Leadership interventions: project report
Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 3
1.1 Partners who have contributed to the report.......................................... 3
1.2 Aims of the report .......................................................................................... 3
1.3 Executive Summary ....................................................................................... 3
2. The context for leadership development ....................................................... 5
2.1 Scotland ............................................................................................................ 5
2.2 Northern Ireland .............................................................................................. 7
2.3 Wales ................................................................................................................. 7
2.4 England ........................................................................................................... 10
2.5 Sector Skills Councils report (LLUK) ...................................................... 11
3. Main findings ....................................................................................................... 12
3.1 External leadership courses ..................................................................... 12
3.2 Internal leadership programmes .............................................................. 28
4. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 41
1. Introduction
1.1 Partners who have contributed to the report
This report has been prepared with the collaboration of the following partners:
 Museums and Galleries Scotland
 Libraries NI
 Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
 Lifelong Learning UK
 The Scottish Library and Information Council
 CyMAL
 ALMA-UK
1.2 Aims of the report
This report is intended to provide an indication of current leadership
development interventions for the museums, libraries and archives sectors
across the four Home Nations. It is intended to provide information for
strategic decision-makers and also for managers in the sector who are looking
to develop leadership in their service. It is not intended as a comprehensive
review of all leadership activities in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern
Ireland, but provides a snapshot of current and recent activities. The writers of
the report have attempted to gain a range of examples with different
approaches to leadership development from organisations of varying sizes
and with varying resources available to them. However it has not been
possible to find any examples from very small services, possibly because of
the resource and staffing constraints within which these organisations work.
There is a short introduction to approaches to leadership interventions and the
context for this study in each nation. Following this, the report adopts a
thematic approach, rather than listing interventions by nation. This is to enable
a conceptual understanding of the different ways in which leadership can be
developed in museum, library and archive services and to facilitate learning
across nations. Details of individual organisations included in case studies are
listed in the appendix for reference.
1.3 Executive Summary
There is a varied picture emerging of leadership development activities across
the four nations.
 Many examples of internal and external development activities have
been found in England, while fewer had been discovered in the other
three nations
 This may be because of data collection methods rather than real
differences in provision or activity levels
 It has proved very difficult to find leadership development activities
originating from the archives sector
 Larger organisations and those working within a Local Authority context
are more likely to have good access to leadership development
activities

