Creating a coaching leadership style
International restaurant chain Nando’s partnered with us to design a talent management program based on a coaching leadership style to improve delegation skills, grow responsibility and increase the proportion of managers promoted from within the Nando’s business.
Everyone was excited by the [coaching] principle … empowering others to find their own solutions.”
The Client
Nando’s is a leader and trendsetter in the fast-casual dining arena. Since opening their first restaurant in 1987, they have become a global brand with restaurants in 23 countries.
They are guided by their values – pride, passion, courage, integrity and family – and are always evolving to keep up with shifts in the global marketplace.
The Challenge
Nando’s wanted to achieve rapid growth without losing its unique company culture. They had big expansion plans but they did not want to become a large, faceless chain of restaurants.
They were looking to:
– Develop leadership skills to increase performance and maintain the Nando’s values.
– Build delegation skills to enable Area Managers to increase the number of restaurants they manage.
– Increase the proportion of managers promoted from within the business, to reduce costs and maintain their ‘family’ culture.
Nando’s needed a talent management program that would teach their managers coaching skills and allow them to build a coaching style of management in the organization.
Nando’s is not just about the chicken. It’s never been just about the chicken. It’s about the people who make the chicken.”
Our Approach
Performance Consultants designed and delivered an in-house coaching talent management program for all their managers.
The Coaching for Performance program included the following elements:
Program introduction
Inspired by coaching pioneer Sir John Whitmore, this program looked at unlocking its employee’s potential through leadership development training.
Developing coaching skills
A 2-day coaching talent training program was rolled out for all managers and area managers, including in an in depth exploration on the GROW model, leadership foundations, and concept of the ‘one-minute-manager’.
Advanced leadership sessions
The training was rolled out to company Directors and further managers to embed the new skills through a 4-day program.
I was blown away by the approach. It makes much more sense to encourage team members to take responsibility. You can only get so far by being directive…
People enjoy their jobs more now. They know what they’re doing and are ultimately more effective. I’d like to send more of my staff on these courses.”
The Results
After the 2-day coaching skills training for managers, enthusiasm for coaching was extremely high. The managers went back to their branches ready and committed to implementing their new coaching skills right away.
Louise Agran, Marketing Director at Nando’s, attended one of the early courses run by Sir John Whitmore. Louise introduced a coaching style of management to the Marketing Department as soon as she returned. She says “People enjoy their jobs more now… They know what they’re doing and are ultimately more effective.”
After the 4-day advanced leadership workshops, Area Managers successfully learnt to delegate day-to-day management issues. They went from managing 6 restaurants to managing 10.
The planned expansion was a huge success. The new coaching style of leadership strengthened the talent pipeline. Nando’s was named the Best Large Company to work for in the UK, and still holds its family values strongly at its heart.
You can read more about the secret to Nando’s talent management success in the full case study, ‘Nando’s Spices up its Leadership Style’, Personnel Today.
