Lianne Davies’s experience

I was thinking about my next career move, and I knew there was some opportunities for progression coming up in my current workplace and I wanted to ensure I was in the best position for when they came up and feel as confident as possible.

I also wanted to have a postgraduate level qualification under my belt and move into a more strategic mind-set. I researched opportunities for leadership development programmes and this one really appealed to me!

Once I’d completed the programme, I felt more confident in my leadership skills, and I’ve continued to build on that. My advice would be to not let your learning stop after the programme. I did some additional coaching following the MLDP and got into journaling which really helped me reflect by writing down the events at the end of each day/week, to acknowledge what went well, what I’d learnt and what I could have done differently.

The Hogan exercise also helped me to increase my self-awareness by knowing my own strengths, and the areas I needed to improve on or approach differently when managing and leading others.

My confidence has definitely grown since completing the programme. I applied for a new job recently and was successful. I definitely feel that everything I learnt from the programme and the continued learning following it has without a doubt contributed to my success in getting the role.

This was the first time I’d gone into an interview and actually felt calm and prepared as I’ve always had a bit of a block around interviews but having completed the programme, I felt more confidence in my leadership style and how I talked about it, so it was a really positive experience!

It was insightful learning about different leadership styles like incomplete leaders and distributive leadership. It has helped me to think about how I look at our team and identify the different skills and knowledge that people have and where/how to fill the gaps, because no leader can have all the technical skills, you utilise the team to ensure you have the coverage.

We’re planning to do an exercise at an upcoming away day about strength finding so that we can be really clear on the skills we all have so we’re able to distribute work better and work more efficiently and effectively as a team.

The face-to-face element for me was great. I also enjoyed the fact that I got to know people from all sorts of industries and backgrounds so I could understand their experiences and learn from them.
 
The breadth of topics that were covered was great too, and the fact that a different expert presented each of the topics really helped to keep the content fresh and interesting. Doing the assignment for the Level 7 ILM qualification really helped bring the learning to life.

I would say go for it! If you’ve been thinking about applying to the programme because you want to elevate to the next level, it will definitely give you those fundamental skills to do so.

I would also encourage anyone that takes part to continue their learning after the programme finishes to really embed what you’ve learnt, because that’s what will really help you progress to the next level.