It is much more difficult for small and less well-resourced organisations
to engage in leadership development activities, whether internal or
external
External leadership development courses provide benefits for participants,
particularly in gaining distance and perspective on their working practices,
developing networks, learning new ideas and gaining confidence. However,
they are not always well co-ordinated with internal working practices or
personal development plans once individuals return to their place of work.
This can limit their effectiveness in creating change within organisations in the
sector. However, there are some very good examples emerging of external
courses which are based on making the link between external learning and
effecting internal change. It may also be that the sector has not used
opportunities like the Cultural Leadership Programme in the most effective
way: focussing on the formal learning opportunities rather than the networking
and work-based interventions that are offered.
There are a number of examples of innovative approaches to internal
leadership development, including working with local FE and HE providers to
develop bespoke learning opportunities, coaching, mentoring and buddying
programmes within organisations. Some organisations are weaving
leadership development into corporate change programmes, using it as a tool
to improve effectiveness, change approaches to working and meet new
challenges.
Several organisations pointed out the challenges for leadership development
in the current environment. In a situation where workforce development
budgets are being cut and staffing levels reduced it can be difficult to justify
leadership development activities and several programmes have been
suspended already. However, senior managers in the sector also point out the
potential opportunity of wide-ranging organisational change to integrate
leadership development into all aspects of working. There are some good
examples in this report of how this has been done. However implementing this
kind of approach requires time, planning and a recognition of the potential of
leadership development to improve organisational effectiveness.
2. The context for leadership development
This section sets out the context for leadership development in each of the
four nations, noting that this can be very different across England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland due to different administrative structures and
approaches to leadership development.
In preface to the specific national contexts it is also important to mention the
new economic and funding situation that services are currently facing in all
four nations. This may make it more difficult to fund leadership development
work, as budgets for workforce development are subject to review. Activities
that have taken place in the past and which may be mentioned in this report
may not continue in the future or may be scaled back.
Several participants in the study emphasised the importance of leadership
development at this critical time for services. As layers of staff in middlemanagement positions are reduced in many services, and with an increasing
emphasis on locally determined service provision, it is more than ever
necessary to ensure that staff in frontline positions have the skills needed to
lead community engagement, service development and partnership activities.
Some senior staff have also mentioned the need to develop new leadership
qualities to deal with the challenges of slimming down services, meeting new
stringent budgets and change management. In addition, the emphasis on
philanthropy and financial sustainability requires new skills that existing
leaders may not feel they possess but which will be important for the future
success of their organisations.
2.1 Scotland
Museums
Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) represents over 340 museums and
galleries from Scotland’s most northerly island to the most southerly part of
the borders. Our membership spread includes Local Authority museums,
independent museums, regimental museums, university and 3 national
members.
The promotion of leadership within the sector is part of the role of the
Workforce Development Manager. Museums Galleries Scotland have recently
piloted their new continuous improvement tool QIS (Quality Improvement
System), quality indicator 5 of which focuses on Leadership.
 See http://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/theprogrammes/quality-improvement-system/
MGS took on the task of gathering the thoughts and opinions of members on
how their organisations identify the need for leadership development and how
they have responded to this. Along with supporting information on their
website, a questionnaire was drafted and circulated directly to a cohort of
mentors (5) and mentees (6) who had recently participated in a mentoring
project run by MGS. 2 of those mentors / mentees responded.
In addition to this, the questionnaire was also circulated electronically around
all MGS’s member contacts and a further 6 responses were received.
Whilst the return of information was low, they did in fact hear from almost all
member types. Clearly, however, this information cannot be considered as
representative of the voice of Scotland, instead provides the thoughts and
opinions of a few members.
Libraries
SLIC works closely with the Chartered Institute of Library and Information
Professionals in Scotland and together have a long established interest in
workforce development, leadership, training issues and drafting new
qualifications – especially in the light of the rapidly changing skills
requirements in the areas in which our members work. SLIC does not have
funding to commission and fund leadership development so works creatively
to support what is provided in workplaces and through external sources.
SLIC:
 Monitors the impact of Clore, Cultural Leadership Programme, Society
of Chief Librarians, CyMAL and other Leadership Development
Courses
 Encourages uptake of MBA and Chartered Manager qualifications
 Encourages leadership development through Public Library Quality
Improvement Matrix which specifically looks at leadership in local
authority library services to set up an environment where taking the
lead is welcome and includes less senior staff. A culture of enablement
rather than specific training programmes.
 Sponsors places from those demonstrating leadership potential in the
PLQIM process at CILIPS annual conference
 Provides information on individuals’ training and professional
development and works through CILIPS to provide CPD programmes
which include some leadership elements
 Supports the CILIP mentoring scheme in Scotland
 Works with LLUK and other UK agencies to encourage leadership
programmes and skills
Archives
The Scottish Council on Archives is also just about to pilot its draft continous
improvement framework ARMS (Archives and Records Management
Services) which has a quality indicator dedicated to leadership
 see http://www.scoarch.org.uk/notice-board/171
PLQIM, QIS and ARMS are all related to an overarching improvement tool for
local authority culture and sport services in Scotland called HGIOCS (How
Good is Our Culture and Sport?). All of the Scottish frameworks are based on
the EFQM 'Excellence Model', referenced in 3.2.1 in Libraries NI's case study.
2.2 Northern Ireland
The MLA sector in Northern Ireland comprises:
 PRONI, The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, founded in 1923
and part of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) within the
Northern Ireland Civil Service. As such it has access to civil service
leadership development opportunities.
 National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI), an arms length body of DCAL
with four sites across Northern Ireland.
 Local Accredited Museums; these are members of the Northern Ireland
Museums Council (NIMC), an arms length body of DCAL. Of the 38 local
accredited museums 20 are part of local councils. A number of those in
the voluntary and independent sector are part of larger organisations such
as the National Trust. NMNI and NIMC work together to provide
development opportunities.
 Libraries NI, the recently established (April 2009) regional library service
for Northern Ireland, an arms length body of DCAL and the largest public
library service in the UK. Its focus to date has been on equipping staff to
fulfil their new roles in this new organisation.
The sector in Northern Ireland (population 1.8m) lacks the critical mass to
generate a whole range of leadership development activities at a local sector
specific level. Rather, there is a focus on a small number of activities and
then participation in UK-wide initiatives from the professional associations,
sector skills councils etc and collaboration with colleagues in the Republic of
Ireland. There is also a tradition of working with leadership institutions in the
USA such as Boston College and the Federal Executive Institute.
2.3 Wales
CyMAL:
Museums Archives and Libraries Wales is a division of the Welsh Assembly
Government. CyMAL represents a significant investment by the Assembly
Government in the development of local museums, archives and libraries
services to meet 21st century needs. CyMAL provides the Minister for
Heritage with authoritative policy advice; gives advice and financial support to
local museums, archives and libraries; develops and implements policies
appropriate to Wales. CyMAL is the Sponsorship Division for the National
Library of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales.
CyMAL works closely in relation to workforce development with the sector
skills councils: Creative and Cultural Skills and Lifelong Learning UK .
Support is provided to the sector’s professional development associations
CPD programmer. Professional and personal development is encouraged
via CyMAL grant programme.
Libraries
Wales has a network of public, educational and specialist libraries providing
access to a wide range of print, multimedia and online resources. There are
over 320 public library service points in Wales open 10 hours a week or more;
over 110 Higher Education and Further Education libraries and learning
resources centres; and the National Library of Wales, one of 6 Legal Deposit
libraries in Great Britain and Ireland.
Museums
An estimated 160 organisations hold collections and display them to the
public in Wales, and therefore could be called museums; these include
National Museum Wales, National Trust sites, Local Authority museums,
independent museums, regimental museums, and universities. Approximately
87 museums in Wales meet the UK Accreditation Standard for museums.
Archives
There are 13 local authority archive services in Wales, which collect and
preserve records relating to the history of the local area. There are also a
number of higher education and specialist archive repositories which collect
archives of local and national interest and importance.
Leadership interventions in Wales
Museum, archives and libraries in Wales are generally aware of the national
leadership programmes available to the sector (e.g. Clore Leadership
programme and Cultural Leadership Programme). There has been low take
up of these programmes by sector workforce in Wales because these
interventions require time, financial and logistical commitments that
unfortunately only few organisations can accommodate. Constraints suffered
by organisations during the economic downturn has also made it very difficult
to release staff for long programmes as current capacity will not allow backfill
of posts on a regular basis.
Staff with caring responsibilities, women with flexible working patterns in
particular, sometimes find it difficult to undertake development programmes
that are not flexible in their delivery. Short courses such as those offered by
Clore have more appeal to staff in the sector, than programmes that require
time spent away from home. Logistical requirements can also constrain staff
in taking up courses that require travel across Wales. Distance learning
leadership programmes such as offered by the Open University have been
undertaken by individuals because they offer flexibility in approach to study.
Most of the public service in Wales provide accredited leadership
development via corporate training programmes e.g. ILM and CMI, F.E. and
H.E. institutions have been involved in the delivery of some of these
programmes. Accessibility to these programmes however is often linked to
level of management post i.e. some local authorities restrict access only to
Heads of Service and above, other offer a framework of development
