Diva Creative - Building brands for social good

Context

Diva Creative is full of very talented, creative and passionate managers, wanting to deliver a great solution for their clients and create a work place environment that supported their teams in being able to deliver innovate solutions to their clients. The management team’s enthusiasm and passion for their aspect of the business sometimes got in the way of building strong collaborative working relations. Also, the managers were often new to management roles or had been promoted within the business which could limit their perspective and management experience. 

Approach 

Phase 1 – first line managers 

What kind of manager do you want to be? Working with the managers to identify what type of manager would

suit their culture and what that meant to the behaviours and skills that were required of them.  of which they self-assessment themselves against the criteria they had decided upon. From their diagnostic we then conducted a number of upskilling ½ day workshops to upskill them in areas they had identified they needed development on. 

• Performance management and giving feedback
• Influencing skills
• Understanding and managing change
• Communication styles 

Phase 2 – all managers in the business  

The aim being to enhance team work and understanding to raise levels of understanding and difference which then could be embraced and results in a more appreciative and collaborative approach between all managers. 

3 half day workshops were designed with the aim of raising levels of understanding, team trust, supporting them to have the difficult conversation with each other that had been previously avoided. And recognising and utlising individual strengths across the team. 

Feedback 

Julie has worked with the Diva team for a number of years now and has been instrumental in supporting individual growth that has resulted in staff being more effective and happier in their work.  In late 2016, Julie designed and facilitated a series of sessions with Diva's management team to help us work more collaboratively and build trust.  These sessions were very successful in identifying ways that a group of individuals who work across a wide of disciplines could find out more about each other and create common areas, as well as identify our individual strengths.  As a result, we have a stronger, more resilient team who are more effectively equipped to lead the business and manage their own teams. Julie was great at getting to the point and helping us on this journey in a highly focused and effective way.  Thanks! 

– Amanda Pearce Managing Director