Describes the introduction of a women-only coaching programme at the Greater London Authority
Liz Hall

A few years ago, female employees were complaining that the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) organisational culture was male-orientated, that it was not committed enough to career development and that line managers were not being supportive enough.

It was time to take action, particularly as London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, has consistently stated that his commitment to equality and diversity is one of the elements that underpins his vision for London. Women are represented in many senior posts, including director of finance, executive director of services and in the mayor’s office. Yet they remain under-represented at the senior grades, staff turnover at lower
levels has tended to be fairly high, and former learning and development manager Angela Goldberg felt that a number of women in the less well-paid jobs “didn’t quite know how to move on – where to go and what to do”.

The former complaints about the organisation emerged during two focus groups held in May 2003, one for female employees from black and minority groups and another for other female employees. There were recurring themes among female employees, who felt they had stalled professionally, that the GLA did not place sufficient emphasis on career development, especially at the lower grades, and of finding it difficult to see much scope for career enhancement and challenge.

One of the problems was that as a male-dominated, small and relatively young organisation, the GLA has its work cut out to offer women opportunities for career progression and self-development.

In an attempt to enhance female employees’ development, the GLA launched a women-only coaching programme, lasting six months, which, compared with many organisations’ offerings of two days, was pretty ambitious. It was felt that any viable development solution needed to bear the following issues in mind: that the GLA is a small organisation with limited possibilities for upwards movement; that not all women see career progression as vertical; and that women have a talent for being highly skilled supporters of one another, naturally understanding the power of self-disclosure in moving forward.

The specification document highlighted the need for the successful coaching provider to have a strong awareness of diversity issues, especially those facing black and ethnic minority women in the workplace and to address the following key themes identified in the focus groups:

  • work-life balance;
  • career direction and mobility;
  • organisational culture;
  • confidence and assertiveness

The successful consultancy, JJB Personnel and Training, designed and delivered a package including one-day workshops exploring the following topics:

  • clarifying career and life goals, and developing strategies to implement them successfully;
  • gaining greater understanding of individual styles, and how others perceive this;
  • reviewing approaches to personal and professional development;
  • building strategies for balancing work and home responsibilities;
  • encouraging networking, and drawing on mentors for support;
  • growing self-confidence in own abilities, and considering how they can maximise opportunities in the workplace.

In addition, there were three planned meetings of action-learning sets in the programme, although sets often met more frequently in their own time.

The first programme, which had 16 participants, began in autumn 2003 and the second, with 12, in autumn 2004. There is a transparent nomination and selection procedure for the programme and, so far, there have been twice as many nominees as places. One key task is to give supportive feedback to the unsuccessful applicants.

The programme does not involve a “taught” element. It is based on providing the appropriate framework and support for self-development and insight. Angela Goldberg feels strongly that this is the most appropriate response to a diverse group of women who will all be starting from different life-points, but they will also share many universal issues. She rejects conventional thinking about women-only programmes, which often start from the premise that they have skills and experience deficiencies.

“The premise that you can identify these gaps then formulate a training programme to fill them is a nonsense. Women, in particular, respond very positively to interventions that explicitly cater for their learning styles and preferences. These are often complex and hard to define. This is why our programme was so powerful. The mixture of activities was both challenging and supportive, and offered the best of individual and group learning.”

Line managers have commented on the improved contribution from participants and the scheme has been highlighted in the mayor’s annual report to Londoners as a tangible demonstration of the GLA’s commitment to sex equality, which reflects well on the GLA’s ambition to be an exemplary employer.

Employer profile

The Greater London Authority employs 670 staff and is the strategic body responsible for delivering the elected mayor Ken Livingstone’s vision for the capital. Its organisational culture is one of high pressure with long hours. In focus groups held before introducing the coaching programme, female employees criticised the organisation as being male-oriented and unsupportive of women’s development.

Coaching programme

Aim: to support female employees’ self-development and insight.
Format: Six-month programme consisting of 12 hours of one-to-one coaching, a detailed workbook to complete, three one-day group workshops and three action-learning group meetings.
Provider: Consultancy JJB Personnel and Training.
Cost: £2,000 per head.
Key achievements: Some participants have been promoted and all feel more positive and confident about their future and ability to manage challenges lying ahead. The programme has been flagged up to show the GLA’s commitment to sex equality.
What next? The GLA is training six volunteers from each group to work as facilitators for the action-learning groups, to build a critical mass of useful expertise that remains with the organisation after the programme has finished. The aim is to embed the approach used in the programme into the organisation.