opportunities which are open to all new management staff.
Most of the public service in Wales provide accredited leadership
development via corporate training programmes e.g. ILM and CMI, F.E. and
H.E. institutions have been involved in the delivery of some of these
programmes. Accessibility to these programmes however is often linked to
level of management post i.e. some local authorities restrict access only to
Heads of Service and above, other offer a framework of development
opportunities which are open to all new management staff.
There are a plethora of short leadership courses offered by private training
providers available across Wales, some are accredited or linked to the
management standards. These are very much “off the shelf and generalist” in
approach. A directory of courses is provided by Leadership & Management
Wales (LMW) which is a Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) sponsored
project that aims to improve and enhance leadership and management skills
in Wales. The directory enables a search for leadership and management
development courses and programmes in Wales, either by location or by
course. It aims to give information regarding courses from all public sector
and private sector providers. Staff may be eligible for funding through the
WAG Workforce Development Programme,
Sector organisations use development programmes provided by CyMAL and
Public Service Management Wales (PSMW) on a regular basis, and are
pleased with the quality of development opportunities available. Small
museums also find the Wales Council for Voluntary Action training provision
useful for trustee and volunteer development.
Future plans in Wales
Because of the diverse sizes, locations, natures and needs of the
organisations from three sectors in Wales, it is not surprising that the range of
Leadership Development opportunities available to the workforce vary
considerably. Training budgets are also variable – ranging from from nonexistent to designated corporate budgets.
In the case of small independent museums as well as financial limitations it is
very difficult to provide cover for staff who wish to take up leadership
development opportunities, small archive services are also put under
pressure if staff require time away from workplace for courses. In some local
authorities difficulties are encountered by staff when trying to attend courses
held outside of local authority boundaries because of limitations put on travel
and subsistence budgets. Staff also face geographical and logistical
difficulties when travelling across and out of Wales to attend courses because
of road and rail infrastructure. Access to e-learning is patchy with some local
authorities blocking sites that provide leadership learning resources. Flexible
working patterns and career breaks also pose problems for those who wish to
progress with their careers.
Future leadership development interventions will need to allow for these
constraints, and should aim to offer flexibility in delivery and accreditation
approaches. Some frameworks are in place and others are being developed
in Wales to assist sector leaders gain the skills, knowledge and behaviours
required to provide the levels of service delivery expected by the public, whilst
working within constraints of the current economic situation. The challenge
for organisations is to provide the support that is needed to allow managers
and leaders to develop their full potential.
2.4 England
MLA has funded a number of programmes to develop leadership in England
across museum, library and archive sectors. The Renaissance programme
has provided funding for regional leadership development initiatives in
museums as well as discrete funding for workforce development within
individual museum services, which in many cases has been put towards
leadership development activities. MLA also supports independent leadership
programmes such as Clore. In combination, these programmes have reached
a wide range of organisations in the sector over the past 10 years. However
they do not provide the full picture of leadership development in England.
Museums, libraries and archives which fall under a local government remit
often have the opportunity to benefit from Local Authority-wide leadership
development programmes which allow them to learn together with leaders
and emerging leaders from other areas of local government. In addition,
several organisations and services have used their own initiative to develop
leadership internally, for example, through bespoke leadership development
courses, internal mentoring programmes, buying in external leadership
support or using organisational development approaches to leadership
development, combining it with other transformations taking place.
Recently the funding environment for both external and internal leadership
development in museums, libraries and archives in England has become
more challenging. Some services are reporting the roll-back of graduate
trainee schemes as recruitment freezes are implemented and leadership
development programmes are no longer able to be funded. There is a need to
think creatively about how leadership can be developed, and it will be
increasingly important to be able to justify the business case for leadership
development on a service by service basis in straitened times.
2.5 Sector Skills Councils report (LLUK)
Lifelong Learning UK undertakes a sector skills assessment on an annual
basis in order to provide ‘informative evidence resources that can be
consulted and used as the basis for policy development’.
An online employer survey is one strand of the research informing the sector
skills assessment and the main aim of the survey is to collect information on
the current skills needs, training provision and future skills needs from
employers in the lifelong learning sector across the four UK nations.
LAIS employers responding to the survey identified the following issues and
needs:
The main skills lacking among external applicants are:
 community engagement and development
 literacy skills
 advanced ICT user
 promoting and marketing the organisation
 partnership working.
The main skills lacking amongst existing staff by responding employers
across the UK were:
 promoting and marketing the organisation
 new e-technology solutions e.g. twitter, social networking, learning
hubs
 advanced ICT user
 performance and staff management
 managing change
The top five skills likely to be demanded by employers in the future are:
 Partnership working
 Community engagement and development
 Promoting and marketing the organisation
 Fund raising and bid writing
 Managing change
The training budget for the majority of respondents had either decreased or
remained the same since the end of the last financial year. The vast majority
of employers funded or arranged on-the-job and off-the-job training or
development for their staff in the 12 months prior to the survey. Lack of
funding and unable to spare staff time for training were the main barriers to
providing training or development opportunities for staff across the UK.
These findings are based on responses from 189 employers providing library,
archive and information service related provision across the UK.
3. Main findings
Each nation adopted a different methodology for collecting information on
leadership developments. A template questionnaire was provided to
participants. Some organisations sent out modified versions of this
questionnaire to networks and participants in workshops and meetings.
Others used informal networks to gain information or conducted literature
reviews. As outlined in the context section, different nations also have
different amounts of leadership development activities on which to draw. For
this reason the findings are presented with variable detail and in variable
quantities from each nation.
The findings have been organised thematically according to different types of
intervention:
 External leadership courses: those organised on a national or
regional scale, courses which may be open to participants from a wide
range of sectors
 Internal leadership courses: generally bespoke training developed by
an organisation or service to meet its specific needs
 Systematic approaches to leadership development: examples
where leadership development has been integrated into broader
organisational development (may not include specific training courses)
 Innovations: leadership development approaches that do not fit into
the above categories and which may exemplify new approaches that
could be adopted more widely by the sector
3.1 External leadership courses
There have been a number of external leadership courses that the sector has
been able to benefit from. These tend to invite applications from individuals,
with the support of their employer. Most of the interventions listed below are
free at the point of use and funded by strategic agencies for the benefit of the
sector. They can be targeted at specific sectors or be designed to bring
together participants from a range of sectors.
External leadership courses are particularly valued by smaller organisations
which may not have the resources or capacity to develop leadership
development programmes in-house. They are particularly relevant to services
with a very small number of staff (e.g. archive services in particular), however
the development opportunities within these organisations may be limited once
participants have completed the leadership development training.
In general the external courses considered in this report tend to receive high
satisfaction scores from participants (where data is available). Evaluations
show that participants tend to mostly value the opportunity to step back from
their day-to-day work and to network with other professionals at a similar level
to them. Courses tend to receive lower satisfaction where participants are
from different levels (e.g. future leaders together with senior managers) and
where content is not tailored enough to individual needs.
However, a recent impact assessment by MLA of the Take the Lead
programme suggests that where the employer, and in particular the manager,
is not engaged in the content of the course or using the individual’s
attendance at the course to help it reach broader development goals within
the organisation, the leadership intervention tends to have a lower impact.
Individuals are less able to bring new ideas into the organisation and put their
leadership skills into practice where learning is not integrated into a personal
or organisational strategic plan. It is therefore very important to engage
employers, and managers in particular, with the content of the course and
ensure that external courses are being attended as part of a broader
development plan within an organisation, so that they will have the maximum
benefit for the organisation and the individual. The Innovators course in the
East of England provides an interesting approach for how to weave employer
engagement into the application process and the course content.
3.1.1 Clore Leadership Programme
The Clore Leadership Programme is an initiative of the Clore Duffield
Foundation which aims to strengthen leadership across a wide range of
cultural activities. This includes the visual and performing arts, film, heritage,
museums, libraries and archives, creative industries and cultural policy and
administration. Clore offers Fellowships and Short Courses for individual
leaders, and training for members of Boards of Directors of cultural
organisations.
Fellowships:
 Since 2004, the Clore Leadership Programme has awarded 157
Fellowships to outstanding individuals, some working freelance and
others drawn from different types and sizes of organisations,
 Fellows have worked in areas ranging from archives to theatre
production, and including visual and performing arts, film and digital
media, heritage, creative industries, museums, libraries and cultural
policy
o Since the programme inception there have been 21 fellows from
museums, libraries and archives
 Fellows have come from across the UK and Ireland
Clore Short Courses:
Since July 2006 Clore have run a programme of intensive two-week
residential courses, funded by the Cultural Leadership Programme.
 The courses are based on the residential element of the Clore
Fellowship Programme
 They are designed for people in the middle ranks of larger cultural
organisations or those near the top of smaller ones, who have a
minimum of 5 years' work experience.
 Each course is limited to a maximum of 25 participants and they aim to
select applicants in order to achieve the broadest range of
backgrounds possible

