R&J Batteries are the largest independent battery company in Australia. They operate 29 branches across every state and territory and in New Zealand. They employ around 250 people and have a family business feel and culture.
We worked on this project with the CEO and the National Training Manager.

*Client comments are shown in italics
Replacing managers, especially in the branches, is challenging because they need three attributes that don’t always come together: relevant industry experience, leadership skill and being a good cultural fit.

High performers in the branches and in departments (like people & culture, marketing, etc.) can become frustrated without opportunities to grow and progress.

We were really struggling to have internal people apply to become supervisors and support branch managers. They wanted to do the role, but always felt they weren’t ready. They lacked the confidence to back themselves. In a lot of cases, they had great technical skills but no understanding of leadership.

We also found that we were looking externally hire for branch managers. That meant we had branch managers coming from other industries without the industry knowledge. Trying to coach and mentor them from day one is complex because our industry is technical. They were trying to learn all the technical side, often while stepping up for the first-time leading people, which is a big thing.

*Client comments are shown in italics
The program was titled Charging into Leadership and aimed to prepare people for future leadership opportunities.

Instead of being thrown in the deep end, we really wanted the Charging into Leadership program to have the supervisors or other top performers, supporting their managers and ready to take on that role when it when it was available.

Our goal was to have people ready to take on a role without being intimidated about talking to their teams, providing positive feedback, but also having those hard conversations. Also, to understand what leadership means, because we have a lot of accidental managers who have really high technical skill and were given an opportunity and suddenly, they find themselves in a leadership role and dealing with people.

*Client comments are shown in italics

We customised our Emerging Leaders to contextualise it for R&J Batteries. Over six months, the program involved:

• Two full day workshops
• Three online forums
• Individual coaching for each participant
• Mentoring and co-coaching for the managers of participants to ensure they could provide the support their team members needed
  
  

We limited places in the program to balance between the value of group work with maximising individual attention and learning. Everyone in the organisation was invited to complete an expression of interest, addressing why they wanted to become a manager in future and why they wanted to take part in the program. They didn’t have to provide anything major, but their responses helped us decide who should attend.

Thirteen people took part in Charge into Leadership with four of that group taking on a formal leadership role within twelve months of participating in the program. Most of the remaining nine participants demonstrated significant leadership behaviour in their teams following the program, with several ready for future opportunities. There was a direct correlation between the support participants received from their own manager and the progress they made through the program.

Manager of participant:
The program gave my team member opportunities to practice, coaching, and then the space to emerge. There was lots of sharing, lots of feedback and techniques, that he applied and turned into their own style. It was exciting for me because when I had the opportunity to move into a state manager role, I could do that knowing someone was there that could fill the role. I was so reassured knowing the branch was in good hands.
National Training Manager: It’s amazing to see something we thought about and planned for so long, now driving benefits for the business and helping our people advance and enjoy their careers.


Participant in the program (now promoted):
Starting off in the program, learning what I learned in the initial workshop I knew this I was where I wanted to go. I spoke a lot with my manager seeking opportunity, which then he gave me. I started putting leadership layers onto interactions with people before I was actually a leader.

By already doing these leadership layers and leadership actions and by practicing these before I was given the title, it helped ease into the transition and gave me a lot of opportunities to have practice runs. I could try things, see how it landed. If it landed great. If it didn’t, I would think about it and try again a different way.

When I was given the opportunity to become the Branch Manager it was challenging going from working alongside the team to leading the team – but with the program it has been really helpful in getting my head around it and understanding the action and styles I need.

I’m really investing time into getting to know my team members and being prepared to be vulnerable in my role in front of my team. I feel everyone in my team is in a good place now.