The Staff College Ethos:

We believe that leadership involves finding the moral courage to do the right thing on a difficult day.

We aim to build a psychologically safe environment for leaders to learn and experiment in.

We believe good leaders promote team cohesion and psychological safety, care about the needs of the individuals they lead and dynamically balance both these against the demands of the task.

We take the time to develop relationships with leaders. 

We use humour to promote emotional safety and rapport. 

We encourage openness, open heartedness and the assumption of positive intent. 

We value directness in thoughts, language and behaviours. 

We provide a high level of support and challenge that enables leaders to develop further.  

We encourage leaders to become more aware of, and take greater responsibility for, their thoughts, behaviours and actions. 

We take the need for leadership development seriously, as individuals and collectively, recognising it is a continuous process. 

We encourage diversity, drawing on a rich set of perspectives and experience from across sectors within our team. 

We acknowledge that developing leaders is a non-linear process, of which we can only play a part.

The Staff College Methodology:

Our proposition:

Senior leaders are required to deal with exquisitely difficult problems.  These demand resilience on their part.  No leader can resolve these problems on their own and so will need to build effective relationships with others in order to do so.  To build personal resilience and effective relationships, leaders need to be fully aware of themselves and others.  

The Staff College approach develops leaders’ awareness through:

Introducing conceptual ideas and models to develop leaders’ thinking about leadership.

Immersive simulations that enable leaders to practice working in teams through the completion of tasks that test different leadership and followership skills.

Video reviews that provide a powerful opportunity for leaders to see themselves in action with a strong focus on learning from each experience.  These help leaders to:

• reflect on how they influenced others in the moment

• understand how others felt about their influence and contributions

• consider how they were influenced by others

• recognise how individuals and the team have contributed to the success of the overall task

• better understand their decision making processes, motivations and assumptions

• develop their ability to reflect and learn from experiences.

The triangulation of feedback from video reviews, peers, faculty and individual’s reflections that combine to develop a stronger foundation of individuals’ awareness.

A coaching approach that helps leaders to better understand their strengths, impact and areas for development in order to increase their influence.

The expertise of our faculty who bring extensive leadership and coaching experience from a diverse range of sectors:

• Experienced NHS leaders with a deep understanding of the challenge and context in which healthcare must operate;

• Senior military leaders with experience of leading and influencing in complex situations as well as experience of developing future leaders and effective teams;

• Leadership coaches and academics with specialist expertise to help develop the most effective programmes.