Clore particularly welcome applications from people working in
libraries, archives, design, individual artists and those working in small
and medium sized performing arts organisations.
3.1.2 The Cultural Leadership Programme
Three sector lead organisations, Arts Council England, Creative & Cultural
Skills and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council formed the Cultural
Leadership Delivery Partnership, a unique cross-sector collaboration to
support the Cultural Leadership Programme.
There are a number of strands to the Cultural Leadership Programme:
 Funding for the Clore Short Courses
 Development of a career choices website: http://www.creativechoices.co.uk/
 Work-based initiatives for emerging and mid-career leaders focussing
on peer learning, networks, coaching and mentoring
 Powerbrokers black and minority ethnic development programme
 Governance development
 Developing cultural entrepreneurs as leaders
Some observations from the CLP on engagement from museums, libraries
and archives with its opportunities:
The MLA sector has taken up the opportunities of the CLP less
enthusiastically than hoped. Participation has mostly been in formal activities
such as seminars and presentations. The CLP has noted that the sector
prefers activities that are directly aimed at it, rather than culture-sector wide.
Clore short courses have been successful in attracting applicants because it
has marketed itself as directly relevant to the sector.
National museums are more engaged, but regional museums are less so. The
Museums Association tends to be more supportive of these types of
intervention and to value informal learning/networks as much as formal
learning
Libraries are less engaged than museums – this may be because they don’t
necessarily identify with the cultural sector. There has been some
engagement from libraries but it has been sporadic, for example, Essex has
been proactive.
The extent to which organisations take on board and embed the leadership
development principles of CLP depends on the organisation itself. Some
become self-sustaining while others continue to rely on CLP. Organisations
that have taken a lead include:
 National Portrait Gallery
 Historic Royal Palaces
 Horniman Museum
 Manchester Museums

Tate
The CLP has commissioned the Work Foundation to look at the economic
outcomes of the CLP. This will move beyond simple outputs to look at
economic impact of investing in leadership. Change and developments in the
sector have been sporadic and loose until now, but in a more difficult funding
environment it will be important to be more strategic about change.
3.1.3 Leading Archives and Museums
The Leading Archives and Museums (LAM) programme was commissioned
after the Renaissance Review meeting in March 2005 which identified
developing leadership capacity as a key issue for museums. The involvement
of archives followed MLA’s priority to encourage cross-domain working and
was supported by the Society of Archivists.
The Archives Task Force had undertaken a detailed analysis of the UK’s
archives; the results were published in Listening to the Past, Speaking to the
Future (2004). The report identified a number of workforce development
priorities, including leadership, recommending a programme “to modernise
service management and improve workforce development opportunities”.
LAM was a key element of the MLA’s 2004 Workforce Development Strategy,
developed in collaboration with the professional associations, Regional
Agencies, Devolved Administrations, central government and the Sector Skills
Councils, following extensive consultation. It identified a range of actions
designed to enhance and support the sector's workforce. Its aim is “to enable
museums, libraries and archives to become learning organisations which
develop a motivated, appropriately skilled, diverse and outward-looking
workforce capable of delivering high-quality services to all users”.
The four stages of the LAM programme have been:
Stage 1: consultation and review to identify leadership skills and learning
needs and to develop a leadership model
Stage 2: pilot programmes for Heads of Service, Senior Managers and Future
Leaders - November 2005-March 2006
Stage 3: programme rollout 2006-2007
Stage 4: programme rollout 2007-2008
In total 214 people took part in this programme, including senior managers,
future leaders and heads of service, see the breakdown below:
Stage
Stage 2
Stage 3
Number of participants
 60 participants from museum and archive services in England took
part in the pilot programme
o 18 heads of service
o 21 senior managers
o 21 future leaders
 29 senior managers
Stage 4
o 3 National Museum participants,
o 9 Archives participants,
o 8 Hub Museums
o 9 Regional Museums
 50 future leaders
o 7 National Museum Participants
o 17 Archives Participants
o 11 Hub Museums
o 9 Regional Museums
o 5 Diversify participants via the Museums Association
Three Senior Managers and one Future Leader from Northern Irish
National Museums attended, together with one Senior Manager from a
Scottish National Museum.
 50 Senior Managers
o 9 National Museum Participants
o 18 Archives Participants
o 9 Hub Museums
o 14 Regional Museums
 25 Future Leaders
o 9 Archives Participants
o 7 Hub Museums
o 9 Regional Museums
The feedback from these courses was consistently high, with 98% of Future
Leaders and Senior Managers rating their overall training experience good,
very good or excellent (with 100% participant satisfaction).
3.1.4 Strategic Change Fund Leadership Programme (Scotland only,
museums only)
The Strategic Change Fund Leadership Programme ran from 2003 – 2006
and provided an opportunity for emerging leaders within the sector. The SCF
Leadership programme enabled 26 individuals from 13 organisations to
undergo a tailored leadership programme over three years. The programme
produced benefits at an individual, organisational and sectoral level. The chief
personal development benefits cited were in confidence building,
communication and strategic thinking skills. Overall, there appeared to be a
significant impact on the career development of the participants, with
indications that the programme was held in high regard in other parts of the
Local Authority network.
A high proportion of those on the programme were promoted or embraced an
extended role within the museums’ sector and a commitment to career
development within the sector was evidenced.
A further key benefit cited was the networking with others from within the
sector and the building of strong relationships. This facilitated the sharing of
issues and peer learning which has a knock-on benefit across the sector.
3.1.5 Mentoring for museums staff in Scotland
A recent programme run by MGS drew on the mentoring skills of the alumni of
the SCF Leadership Programme and provided an opportunity for emerging
leaders within the sector. Mentors were carefully matched with mentees and
after some initial training on roles and responsibilities, mentors and mentees
started their sessions. The sessions took place over the course of a year or so
and most pairs met 5 or 6 times. Great enthusiam and motivation was
displayed by both parties and a final event to celebrate the success of the
programme and share experiences was held in Edinburgh in December 2009.
Mentees felt their self awareness and confidence grew throughout the
experience, also that their influencing and assertiveness skills improved and
they particularly benefited from the skills and experiences of their mentor.
Mentors enjoyed having the opportunity to act as a mentor and to put their
skills into practice.
3.1.6 Collections Skills Initiative Northern Ireland (Museums only)
This HLF funded initiative provides 12 entry level participants with a one year
placement in museums. Part of the project involves capacity building in the
host organisations to support the bursary holders.
The project is part of the HLF Skills for the Future programme and Museums
Galleries Scotland and The National Archives are also among the 54
grantees.
The focus of the programme is on filling skills gaps through on-the-job training
- its not yet clear how many of these projects intend to incorporate elements
of leadership training, but some almost certainly will.
 http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/programmes/Pages/SkillsfortheFutur
eprojects.aspx
 http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/programmes/Pages/Skillsforthefutur
e.aspx
3.1.7 Leading Modern Public Libraries (England only)
In 2003 the DCMS published a strategic framework for the public library
service: Framework for the Future: Libraries, Learning and Information in the
Next Decade. The policy document outlined the Government's long-term
strategic vision for the role of public libraries. It identified that a new
generation of library leaders should be developed as a priority. One of the key
strategic objectives of the Framework for the Future Action Plan 2003-06 was
to build libraries’ capacity to improve through better quality of leadership and
workforce skills.
The programme was designed to be:
1.
National – reaching all library authorities in England.
2.
Contextualised – a programme which draws on a range of leadership
theories and practice but is customised to address the specific
leadership issues facing public libraries today.
3.
Multi-layered – reaching staff who are already heads of services;
senior staff who have experience and responsibility for service-wide
developments; and staff who are already showing the potential to be
future leaders.
The modular programme addressed the leadership needs of Heads of
Service, Senior Managers and Future Leaders. Every public library in
England sent participants between Oct 2004 and July 2007. Over 600
members of library staff attended the programme.
3.1.8 Take The Lead (England only)
Take the Lead was an MLA-supported training course, designed to respond to
the current issues concerning cultural management capabilities and capacities
in museums, libraries and archives. Take the Lead aimed to enhance the
capacity of:
 Individuals taking on leadership responsibilities for the first time and
 Managers who had not yet had access to leadership development
This cross-domain programme built on previous workforce development
programmes - Leading Public Libraries Programme and the Leading Archives
and Museums Programme.
The programme included work-based activity, self reflection and taught
modules; a combination of theory and practice. It has differentiated itself from
other leadership programmes in that it is directed toward the specific needs of
museums, libraries and archives.
The programme was structured as a series of modules across an eight day
period. Its particular focus was on those who are taking on leadership
responsibilities for the first time, or those currently working in a leadership
role, but who have not had training earlier on. Individual museums, libraries
and archives were asked to select participants for the programme and MLA
provided bursaries to organisations who nominated staff to participate.
Six TTL programmes were delivered to a total of 134 frontline managers from
museums, library and archive services throughout England between February
and May 2009:
Location
Participants
London
Manchester
Birmingham
London
York
London
25
23
23
22
24
17
In total:
- 78 participants were from libraries
- 28 participants were from archives
-
16 participants were from regional museums
12 participants were from hub museums
2 participants were from national museums
3.1.9 Innovators (Museums only, East of England only)
SHARE is a matchmaking service, funded by Renaissance in the East of
England. Its aim is to put the right people in touch with each other. Leadership
is developed through many aspects of the SHARE network.
SHARE has developed a course called ‘Innovators’. Applications were invited
from museums staff at all levels: anyone could apply to be share innovator as
long as have written support of manager and space to develop innovation in
their own workspace.
George Gawlinski a museum leadership facilitator leads the group and takes
them through the following process:
 1 x 2 day residential course
 2 x day courses
 Another 2 day residential course.
 Each participant receives peer support backed up with a small amount
of money, time and expertise support.
The course content includes:
 Analysing the barriers to innovation and how to manage the barriers
 Presentations from leaders in the cultural field e.g. Nicola Johnson,
Margaret Greaves, Maggie Appleton, Vanessa Trevellyan from the MA
- light touch.
 Mentoring support from some of these leaders
 Valuing leadership at all levels, not just organisational leadership
3.1.10 Leading Change (Museums only, West Midlands only)
Leading Change is a programme funded and organised by Renaissance West
Midlands. It has been designed to plug a gap in existing leadership
programmes by providing leadership development in a phased programme
including both residential and work-based elements.
The pilot phase of the project focussed on senior leaders (e.g. heads of
museum services), while the final programme is focussed on second tier
leaders (e.g. senior level managers). This change was made at the
suggestion of participants in the pilot phase. The pilot phase was used not
only to develop the course content and structure but also to gain senior level
buy-in to the course and ensure that heads of service are aware of and
understand the aims of the course. The course is accredited by the ILM.
The course currently has the following structure:
 Programme briefing








