Co-authored by Dane’ de Klerk and Lee Kingma
Middle Managers have the challenge of having to manage both upwards, side-ways and downwards. They are expected to both deliver tactical plans and be strategic.
During the Covid pandemic these managers had the added burden of having to remain motivated while supporting their teams emotionally and still deliver results during a stressful time.
The Human Resources team of Kagiso Media Radio (KMR) took on the challenge of creating a leadership program for this group of managers to provide support, connection to colleagues and grow their competency in the field of media leadership.
The participants are based in three geographical regions in South Africa – Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Online learning was decided as an optimal learning solution in connecting everyone and during the time of the Lockdown reach those working from home.
Designing the learning program
Clear outcomes were established for the program:
- Grow self-awareness.
- Develop self-mastery.
- Create a community of learning and collaboration across the Radio Stations.
- Development of a leadership pipeline across KMR Radio.
- The KMR leadership charter act as a guiding platform for shared learning.
Secondary outcomes were identified as:
- Management and leadership topics which address leadership gaps as identified by the HR team.
- Motivate and build resilience during the emotionally stressful time of the pandemic.
- Cover topics which are relevant to the media industry while also broadening the mindset of possibility in learning about new cutting edge business practices
- Provide a credible certificate of learning which is transferable.
- Contain a coaching element to encourage managers to grow self-awareness and self-mastery.
The following factors played an important role in the design of the program:
- The managers have very busy schedules in their work and private lives. Taking on additional studies needed to fit in with their lifestyle without being an additional burden on their time.
- Three teams needed to be accommodated in three different localities.
- The media industry is demanding, and many sudden client requests are made on people’s time which makes forward planning challenging.
The participants were averse to having to complete lengthy assessments and were more likely to engage with practical learning methodologies such as Action Learning and reflection.
KMR Leadership Charter
- sharing the values and encouraging discussion with our teams
- courageous conversations
- succession planning to ensure our legacy in leadership is passed onto the next generation leader
- reflecting on our actions to ensure that we are living our purpose and stated values
- linking our KPI’s to our leadership values
Learning Process Map
The Talent Manager, Dane’ de Klerk (ACC ICF), and an external ICF MCC coach, Lee Kingma collaborated to design the program. The third partner was from the Stellenbosch Business School (USB), Vernon Adams. The USB provided Nano-sessions which are topical and relevant to the media industry. On meeting certain academic requirements, the participants were able to receive a credible certified business qualification from the USB.
The program ran over 12 months consisting of one 2-hour on-line session held typically on a Friday. It is believed that people have raised spirits on a Friday as the weekend is ahead and are thus more motivated and open to learning.
The participants were selected from the KMR organogram in holding middle management positions. A further number of participants who hold key specialist positions were invited. Leadership is viewed as a way of being rather than exclusively holding the position of a manager. Participants were invited to attend the program by the Talent Manager, Dane’, and once they had confirmed their attendance, they signed a contract which stated their commitment to the program. Only two participants did not complete the program due to their resignations from the organization.
The CEO was the sponsor of the program and gave his full support to the learning journey – both financially and in encouraging the participants and celebrating their success at the graduation. This support was demonstrated in the launch of the program when he gave the keynote address to the participants; an online event where all the senior managers were present. Dane’ presented an overview of the program and the topics, the learning coach, Lee, explained her role as learning coach and the USB Manager, Vernon gave an overview of the USB delivery. This was an important first step as it set the tone for the learning and demonstrated leadership support, clear objectives and stated the expectations from the organization.
Topics selected for the learner coach were as follows:
- The manager as coach
- Personal values and purpose aligned to the KMR values
- Understanding own motivation and behaviour through the lens of the Enneagram – identifying blind spots and appreciating strengths.
- Performance management cycle
- Courageous conversations.
- Team dynamics and effective meetings.
- Change management using the SCARF model.
- Managing power dynamics and surfing the politics with grace
These topics were presented as brief content bites via Zoom and participants were placed in breakout sessions where they could reflect on a coaching question related to the topic. These breakout sessions were much valued by the participants as this was the opportunity to connect across the KMR groups and to collaborate with their colleagues.
After each breakout session a member of the random group would give feedback to the large group and either Dane’ or Lee would ask further reflective coaching questions to deepen the learning.
Feedback from the participants at the end of the program was that they found the Manager as Coach and the Enneagram session most valuable. However, all the topics covered were appreciated as being relevant and useful.
USB Business School topics
Four topics were selected which are industry related and were presented by subject experts from the USB faculty.
These subjects were:
- Resilience in a VUCA world
- Systems Thinking: Navigating complexity
- Data Literacy and Decision Making
- Social Media and Reputational Risk
The Resilience topic was presented at the height of a Covid lockdown and was therefore relevant to the participants in coping with their anxiety at the time.
Reflection assignments
These assignments provided the participants with an opportunity to have individual coaching and demonstrated competency of the topics covered. The assignments could thus be used as proof of learning and after moderation as evidence of learning to qualify for the certification from the USB.
Participants submitted an assignment on each coaching topic and USB Nano session two weeks after each session. These were forwarded directly to Lee who gave each participant individual feedback. Lee used coaching questions to further stimulate thinking and learning and based her feedback on positive reinforcement of learning.
The following coaching questions were asked for each topic:
What are the key take aways for me from today’s session?
What do I still need to learn about this topic?
How will I use the learnings from this session going forward?
How can I help others in KMR by transferring what I have learnt?
The participants enjoyed the confidential interaction with Lee and were mostly diligent in submitting their assignments on time. Towards the end of the program a few assignments were outstanding but Dane’ and Lee were able to ‘kiss those over the line’ in encouraging them to complete.
The final coaching session and Graduation
The organization was generous in arranging the last session in-person at a coastal resort venue in Durban.
Fortunately, the threat of the pandemic was over, and this also presented the opportunity for all participants to be together in a spirit of celebration. The senior leadership and faculty were also invited.
This last group coaching session was based on the methodology of a World Café conversations. The participants enjoyed the informal nature of the learning by moving between tables hosted by a volunteer participant, who then gave group feedback. The topic was ‘Managing power dynamics and surfing the politics with grace’; which generated robust debate and invited reflection of leadership traits covered during the year.
Participants had been briefed a month before to prepare in small Pods to present to their senior leadership, faculty and peers a fifteen-minute presentation which answered the following questions:
- What were the most significant learning outcomes of the programme?
- How will you apply your learning at work?
- What surprised you about the programme?
The senior leadership then met with Dane’ and Lee to discuss the overall experience of the program and the way forward in supporting the learning of the Middle Managers.
The graduation took place in the evening after a formal dinner. The CEO and the Managing Directors of each Radio Station presented the graduates with their certificates. The participants were then able to dance and celebrate to the tunes of talented DJ from the Radio Station.
