Training leaders and managers is constantly cited as one of the most impactful things an employer can do to improve the Health and Wellbeing of its employee base.
Leadership development is a key topic being covered at the forthcoming Watercooler Event on 7th & 8th May at ExCel in London, with sessions on ‘How to create a thriving workplace culture and survive a toxic one’, case studies on building thriving workplaces and ‘overcoming silos to focus on leadership development’.
For more information on The Watercooler, see the foot of this article
Yet, despite the recognition that this is important, there’s also evidence that line managers are getting worse at supporting team members (see this article) due to the increasing number of demands landing on their desks, alongside shrinking resources.
One of the biggest obstacles is the lack of time available for training and making line managers themselves feel supported and psychologically safe. However, some employers – like Knight Frank Promise, in this case – are recognising that there needs to be new thinking and prioritisation around investing in this time and training. The firm hired mental health and wellbeing consultancy PVL following a mental health crisis in order to help them do this.
We spoke to Siobhan Bird, Head of People and Culture at Knight Frank Promise, to find out more…
Can you tell me what prompted you to take on PVL to do leadership wellbeing training?
Yes. We’d been created as a subsidiary of the Knight Frank group. It was an exciting time, we’d appointed a new leadership team and there was a real opportunity to make a mark.
Then our Managing Director got a call one Sunday afternoon to say that, sadly, one of his team members had taken their own life that weekend. Understandably, he was very affected by this as he’d not seen it coming, even though this person had been at work all week and had attended a work social. It felt like a bolt out of the blue.
It really knocked everyone for six. And we were really struck by the questions: How did we not know? Could we have done something differently? How could we make a difference in the future?
That year, one of our people won an inspiration award for championing openness in mental health, part of the award was a financial amount to be used for something personal or developmental, and he wanted to use it to drive the agenda forward. That’s where it all started. He found PVL, and we brought them in to take us on our journey, along side us rather than selling us a solution.
What do you think is different from buying a ‘solution’ or ‘package’, and working more organically than this?
We felt listened to and like we were co-creating the solution with PVL that was right for our company.
Obviously, they have experience and ideas, and seen what works, but there was a handholding and a genuine interest in what was going to work for us.
They really tried to understand what our business was, and what our challenges were, over 80% of our people are based on a site which is not our office, it is the workplace of another company. Their site is their day-to-day location, and so that presents an engagement issue around ensuring they feel they belong to Knight Frank Promise, which can be a real challenge. They can sometimes feel like they work for the building they’re based in, rather than for us.
What was a key insight for you in finding the right solution?
The real golden nugget for us was psychological safety. It was really important for us that our people felt they could be open and honest with each other, and that has been the core of the work that we’ve done and continue to do. It’s a work in progress.
What practical help did having an external provider offer?
PVL helped to draft the strategy and the stages of that strategy. We were able to set out the end goal and the steps to go through to get there. Then they trained our Leaders, and helped us to create and train a Champions Network.
What practical tips would you give other people looking to organise leadership wellbeing training?
Make sure your people understand why you’re doing it, and make it an authentic act. Then make sure it’s relevant to them. It’s not just sheep dipping everyone through a programme – it needs to make a difference.
After initial training was this training ‘done’, or is training also ongoing?
Training is ongoing. We continue to engage with PVL around good practice and sessions on specific issues.
We’ve held some drop-in sessions with our line managers for example. Over about six weeks we ran sessions where they can come in and simply say ‘look, I’ve got this issue’.
These work well because they are small groups and people can talk it through with each other and test ideas.
What’s the feedback from the Leaders been like?
Excellent. Our people really bought into it. They really wanted to know ‘when can I step in? What should I be saying?’. Then, without any real encouragement from us, they were asking ‘what can I do about this?’
Fourteen people volunteered to be our mental health champions and went through the training course together. That was spine tingling in itself because, due to the nature of our work, these people don’t see each other very often, if ever. But, almost instantly, there was a safe environment created and they divulged information very openly; everything was on the table.
The training actually gave us much more than mental health awareness – it gave us social connection and wellbeing, too, with people talking to, and engaging with, colleagues. When you share personal information, you can create close bonds quickly.
It also opens up new perspectives, from new relationships.
What’s been the biggest challenge?
Time.
Everyone is so busy being busy. And that’s not unique to our company.
But facilities management has to be very reactive because when something goes wrong, it needs to be fixed urgently.
But I’m also a massive advocate of taking a little bit of time out of your working day to stop and think or to reframe something – I know I’m better and more productive if I have.
How do you encourage your people to take a breather for their Wellbeing and Productivity?
On World Mental Health Day, we sent everybody in the company a Kit Kat and a little note that said ‘Take 10 minutes, enjoy your break and your Kit Kat’.
It was a small gesture, but we had lovely feedback about it.
We’ve actually got PVL coming in later on in the year to talk about giving ourselves time and space. Hoping we can give ourselves permission to look at things differently – just because it’s always been done that way doesn’t mean it’s the way we should always be doing it, right?
You can hear experts speak about Leadership Development at The Watercooler Event, which takes place on 7th and 8th May 2025 at ExCeL in London, which is Europe’s leading trade show, with free-to-attend content, dedicated to creating workplaces that empower both people and business to thrive.
You can find out more and register to attend here.
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