Initial Assessment Activities: a 360 degree assessment of existing
leadership qualities and team preferences
Inducation and individual development planning
2 x 2 day residential workshops
1 x 1 day project workshop
Cultural change project
Action learning
1-2-1 coaching sessions
Reassessment and personal review
Participants are asked to think about the general principles of leadership,
including:
 What behaviours and characteristics typify a leader
 What a culture of leadership would look like (including chief executive
and the management tier below them)
 Looking at leadership skills and how they are applied in different
companies – exploring tools and techniques
Participants are set concrete challenges in their place of work and asked to
feed back on how they have progressed in achieving these at each workshop.
Line managers are asked to report on the progress of participants at work.
This initiative has received positive participant feedback and the initial
assessment approach has been adopted by Birmingham City Council in its
own leadership development courses.
The leadership programme is also supported by a management training
programme for less senior managers and activities for third tier managers are
also being developed. The management training programme has sections on
leadership development. It is an ILM level 3 qualification in management. It
has been rolled out to over 100 people in management positions in the West
Midlands.
3.1.11 Next Generation Leadership Programme (Yorkshire only)
Next Generation is a long-running leadership development programme in
Yorkshire, which is also being provided in 2010-11. The course is jointly run
by Renaissance Yorkshire and SINTO, the Information Partnership.
The programme offers a comprehensive suite of management training
workshops. The programme providing staff in museums, libraries and
archives in Yorkshire with the skills, confidence and networks to become the
managers and leaders of the sector in the future.
In 2010-11 Next Generation will cover the following topics:
 Managing yourself
 People management: recruitment and selection
 People management: leadership and team working
 Project management





Financial management
Communication skills
Influencing & persuading
Working with your manager
Creative thinking
The programme is delivered in ten workshops (plus an induction meeting) at
monthly intervals. The exact schedule is developed with the candidates at the
start of the course. Workshops are held at various locations throughout
Yorkshire. There is no coursework or final examinations but candidates are
required to reflect on their learning and put it into practice in the workplace
where possible. A certificate is awarded to candidates who complete the
programme.
3.1.12 V&A Leadership Development Courses (England only)
The V&A has developed and runs leadership courses in London and the East
Midlands, entitled “Innovative Management and Leadership in Culture,
Heritage and Arts Organisations”. This course is part funded by the MLA.
The programme states the following aims:
 To enable managers to operate more effectively in a fast-changing
environment.
 To enable managers to develop skills and knowledge with direct relevance
to present and future issues and challenges in their jobs.
 To enable managers to network with their peers in a similar organisation
and develop a joint approach to common issues.
The programme is designed for middle managers who are actively managing
staff and looking to develop further in their careers; senior managers who
wish to refresh their skills and re-examine their approach to leadership and
management in the light of current economic challenges; and any managers
who would like the opportunity to gain a management qualification.
The course provides underpinning knowledge and framework for an NVQ 4 or
5 in Management. In 2010 the course is accredited by Middlesex University,
allowing participants to gain credits towards a Bachelors or Masters degree.
The programme consists of:
 Taught modules
 Guest speakers
 Action learning
 Managers forums
 Coaching and mentoring
 An online learning and collaboration platform
 A virtual learning resource centre
The programme runs for a full calendar year from April 2010 to March 2011.
Most of the modules include a practical project. This is a case study of real
work for the participants. It provides an opportunity for partner organisations
to commission a piece of consultancy from the innovative cohort. Examples
from previous programmes include:
 A feasibility study for a new Conservation Learning & Research Centre
 Designing a new visitor entrance for a grade 1 listed building
 Developing a business team building product for a museum’s corporate
team
 Post disaster action planning for a National Trust property
3.1.13 Wales Local Government Association (Wales only)
The Wales Local Government Association representing the 22 local
authorities in Wales has developed a “Leadership Competency Framework
for Welsh Local Government “built around the core theme of developing
citizen-centred public services and incorporates the key transformation
agenda drivers and elated leadership competencies. The framework has been
developed as a resource to inform and assist the evolution of local
frameworks by local authorities. The behaviours associated with each
competency can be selected by local authorities on the basis of local priorities
and context.
The framework is tailored for local government leaders in Wales. In this
context, a broad definition of “leadership” has been adopted which applies to
all individuals with responsibility for managing or directing people. On this
basis, the framework will apply equally to those who lead a long or short term
project, supervise a small or large group of worker and are responsible for
managing managers (senior managers and directors). Local Authorities are
recommended to use this framework when developing Leadership
programmes.
3.1.14 Public Service Management Wales (Wales only)
Public Service Management Wales, a division of the Welsh Assembly
Government, offers Leadership Development opportunities that are open to
staff and volunteers from the sector, which are based on a variety of different
approaches. Staff from the three sectors including the national institutions
use this provision. Programmes offered include:

The Wales Public Service Summer School is an annual intensive, fiveday residential learning experience held at universities in Wales
bringing together leaders and managers to address key issues on a
specific leadership topic. The 2010 topic was Leadership for
Transformation. The school is free of charge.

PSMW is currently creating an integrated approach to coaching and
mentoring across the Welsh public services to support leadership and
management development. They are also delivering Coach training
courses at the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 3,
5 and 7.

International Learning Opportunities allow talented leaders from across
Wales to develop and share their leadership skills by working on
strategic development projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Executive Leadership Series is comprised of one-day initiatives
based on a number of key leadership themes. Expert seminars and
insight tours use a mix of teaching, activity-based learning, and
facilitated discussion to promote individual reflection, group
participation and a commitment to action.

A Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership for Collaboration. PSMW and
NLIAH have joined together to design a programme to equip leaders to
deliver integrated and co-ordinated public services across Wales. The
twelve-month programme is split into three modules, each of which will
utilise a blend of action learning sets, lectures, tutorials, coaching,
case studies and diagnostic tools to ensure participants maximise
learning. Keynote speakers, top-level practitioners and academics will
encourage participants to share their experiences and use applied
situations to develop analytical and creative thinking

PSMW is also currently developing a Living Library for use across the
public and third sectors in Wales. The Library will build on the skills of
experienced leaders and managers to create a resource for our
workforce which is both innovative and cost effective. The Library
should help to increase the flow and transference of knowledge across
the Welsh public service.

