

Outcome

• The pilot program was rated “good” or “excellent” by 93% of the participants. 
• 87% agreed or strongly agreed that they had taken action as a result of their coaching. 
• Common themes explored in the qualitative feedback were: the value of being able to realise one’s own strengths and others, challenging the cookie-cutter concept of leadership, understanding and developing one’s own leadership style. 

Following the pilot, the University opened the Warwick Leadership Development Programme to their middle manager cohort, starting off with 77 participants. 

Data gathered to date shows the average NPS score of 66.5, showing high likelihood for the participants to recommend the programme to others.