LEAD Awards 2018: Interview with Lisa Reinhardt and Busola Malvo, The CCS Companies

Helping Mangers Lead Successfully

 

  Category: Best First Time Manager Program
  LEAD Award Rank: 17
 
  Category: Innovation in Deployment of Leadership Program
  LEAD Award Rank: 24
 
  Organization: The CCS Companies
  Program: LEAD (Leadership Exploration and Development)
  Program Director: Lisa Reinhardt
  Visit: www.ccsusa.com

 
Our editorial team interviewed Lisa Reinhardt, Sr. Manager, Learning & Organizational Development and Busola Malvo, VP, Human Resources from The CCS Companies at the LEAD2018 Awards this past February. Here are some excerpts from the exclusive interview.
 
What is the overall objective of your program?
Our leadership curriculum was created in order to provide our Supervisors and Managers the development resources they need to successfully lead others. In most cases, our Supervisors are associates who were promoted, based on their performance, however, they have no leadership experience. Our curriculum was introduced to address that need. One particular component of the curriculum, our Managers’ Portal, provides resources to our leaders. These resources can be accessed at any time to immediately provide new leaders with information pertaining to Performance Management  (including SMART Goal Setting, and Managing Performance for Optimal Results), as well as HR Topics such as Best Hiring Practices.
 

Who do you impact with your program?
The program directly impacts participants (leaders), but it also impacts everyone in the organization, as well as our clients and customers. By building leadership capability with our frontline leaders, we increase our levels of engagement and motivation, which ultimately impacts productivity.
 
What are the lessons you’ve learned this year from facilitating your program?
Our program is instructor-led and contains a variety of components including pre-work, consisting of articles and videos.We also have handouts, job aids, a participant workbook, and in-class activities, consisting of group discussions and real-time polling. This variety keeps our learners engaged.  Our make-up classes, however, are typically delivered in a virtual format, which impedes the amount of participant interaction, and ultimately impacts the participant learning experience.  I continue to look for new, innovative ways to enhance the make-up classes. I’m always impressed though, by the questions raised by participants and their willingness to share experiences and insights with each other, regardless of whether the class is instructor-led or virtual.
 
How do you measure the return on investment and success of the program?
Our success is measured each day through improved communication and conflict resolution; increased collaboration, productivity, and client satisfaction; fewer corrective actions; lower rates of absenteeism; and higher levels of engagement and motivation. Half-way through the program, we asked participants to share some measures of success with us. One of our managers compared a 2016 collection goal for which her team only achieved 69%, versus a 2017 collection goal, which reached 114%. A strong leader equals a strong team.
 
What lies ahead for the program and how will it continue to succeed?
In 2018, we plan to launch LEAD² (Leadership Exploration and Development – Leveraging Experiential Activities for Development). Our leaders will play a more active role in their learning, and have even more opportunity for application and practice. Learning is an ongoing process that does not end when participants leave the classroom.In fact, the learning just begins. We will continue to reinforce the learning from LEAD, while we build additional capabilities with our leaders.



 

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