Gateway to Leadership this programme develops the knowledge, skills
and behaviours and qualities required for senior and middle managers
as leaders to be instrumental in driving the transformational changes
required to meet the future needs of public services.
3.1.15 CyMAL leadership courses (Wales only)
CyMAL provides a range of leadership/management development support for
individuals and organisations via the CyMAL Development and Grant
Programmes. Training is provided free of charge to staff working or
volunteering in sector organisations in Wales.

Inspirational Manager – New Ways of Working programme is now in
its third year, and focuses on change management as well as offering
personal development resources such as the Myer Briggs Indicator.
111 participants from museums, archives and libraries have
undertaken IM 1 & 2 courses, and an IM 3 course is currently under
development. The courses are held in locations across Wales to allow
easy access. Pre-course work is undertaken to ensure that each
course includes issues raised by participants and follow-up coaching is
offered by trainers. Networking is a key outcome and following courses
participants are encouraged to offer peer support to each other.
Learning logs are issued to each participant to encourage reflection of
learning experiences.

Unleashing Potential - Organisational Development Programme. This
intervention is offered to sector organisations undergoing change. The
programme provides a framework to equip the senior & middle
management teams with appropriate skills, tools and approaches to
successfully lead and manage change for the organisation in order that
the organisation survives and thrives, continues to offer the best
possible service to its users and partners throughout the period of
transition and thereafter. The programme offers three strands: actionlearning, action planning and reflection.
Because each programme is tailored to organisation needs timeframes
vary - e.g. one programme was set over 3 months with two, 2-day
training modules with four weeks between followed by a third module
four weeks later for continuous loop improvement work. This timing
allowed for action learning to take place. Participants were required to
complete project tasks between modules for review at the following
module. The participants’ response to this programme has been
overwhelmingly positive; every participant reported the training as very
good or excellent. More importantly the management team developed
skills that have enabled them to progress some long standing
challenges that appeared to be blocking progress in the service.
Further evaluation was carried out three months after the last module,
and individual interviews carried out with each participant to evaluate
their individual progress.

Leadership Grants - Grants are available for individuals to undertake
leadership development and management training programmes.
Applications must demonstrate how the development programme will
be of benefit to the individual and to the organisation. Applicants are
encouraged to use the National Occupational Standards for
Management & Leadership as a tool for auditing their existing skills,
behaviour and knowledge and to develop a learning plan based on
gaps identified.
3.1.16 Women in Leadership: Leadership Observatory for Wales
(WILLOW) (Wales only)
A project funded by the Cultural Leadership Programme to examine gender
equality issues in leadership and promote best practice within the cultural
landscape of Wales and England.
WILLOW seeks to inspire and support individual women seeking the
challenge of leadership whilst working with the organisations employing them
to facilitate change benefiting both the employer and employee. By supporting
cross sectoral exchange across organisations WILLOW will seek to
strengthen the leadership capacity of the cultural sector in Wales and
England.
The core partnership who form the steering group who manage and oversee
WILLOW is Swansea University; Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum;
Equal Measures Consultancy (project managers) based in England.
Working alongside the core partnership will be a group of secondary partners
across Wales and England who will contribute towards the development of the
strategy and provide practical support including offering placements and
shadowing opportunities. The secondary partners will include CCSkills, Arts
Council Wales, Women in Engineering Network and the Wales Millennium
Centre.
Project aims:
1
Research: Willow will gather intelligence from organisations working in
the cultural sector to review existing practice; identify best practice;
examine barriers to progressions; and interview women who have
reached senior leadership positions. This intelligence and case study
data will be used to develop best practice guidance for gender equality
in leadership across the cultural sector.
2
Tailored Professional Support to individuals: Willow will recruit 50
women who have reached mid-level leadership within cultural
organisations and develop a tailored package of support aimed at
helping them progress into senior leadership positions.
3
Organisational Support: Willow will support individuals and their
organisations through a range of initiatives such as networking events;
job-swaps; short-term placements; professional development planning;
360 degree peer appraisals; mentoring and coaching; discussion
forums and action learning. We will review existing policy and practice
in organisations, offer support to overcome barriers and work to
strengthen leadership opportunities within those organisations.
4
Resources: Willow will then create a virtual knowledge bank as a
resource for organisations; a support and shared learning network for
leaders; a focal point which has the capacity to draw together other
initiatives around leadership development for women. These
resources will form the basis of strengthening the infrastructure
supporting women working in the cultural sector by providing access to
information, to other leaders and good practice.
Although an initiative primarily based in Wales, WILLOW has the potential to
connect women as leaders on a UK-wide basis.
3.1.17 Chware Teg – Agile Nation Ascent Programme for Women (Wales
only)
The Agile Nation project will assist 2790 women to progress in employment
and 610 employers to focus on equality & diversity and flexible working
initiatives and will be rolled out across the Convergence areas of Wales. The
Virtual Centre of Excellence will be a legacy of best practice for Wales. Agile
Nation supports women in North and West Wales, and the Valleys, who work
or aspire to work in management and the organisations employing them. The
project is fully-funded by the European Social Fund and Welsh Assembly
Government with no charge to participants and services are available to
Individuals and small businesses, Corporate, public and voluntary sector
organisations.
The project offers training, mentoring and also provides innovative online
resources and consultancy. Women are encouraged and helped to achieve
their full potential in the workplace through a programme of training and
mentoring, confidence building, encouraging personal development, and
providing networking opportunities. The programme is available on two levels:
Ascent Level 2 – Team Leading
The Programme will enable women to learn key skills, explore opportunities
and aspirations for development in the workplace and build confidence to take
the next step in their careers. On successful completion of Ascent participants
will receive an Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 2 Award
in Team Leading. A Follow on Development Programme is also provided:
 1 to 1, group and on-line mentoring
 networking events
 facilitated coaching
 advice, support and guidance
Ascent Level 3 - First Line Management
To help women develop management skills, or to gain formal recognition for a
position they already hold. As well as gaining a recognised award from the
Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM), a Level 3 Award will provide
participants with a career development plan and equip them with
management skills including:
 managing yourself and your time
 solving problems and making decisions
 understanding how teams are formed
 motivating yourself and others
 workplace communication
 giving briefings and making presentations
 conflict resolution
 assertiveness
 managing stress and your work/life balance
 diversity in the workplace
Those gaining the Level 3 Award can complete further Ascent training
modules, join the Ascent Development and Mentoring programme, and then
progress to other training providers for further qualifications - such as National
vocational qualifications (NVQs) in Management.
3.1.18 National Leadership and Innovation Agency for Healthcare Learning Laboratory (Wales only)
The NLIAH Learning Laboratory is a free library service specialising in
management, service improvement, leadership and workforce information.The
service is available to anyone working for NHS Wales or the public/voluntary
sector in Wales. The Learning Lab holds resources covering a wide range of
subjects including:
 Leadership
 Management
 Quality & Service Improvement
 Workforce
 Partnership
 Project Management
 Change Management
 Human Resources
 Governance
 Coaching
3.1.19 Council for Voluntary Action (Wales only)
WCVA provide services and support to frontline charities, community groups,
voluntary organisations and social enterprises, and to volunteers. These
services include a wide range of training courses which are available to
volunteers from independent museums who are registered charities.
WCVA also provide a comprehensive and varied programme of training for
Trustees covering the whole spectrum of governance issues including:

