Sandy Murray is the Operations Director with Ross & Bonnyman based in Forfar. Their core business is manufacturing tail-lifts and shutter doors for commercial vehicles, and have recently added ambulance lifts and fixed lifting equipment for storage and distribution. They have an annual turnover of £10m and employ approximately 120 people.
For me, the programme was excellent, the timing perfect and the subject matter spot on. Every topic covered has been of use with something from every session to take back and apply to work. The content, for me, was just right, especially the strategy, leading people and teams sessions.
Each subject was really well presented and I enjoyed the mix of media used to deliver each subject – the visuals, the group interaction, case studies and the relaxed manner in which the content was delivered made it very easy to absorb the key elements of each workshop. Each week I left feeling as if I had really learned something new. All of this with the mentor’s support makes it a very well rounded course. The whole experience for me has been a journey of self discovery, from the 360 study and DISC profiling onward. I feel I have learnt so much about myself and my capabilities, as well as the potential I have to offer the business.
Strategy: I can now think more objectively about strategy and what that means to the business.
Leadership: I now understand why leadership is vital to an organisation and how I should be contributing.
Motivation: It is now very clear to me how valuable it is to motivate your people well to achieve good performance. It is necessary to understand what makes them tick.
Communication: How can people perform without information? Communication is vital if you want to perform, move on and bring people with you. I have a much clearer understanding of the need to communicate whether this is good news or bad news, or explaining objectives, provided feedback, delivering results or defining business needs. Effective communication is a highly motivational tool. I think it is safe to say that since coming on this course I am now probably the best communicator in the company, passing down information on a daily basis with excellent results.
Confidence: My confidence with in dealing with issues and people has grown considerably. I am your typical promotion example – starting my career as an apprentice on the shop floor, moving to the purchasing department, managing the department and now holding the position of Ops Director with far-reaching responsibilities, despite having no formal training in management and leadership until now. To this point, I have relied on my instinct, logic and experience and I have now combined this with the knowledge gained from this course to boost my confidence and alter my approach for the better. I now have a set of tools and guidelines to refer to that help reinforce my decision making and how I interact with people.
Understanding my Role: I have a greater appreciation of my role within R&B. I clearly understand that if no-one leads or drives, the business cannot meet its objectives. It is my duty to ensure we continually assess our situation and to push on with changes which are fundamental to the business needs.
Prior to attending this course, I was very much “hands on”. I liked to be in control of certain situations personally – perhaps frightened to let go of my previous responsibilities. Now I have a team of people around me, there is a mutual trust and respect and I have learned to step back and allow them to accept responsibility for their areas. They know I am always available if they need my input.
Without a doubt, the skills I have learned on this course have helped me push through major changes in the way our company operates. On the first day of the programme we were invited to choose a book to read. I chose Leading Change by John Kotter.
What I learnt from the book is that there is an 8 stage process of creating major change:
This book has proved to be invaluable to me as I had designed and led fundamental changes to Ross and Bonnyman as a business. I have planned and implemented 2 major restructures in the time I have been on this course, both of which have led to significant improvements in performance and output.
I also had to undertake a major restructure due to the economic downturn. This affected almost every department in the company and was undertaken to reduce overhead cost yet maintain or improve efficiencies. At this point, I personally took control of production and manufacturing – and inherited people from which I had to mould a team to implement the changes the business needed. This involved the whole FORMING – STORMING – NORMING –PERFORMING team dynamics process we covered in the Leading Teams session. Using the knowledge from the programme I was able to lead the change process effectively and ensured that the business performance was maintained.
On the programme we were able to access 4 half days of mentor time, to support the implementation of the learning in the workplace. Laura Currie, my mentor, provided me with advice and helped me deal with some difficulties along the way of managing the changes. We discussed specific issues, how I should deal with them, and made sure I didn’t lose sight of the main objectives for the business. I now have a good team around me, the spirits are up, the people are working well together and provide good support to each other. We are hitting due dates and production costs have been improved by 3% year to date.
I believe R&B needs to identify its culture with an emphasis on quality, respect, equality and a high work ethic. With the support of Laura, we are looking to create a mission statement, define the culture and introduce an appraisal system which will allow managers and supervisors to allocate protected time with their staff to discuss the employee’s strengths and weaknesses, exchange views and plan future training requirements and developments.
The support and information provided on the programme gave me the confidence I needed to lead effectively. This has helped the business to improve performance even in times of economic downturn. There is more cohesion between the Departments which come under my leadership, with the hope this will strengthen our position in the future.
I thoroughly enjoyed the course and gained a lot from it. The people I work with acknowledge this and have seen a change in me and my attitude such that we plan to put more people on similar courses – a manager will go on a forthcoming leadership course and a fellow director is planning to attend the next Emerging Leaders Programme.