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



Legal and regulatory
Participation and community development
Personal and organisational development
Volunteer development
Funding
Policy and research
3.2 Internal leadership programmes
Despite the challenges for often small organisations or services within the
museums, libraries and archives sector to Anecdotally, it has been noted that
individual services and organisations often have creative approaches to
leadership development. Where organisations have put in place bespoke
leadership development programmes they often use a range of different
approaches, including formal leadership development courses and informal
measures, such as mentoring and coaching. In addition, internal leadership
development is often designed to achieve a corporate aim in terms of
transformation or performance and is therefore tied into performance
management and the corporate vision for the organisation. This aspect of
internal leadership development is particularly interesting in the context of
widespread change and organisational challenges facing the sector in the
next 5-10 years.
Because of the varied and multi-faceted nature of internal leadership
development programmes, this section of the report will adopt a case-study
approach. However, in order to avoid confusion the following section will set
out some of the key approaches used in internal leadership development
programmes.
Mentoring
Mentoring is used in a number of organisations and there are a number of
approaches to developing mentoring internally. The challenge for internal
mentoring programmes is ensuring that the mentor and the mentee are able
to interact honestly and constructively and this requires some degree of
distance between the two. In larger, multi-sited organisations this challenge
can be overcome relatively easily as individuals can be paired with people
they do not report to directly or interact with at work on a regular basis. Other
organisations have looked at using board members to mentor senior
managers or working within a local authority context rather than within a
single organisation.
Coaching
Coaching is often linked with management approaches when it is used
internally by organisations. It can be used by managers in conjunction with
personal development objectives to fast track leadership skills. Some
organisations report using coaching at all levels of management to enable
staff to take responsibility for delivering objectives and working towards the
corporate plan.
Management approaches
Organisations that have taken a proactive approach to developing leadership
often mention the importance of management in supporting their approach.
They set clear objectives for managers in developing their staff and managers
work constructively with staff to develop their skills, including leadership skills,
e.g. by suggesting internal programmes that could support their development
and putting them forward for internal cross-working teams. Measures of
progress against leadership development objectives are incorporated in
performance management criteria and aptitude for taking on leadership roles
are incorporated in job selection criteria.
Graduate traineeships
Particularly within a local authority context, some organisations have been
able to benefit from graduate trainee schemes. These are seen as providing
future leaders who can be fast-tracked through to management positions.
Graduate trainees can provide new perspectives on organisations, processes
and management approaches and can help to counteract the hierarchical and
somewhat static approaches to staff development reported in some
organisations in the sector. By working within a wider framework, e.g. the LGA
graduate traineeship, organisations are able to manage the cost of the
programme and devolve the administration to another body.
Bespoke leadership development courses
There are a range of approaches to bespoke leadership development
courses, e.g. commissioning a training provider to offer the courses in-house,
selecting specific external courses that are approved and funded for staff to
attend, offering internally facilitated courses, and working with HE or FE
institutions to design bespoke courses that are appropriate for staff. The
benefit of these courses being internally selected or commissioned is that they
generally fit into broader staff or organisational development plans and are
likely to be of direct benefit to the participants in their work. However, a
minimum cohort size would be required to make internally commissioned
courses viable, meaning it may be difficult for very small organisations to
employ this approach.
Systemic/whole organisation approaches to leadership development
This is perhaps the most difficult approach to quantify. It involves
organisations identifying leadership development as a key priority as part of
corporate goals or organisational transformation plans. The approach would
include a review of organisational structures, staffing, roles and
responsibilities as well as a development plan for the organisation, prioritising
the adoption of leadership development. This approach embeds leadership
development into organisational objectives and while it is very challenging to
achieve alone, it may be an interesting approach for organisations that are
undergoing significant change for other reasons.
3.2.1 Case studies
The organisational case studies below are mainly taken from England, this is
due to different approaches to data collection across the four countries. It is
hoped that case studies from each of the nations could be added in due
course. It has not proved possible to find any case studies of internal
leadership development work in archives, which may point to a lack of such
schemes within this sector, or may reflect the difficulty of engaging with the
sector to identify such schemes.
Libraries Northern Ireland
Libraries Northern Ireland has adopted a number of strategies to develop
leadership within the service. It is a new organisation and has therefore had
the opportunity to weave leadership development into the organisational
structure. Leadership has been established as a key requisite of Libraries NI
in the corporate plan and the corporate values endorse leadership. The
Learning and Development plan also emphasises the value of nurturing staff
in action.
Libraries NI has become a member of the Centre for Competitiveness,
expressing its commitment to continuous improvement. Staff have been
trained in the EFQM model, are participating as product assessors and using
the model as a planning tool. In addition, it has established links with
established management bodies such as the Chartered Management Institute
which allows staff to gain accredited management and leadership
qualifications and the possibility of working towards becoming a Chartered
Manager.
Internally, processes have been put in place to develop leadership qualities in
staff. These include:
 A competence framework for senior leaders which is being
implemented with existing staff and used to inform recruitment of new
staff
 A performance management framework and training plan that identifies
learning priorities and develops individual learning plans
 Committee structures that empower staff to present at board level
Aberdeenshire Museums Service
This Local Authority Museum has identified the following leadership qualities
which are required within the service:
 Clear sense of direction
 Political know-how
 Practical knowledge
 Patience
 People skills
As a result it has developed a new team-based approach to running the
service. This approach encourages openness and staff can feel more
comfortable about speaking their minds and coming forward with ideas.
Results have been very encouraging and staff are happier and more confident
as a result. All staff are also encouraged to attend external training courses to
improve CPD and service needs.
A Welsh Library Service
One L.A. Library Service in Wales provides access to ILM Level 4
qualifications to all library management staff. Supervisory management
NVQs are available to library assistants. Other development requirements
are determined by personal development reviews for example one member of
staff has recently undertaken a Neuro Linguistic Programming qualification.
Coaching and mentoring opportunities have been introduced via the PSMW
programme. Staff have also gained NVQ qualifications linked to Assessment
Centre requirements. The service senior management team has also
undertaken the CyMAL “Unleashing Potential” Organisational Development
programme which was tailored to support the team to refocus and develop its
capacity to take forward and deliver on the vision for their service.
Historic Royal Palaces
There were a number of reasons why Historic Royal Palaces (HRP)
embarked on a programme of organisational change and leadership
development. The initial stimulus for change in the organisation was the move
from state funded organisation to independent charity: moving away from civil
service roots to a modern, customer focussed business. As part of this there
was a need to change current leaders’ approaches. The second stimulus for
change was appointment of Michael Day as CEO in 2003. Although HRP was
operating as a successful business it needed to work on becoming a great
conservation charity there was a need to move towards a greater narrative
focus. He also identified some issues for the organisation including
inconsistent branding across marketing communications and sites and low
brand recognition.
The first phase of work was an identity project for the organisation to identify
its cause/mission and explore how this would be enacted. Consultants were
employed to help define the cause and identify four key priority areas and
staff were engaged to work in cross-organisational teams on creating the
strategy in four key areas:
 Story-telling
 Visitor experience
 People
 Wider world
An existing senior manager organised each team and selected staff from all
levels and different sites to join their team. Selected staff worked only on this
project for three months. This was designed to be an empowering, action
learning process and mew ideas from each team were fed into the strategic
plan e.g. membership scheme, exposing conservation work to the public. The
blueprint projects were a form of action learning and the organisation now
regularly creates cross-functional project teams
The work on people change and leadership development came out of the
‘People’ blueprint team. They developed a performance/competency
framework which drove the people change programme. A consistent
approach to performance management was developed across the
organisation and all training and support designed to develop the new
competencies. As part of the new vision the organisation concentrated on
recruiting more customer-focussed people, more people from commercial
backgrounds with more focus on skills and abilities, less on accumulated
knowledge.
Leadership behaviours were identified using the performance framework. Inhouse workshops were developed to support leaders in understanding what
the new performance framework means for them and their teams. 150
managers and team leaders attended the initial round. The workshops
consisted of 3 modules each lasting 2 days:
 Managing yourself


Managing individuals
Managing your team
External consultants help to deliver the workshops. This training is now
ongoing for people who put themselves forward for it and new managers.
Additional leadership projects have been developed as the need arose,
including:
 Managing projects the HRP way
 Coaching and mentoring
 Coaching is part of the way that HRP works and that managers are
taught to manage
The new performance framework and training has had a transformational
effect for leaders to be able to understand themselves and their roles. The
organisation appreciates the importance of leadership much more, following
the transformations that have taken place over the past 12 years and
tolerance of underperformance has gone down.
HRP now tries to embed leadership at all levels. “Owning the issue and
getting it done” is a core competency for all. Staff are encouraged to
challenge the status quo and find new ways for improving things. There is a
staff survey every two years which involves all staff and asks for ideas. Teams
analyse the results of the staff survey in the context of their team and what
they can do to address any issues arising.
There is a buddying system at all levels in the organisation for new
employees. Mentoring was identified by participants in the management
training as an additional support required. Mentors are identified from among
senior staff, including the CEO.
Identifying future leaders and making sure they get the development they
need to progress within the organisation or to progress out if appropriate has
become a key priority. Because of the multi-site nature of the organisation
there are opportunities for progression across all the different sites. This is
also important for succession and talent planning. Emergent leaders are
identified by team managers and encouraged via performance and
development review. There is a new team leader development programme
just about to launch which will address the issue of bringing on first rung
management. The recruitment process gives a good overview of how to get
involved and show your potential.
Barking and Dagenham Library Service
Barking and Dagenham Library Service has identified a number of challenges
for leadership development in the public sector, including:
 The need to work with and develop existing staff
 The need for performance management rather than changing staff
 The need to embed notion of responsibilities at all levels, not just in
‘leaders’
Barking library is situated within the Barking Learning Centre, which provides
an opportunity to make links with local FE and HE providers. Barking and
Dagenham Library Service has worked with the University of East London to
develop a leadership course that’s relevant to staff and meets its
organisational needs. Shiraz Durani, who used to teach the masters in LIS at
London Met has been involved in designing the programme, but the head of
Barking and Dagenham Library service has had significant input. Some of the
content designed by the academic course designers was too abstract and did
not provide enough flexibility for the different staff members who would attend.
The course is presented as a module at present rather than accredited within
a qualification framework because of the need to appeal to all staff: it is
important not to put staff off who might think it’s too basic or too advanced for
their current level of academic attainment. However, the course has been
submitted to CILIP for their approval.
The course will run from September 2010 for 3 months. There has been a
staff briefing to let them know about the course. Take up is voluntary and
about 10-12 participants have come forward so far. Participants are from all
levels within the organisation, not just senior managers. One barrier to take up
has been that participants have to invest their own time in the course – certain
activities take place outside of paid office hours.
The course framework has been designed to be engaging and relevant for
staff and includes:
 3 hour learning sessions split as follows:
o 1 hour lecture
o 1 hour debate/discussion
o 1 hour ‘learning by doing’ – talks from people working in the
sector on techniques they have used in real life situations
 A practical project that will be carried out by the participant in the
service
Money will be ring-fenced for innovation projects that participants in the
course will initiate in the service as part of their course. The course has been
designed to work as a ‘leadership incubator’ but also bypassing the issue of
‘cherry picking’ staff or favouritism.
If the course is a success, the aim is to roll it out to London Libraries. Barking
and Dagenham Library Service will run a seminar on leadership development
in December 2010 which will showcase the course and celebrate the
achievement of the individuals who participated in it.
Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust
Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust has a strategy of investing in leadership
development for senior staff, and it tends to use external leadership courses
to do so. Business Link West Midlands (BLWM) have done a baseline
assessment of the museum and have identified the following priority areas for
further development:
 Green tourism


Social media training
Leadership
Those selected for leadership training are already good managers but have
skills they can develop further. Investment is perceived by the organisation to
be for now and the future: both to benefit Ironbridge but also any other
heritage organisations they may go on to lead. Ironbridge also uses
leadership training to support senior staff morale and sense of being valued
by demonstrating the organisation’s investment in them and providing a return
for their commitment to it. This can also support general morale as senior staff
morale cascades down and people recognise that Ironbridge is an
organisation that invests in staff.
The organisation is supporting people through the AMA, which is seen as
leadership and professional development. The organisation also invests in
line management training through Renaissance West Midlands.
4 of the management team are currently going through Renaissance funded
leadership programme ‘Leading Change’ (outlined in section 3.1 of this
report). They were selected on the basis of an appraisal need identified and
were provided with mentors while going through the training.
External training provides staff with networks in the region at a different level
from CEOs, it strengthens learning and partnerships between museums in the
region.
Ironbridge also supports internal approaches to leadership development. The
museum is able to exploit links with the Ironbridge Institute which provides
staff with additional opportunities to participate in projects and widen their
skills base. They invite external speakers to management team meetings,
conduct regular management awaydays and have a staff suggestions forum.
There is a cross-cutting green tourism team that takes in senior and junior
staff from across different parts of the organisation. Ironbridge also invests in
front of house managers meetings and personal development training
opportunities e.g. shadowing colleagues in different museums and bringing
learning back to Ironbridge.
The museum feels that there is no substitution for the external opportunities,
but there are some ways they could compensate if external funding were
withdrawn, e.g.:
 Informal mentoring, perhaps using contacts from the board of trustees to
mentor staff
 Make more use of the AMA and use mentoring and coaching to support it
 Enhancing internal meetings with more external speakers.
Devon Library Service
Devon Library Service provides some examples of how it has benefited from
Local Government leadership initiatives in the past. However, at the time of
writing the initiatives mentioned in this case study have been withdrawn due
to lack of funds and the status of the graduate traineeship is uncertain due to
a hiring freeze within the library service.
Inspiration Leading to Excellence is a Local Authority wide leadership
programme available to library staff. It consists of a 3 day residential course
focussed on developing leadership qualities. This course, which is for senior
staff members, is underpinned by a middle managers and aspiring managers
course. The course has been discontinued due to budget constraints, but
there is still informal spotting and nurturing of talent going on at a local level
Devon Library Service participates in the IDeA graduate trainee scheme, a 2
year programme for graduates. Devon took a placement for 6 months. This
person was found to be so able that she was taken on to manage a capital
project. This scheme has changed perceptions in the service about the
potential of younger people to take a leadership role and contribute to
delivering major projects. However, due to restrictions on hiring, the graduate
trainee’s contract may not be extended.
The service is also undergoing a process of organisational chance which will
develop new leaders in the service. Senior managers are in the process of
dismantling hierarchical structure where decisions are delegated up. This
involves opening up channels of communications between management and
front-line staff. For example, the Head of Service contributes personal
message to every weekly bulletin for staff.
Cross-organisational cross-level working groups have been established and
senior managers conduct staff road shows in 5 venues around the county
once a year to engage staff in the business plan and explain what they will be
required to do to help to meet objectives. This process makes senior leaders
visible to staff, engages staff in dialogue about the business plan and creates
empowered local decision making about services. In the current business
environment this kind of empowerment has become more important as staff
will need to take responsibility for decision-making and budgets at much lower
levels if tiers of middle managers are taken away.
Staffordshire Library Service
Staffordshire is a very large LA which has traditionally lacked structured
development of leadership. However, it has undergone a lot of organisational
change recently, which has provided the opportunity to adopt a more
systematic approach to leadership development across the library service and
other services.
Within Staffordshire LA, workforce development is managed by a team of 4
who work both on delivering the programmes and the principles and
philosophy behind them. Courses and interventions are designed around the
needs of the job and bespoke to Staffordshire. Training aims to change
mindsets and applications, it does not start at a behavioural level as this is not
thought to be as effective.
Staffordshire Manager is a programme in place across the LA. Staffordshire
commissioned Sen Delaney to apply their leadership development
approaches to the organisation. The aim of the training is to bring about a
culture change among managers. This has resulted in a pick and mix training
programme where course elements can be selected according to operational
priorities and individual need.
The LA is now developing a course specifically for leaders, aimed at 180
senior staff across the authority. This will be a specific senior management
course including a Masters level leadership programme. The need for this has
been identified because managers need to deliver new ways of working and
respond to new operating models e.g. more partnership working, lateral
thinking about services and what they can deliver.
Optimising Team Performance is a 3.5 day course whose aim is to shift the
mindset of team leaders and provide communications skills feedback to team
members. It adopts a coaching approach to get staff to take ownership for
their work, problems, people and issues and to help managers become better
decision-makers. This course averages £20k ROI per attendee in terms of the
changes they implement in their team. Additional courses are offered to build
on this e.g. a 2 day coaching and performance course, an influencing and
negotiating course.
Staffordshire are developing accreditation for all leadership development
training so that it can count towards Honours Degree level qualifications,
depending on the number of credits achieved. They believe the accreditation
acts as an incentive to continue in the programme.
The Museum of London
The Museum of London is the lead partner in a London Hub pilot project being
funded through Renaissance to senior managers an intensive programme of
one-to-one coaching sessions with an experienced and qualified executive
coach over 3 months .
The sessions last 1 ½ hours and will take place every 4 weeks. At the outset
of the programme each participant agreed a clear set of personal
development outcomes against the background of organisational objectives.
The programme will be evaluated to measure the impact of the coaching on
the achievement of the identified personal and organisational objectives .The
context for the project is leadership in a change situation; therefore HR teams
in partner museums have nominated participants (1 per Hub museum) who
are currently involved in a big development within their organisations (e.g.
dept restructure, capital development, changes to their own role, changes to a
business model/area they are managing).
The pilot has been developed so that it integrates with day-to-day
responsibilities, so coaching is happening within an actual situation. The
objectives are set with participants’ managers to ensure clear aims to track
change against. The Hub commissioned Redsky learning to conduct the pilot.
Redsky is a training consultancy who have worked with Museum of London
providing management development training.
The London Museums Hub has decided to introduce coaching as opposed to
training or mentoring because they feel it has the potential to meet a number
of specific needs:
 The need to make effective use of senior managers’ time. Whilst there
are many well respected leadership development courses, they involve
periods of time away from work and the London Hub has had
difficulties in the past in finding candidates able to commit to this on top
of their existing workloads. Coaching allows support to take place in
the workplace and can be flexibly scheduled around existing workloads
and commitments.
 The need to obtain senior managers’ commitment to their own
development. By definition coaching takes place over a short period to
address specific ‘real life’ challenges. This should make it easier to
gain staff commitment to the process as senior managers see the
direct application of leadership traits and skills to their work rather than
learning about abstract principles of leadership.
 The need to address specific needs: Coaching can be geared to
specific issues. Unlike mentoring, which is a longer, less formal and
less structured relationship, coaching is focussed on
Essex Library Service
Essex Library Service benefits both from a bespoke development programme
for library staff and a wider scheme working across the Local Authority.
Essex Libraries Leadership Development Scheme
The Essex Libraries Leadership Development Scheme was developed with
the aim of motivating and retaining staff and enabling the library service to
identify and develop staff with the potential to take up key positions in the
future. The scheme aims to enable staff to:
 Gain knowledge and experience outside their current job role
 Understand the requirements of a higher level post in terms of skills
and knowledge
 Gain a better understanding of the wider political, professional and
corporate context within which the service operates.
The scheme ran for 6 months from October 2009 to March 2010. All existing
Band 5 managers were given the opportunity to apply for time away from their
substantive post to pursue development opportunities or to work on a specific
project within the library service. 3 temporary posts (using existing job
profiles) were created (2 Group Managers and 1 Specialist Manager) to
enable Band 5 managers to be freed up in order to take on development
opportunities.
In addition, a temporary Audience Development Officer post (Band 4) was
created in order to encourage staff to “try out” this role, as this had been a
post where the service had experienced recruitment difficulties, and to
increase the capacity within the team in order to enable other ADOs to take
up development opportunities.
Applicants for these secondments were not required to be able to carry out
the roles and responsibilities at the start of the scheme as support would be
available to them to develop the necessary skills and knowledge.
The posts of the successful applicants for these secondments were then filled
on a temporary basis in order to give the widest possible development
opportunities to staff of all grades. The process involved the submission of
expressions of interest and competitive interviews.
Each Band 5 manager who was awarded time away from their substantive
post was required to draw up an action plan with their line manager in order to
give purpose and structure to the experience. Activities undertaken included
work shadowing, attendance at meetings, research, involvement in projects
and initiatives and time spent in other ECC service areas and in organisations
outside ECC.
As part of the scheme, the library service worked with the corporate learning
partner and designed a development centre, based on the competencies
required not just for a Band 5 post but also for higher level posts, in order to
enable staff to identify skills gaps and produce an action plan which would
address them.
Participants were drawn from across the organisation:
 Specialist Managers (Band 5)
 Group Managers (Band 5)
 Audience Development Officers (Band 4)
 Customer Services Supervisors (Band 4)
 Senior Customer Services Assistants (Band 2)
 Customer Services Assistants (Band 2)
Of 25 Band 5 staff that were given the opportunity, 12 took up the offer.
However, the scheme impacted on many more staff - not just those who
provided backfill but all staff who came into contact with the secondments and
were managed by a different line manager.
All participants have evaluated their experiences and identified how the
learning will be applied in their substantive role, how they themselves have
benefited and how ECC/ Essex Libraries have benefited from the scheme.
Some of the outcomes mentioned by participants in the evaluation include:
 Greater understanding of their own role due to coaching another person
in that role.
 New viewpoints and perspectives brought to situations leading to
improved solutions to problems. Increased levels of strategic awareness
and strategic thinking.
 Time to carry out in depth research and acquisition of new ideas for
service improvements. leading to improved service provision.
 The chance to observe different styles of management leading to
reflection on their own style and an understanding of the need to change
styles to suit each situation.
 The opportunity to experience working at a higher level in a safe
environment, an improved understanding of the big picture - how
libraries fit with corporate strategies and policies – and increased
networking and contacts with people with whom to work in future.
 Increased confidence and mental stimulation, new skills and a renewed
commitment to continuous improvement.
 Perception across the library service that senior managers really are
interested in developing staff.
The programme has also seen some practical outcomes for the service,
including a map of the political, professional and cultural context of the library
service; the establishment of a Twitter account to market the library service;
creation of a Partnership Toolkit; and a promotion to a higher graded post.
Two other development schemes were also running: - a mentoring scheme
whereby frontline staff were mentored by Audience Development Officers and
a secondment scheme with the Answer Direct information service for Enquiry
Officers. The aim of the Answers Direct scheme was to enable staff to
develop their information and customer service skills, in order to improve the
frontline service offered in libraries. The aims of the Audience Development
Officer mentoring scheme were to build awareness of the ADO role among
operational staff, to provide a development opportunity for the mentors and to
grow staff and support them so they could be ready to apply for ADO posts
when vacancies arise.
Essex County Council Leadership Development Team
The Leadership Development Team has a varied remit to provide leadership
development across Essex County Council. The team provides support for
leadership development within the Council in the following ways:
 Leadership Talent
Leadership talent is the term used in ECC to describe the approach to the
identification, retention and development and utilisation of future leaders.
There are a range of resources available to assist managers in identifying and
supporting their talented staff.
 Leadership Academy
The Leadership Academy is a senior leadership programme for employees at
Bands 8-10 who are identified on the Leadership Pool as future leaders.
Developed in conjunction with Judge Business School, the programme uses a
blend of Business School Residentials, Coaching, Myers Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI), and a bespoke Leadership Development 360° Feedback, to
support leaders in developing the skills and behaviours they need to lead
teams to achieve the ECC key priorities.
 Emerging Leaders Programme
Closely aligned to the Leadership Academy, the Emerging Leaders
Programme is a leadership programme for employees at Bands 5-7 who are
identified on the Emerging Leaders Pool as potential future leaders. Also
developed in conjunction with Judge Business School, the programme uses a
blend of Business School Residentials, Development Centre, MBTI and 360°
Feedback to develop our leaders of the future. Participants on this
programme also undertake some group work between residentials.
 Leadership Development 360° Feedback Tool
Currently available to identified staff in bands 8-10 and those undertaking the
Leadership Academy, this tool features ECC’s Leadership Competency set as
a method of collecting feedback from a variety if people we work with. 360°
feedback is a highly effective method for raising awareness about your
leadership skills, style and behaviour, in a way that helps you to focus on, and
plan, your development needs. The leadership Development 360° is the tool
we use on the Emerging Leaders Programme, and the Leadership Academy.
 Fast Track Management Programme
Now in its eighth year, the Fast Track Management Programme has
developed a host of graduates to take up roles as managers and leaders with
ECC. The two year programme provides participants the opportunity to
undertake four different placements across the organisation, achieve a formal
qualification in management, and experience a range of personal and
professional development.
 Succession Planning
Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing individuals
who have the potential to fill key or critical, or hard to fill organisational
positions. In addition, it ensures the availability of experienced and capable
employees who are ready to assume these roles as they become available.
4. Conclusions
The research conducted to inform this report has revealed a very variable
situation with regard to leadership development activities in the sector. There
are a number of external courses available to develop leadership, especially
in England, however some of these courses are also available for people
working in the sector across all four nations. There may be a lack of
awareness of these in some organisations in the sector, despite the fact that
there has been relatively good take up of the formal learning offered. The
Cultural Leadership programme has noted that it is hard to engage museums,
libraries and archives in the more informal aspects of leadership development,
such as action learning activities, networking, mentoring and coaching.
However, those organisations who responded to requests for information on
leadership requirements stated that these types of interventions would be
valued.
In England it has been possible to find a number of individual organisations
offering internal leadership development to staff. This is often linked to an
explicit corporate priority and is often stimulated by organisational change and
the recognition that the service needs new skills, succession planning and
greater leadership in order to meet the challenges it faces. There is often an
emphasis on leadership throughout the organisation, but with a specific focus
on current and emerging leaders for formal leadership training. In Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland it has been more difficult to find such examples,
however this may be due to data collection methods and the difficulty of
engaging the sector on these topics rather than because these kinds of
activities are not taking place.
It is clear that the smaller and less well-resourced the organisation is, the
more difficult it becomes to release staff for leadership development training
and the fewer opportunities there are for strategic leadership planning and
individual progression within the organisation. Library services in particular
appear to have benefited from being included in Local Authority-wide
leadership development activities and it may be worth exploring whether other
organisations in the sector could benefit from membership of a wider
corporate body in this way (e.g. professional associations, regional workforce
development fora etc). It has been very difficult to find any examples of
leadership development activities driven by the archives sector, however this
may also be due to difficulties in data collection.
It is encouraging to see how many organisations have taken leadership
qualities and embedded them into performance management and person
specification criteria. This demonstrates a sophisticated understanding among
some organisations in the sector of the importance of leadership in achieving
corporate goals. The focus on innovation that some examples provide,
particularly with emerging leaders, is also a positive development and one
that can help to combat some of the concerns about the hierarchical nature of
the sector voiced by some respondents to the research. The broad reach of
many of the external leadership courses (especially within England) also
provides a solid base for further activities in the sector.
However, there are some weaknesses in the current picture. The patchy
nature of leadership development activity has been noted already. This
appears to be most serious outside of England and among smaller
organisations. While external leadership courses have many benefits,
particularly for these smaller organisations, there is sometimes a lack of
coherence between the course and the work-based situation which can limit
the effectiveness of these activities in creating change and development
within the sector. Individuals who have attended these courses may find it
easier to move out than to work within their organisation in order to put the
ideas they have learnt into practice.
Internal leadership development activities are often innovative, effective and
designed to benefit both the organisation and the individual. However, there is
a lack of awareness within the sector of what is currently going on in individual
organisations which may make each organisation’s effort less efficient than it
could be. This report attempts to begin to make links between different
internal programmes and begin the process of greater communication and
collaboration within the sector on these issues. There are some regional
workforce fora which do share knowledge among their members – these
should continue to be supported and encouraged as a way of facilitating
information exchange on leadership activities.
The process of collecting information on leadership initiatives has also
revealed a number of issues relating to leadership development which the
sector believes to be important going forward. These include:
 The need to combat the hierarchical nature of many organisations in
the sector in order to develop new talent and avoid losing potential
leaders
 Innovative leaders can find it difficult to carry out change in the sector
because of bureaucracy
 The need to diversify the talent base in the sector, including class,
ethnicity, educational attainment and the kinds of skills that are valued
 The lack of capacity within small and tightly resourced organisations to
support this kind of workforce development activity
 The lack of emphasis on leadership in academic courses for the
profession and professional qualifications
 How can the public sector tap into private sector ways of working for
improvement?
 Succession planning – looking at the leadership gap that the service is
facing in the next 10 years and finding talented younger staff to bring
up through the ranks
Several respondents in this research also emphasised the difficulty of
combating these issues in the current financial and political environment.
Freezes in hiring, job losses and reduced workforce development budgets all
create a challenging environment for leadership development. Despite this,
some feel that it is precisely because of the huge currently taking place in the
sector that leadership development is more important than ever. Leaders
need new skills in order to operate in new political and organisational contexts
and the radical restructures that many are experiencing could provide an
opportunity to rethink the role of leadership and how it is embedded in the
organisation in order to improve effectiveness going forward.