Marshall Motor Group is, one of Europe's largest dealer groups representing 17 vehicle manufacturers across 38 franchise centres, and one of PHP’s longest standing clients.
Ian Mitchell, Senior Divisional Director for Marshall Motor Group said, “The level of effort and commitment given to this programme by the guys at PHP has been outstanding! I would recommend them to any organization wishing to tackle behaviour and attitude at any level.
In respect of skills, knowledge and process Marshall Motor Group is second to none. However, to make processes stick over a long period of time to get the desired result – the Marshall Directors recognise that they need to tackle behaviour and attitude in order to differentiate themselves from others. That’s why they decided to implement a unique leadership programme for their senior and middle management.
Ian Mitchell added, “There is a lot to choose from when looking for leadership training, but we knew what we were looking for. Or indeed, what we were not looking for. We didn’t want standard classroom training, chalk and talk! We wanted something different, something that would build on the sound, proven principles of leadership, but something that would be delivered in a way that would engage our people and invoke action to improve the business. That’s why we chose ‘The Leadership Zoo’ from PHP!”
There is an abundance of material available on leadership some good, some not so good and some outstanding.
Dean Hines, co-founder and Director of PHP Ltd said, “This programme was certainly different and like all of our programmes careful thought and consideration was given to preferred learning styles, long-term memory patterns and how the brain actually retains and recalls information.
“During the design stage we noticed a lot of analogies from the animal kingdom coming to the fore. So we decided to use an animal theme to make the programme interesting, entertaining and memorable. Hence “The Leadership Zoo!””
PHP use a unique five-piece model – Human Change Technology – HCT TM to drive development of all of their client solutions.
HCT TM includes:
- Emotional Intelligence
- Neuro Linguistic Programming
- Accelerated Learning
- Hypnotic Change Technique
- Behaviour & Communication Preferences.
Phil Lucas, Premier Automotive Group General Manager for the group said, “This programme was unlike any training I have ever attended before and in the beginning I wondered what on earth I was doing there. The venue looked nothing like a training room, it looked more like a playground. The environment was completely different – relaxed, enjoyable, engaging, invigorating. Because of that we all had a lot of fun with it and learned a lot – it has been an extremely effective approach for us!”
The Leadership Zoo was designed specifically to tackle attitude and behaviour. Through attitude and behaviour a leader will consistently and honestly display passion, values and beliefs. The trust of people steadily builds up around them and eventually people choose to follow.
For a leader to lead they must understand themselves and the people around them. At the core of ‘The Leadership Zoo’ PHP put behavioural communication preferences. For this they used Insights TM - a dynamic psychometric tool which looks at personality types in terms of colour energies.
Everyone has a unique mix of four colour energies making up their personality and it is often clear to see a person’s dominant energy (or energies) from how they interact and behave.
The programme has used Insights TM to encourage teams to work together, value each other’s differences and become more self aware, achieving outstanding results.
“Exploring how you and others feel about the same environment can be an extremely powerful tool for anyone, in all areas of life – work and home!”
Marisa Parfitt, HR Advisor, Marshall Motor Group, commented, “The tools used by PHP for ‘The Leadership Zoo’ programme are phenomenal. I could not believe that from answering 25 questions online how accurate my profile actually was. I have used the tools every day since I learned about them. They are helping me look at people differently and understand how to get the best out of them. It has been lifechanging!”
“The Leadership Zoo’ ran for 2 years at the Marshall Motor Group and touched all senior and middle managers.
As well as communication preferences, ‘The Leadership Zoo’ covered a wide range of other philosophies. Modules on positive reinforcement have had a huge impact on attitude at the dealer group. This module borrowed some of its principles from the training techniques used on killer whales at places like Seaworld.
Steve Grimsey, Light Commercial Vehicle Manager, Marshall Motor Group told us, “Before the programme it had never occurred to me how we get it so wrong with people in all areas of our lives. Instead of catching people doing things right, we tend to focus on the negative. This programme has taught us how to do quite the opposite. There are so many people in the business doing great things every day – this shouldn’t be ignored.
“We now recognise the positive, reinforce it and work on redirecting negatives and the results have been outstanding. I have used this philosophy at home too with my two teenage sons and there has been a marked difference. A much happier household!”
Another popular module with the Marshall team was the motivational module. This focussed on creating a the right atmosphere and work ethic. It was used to demonstrate how you can choose your attitude, inject fun into the day without losing sight of the serious side of the business.
Roger Knight, Chief Executive, MMG explained, “The most important thing that I took from this programme was ‘choosing your attitude’. I learned that it’s really up to you how the day turns out. Its not in the lap of the gods, we all have a choice on how we think, how we act, how we interact with others. Having put this into practice during my day to day regime I have been astounded with the difference this change in attitude can make.”
‘The Leadership Zoo’ also tackles:
- Vision & Goal Setting
- Management VS Leadership
- Situational Leadership
- Praising & Reprimands
- Managing Change
- Time Management
- Self Development
- Perception
- Communication
- Boosting Morale
- Effective Delegation
- Energising and Stretching
Rob Ward, Divisional Director, for Marshall Motor Group had this to say, “PHP certainly have a wealth of experience and overall I would say ‘The Leadership Zoo’ is one of the most powerful prorgrammes I have ever attended. A different style of training. Engaging and captivating with a ‘no nonsense’ approach.
“It has improved communication at all levels of our business and improved customer relationships.”
PHP enhanced the programme with a series of one-to-one coaching sessions for participants to really home in on specific areas and these were very well received by the management team.
Stuart George, Peugeot Franchise Manager, told us, “I found the one-to-one coaching sessions extremely useful. The opportunity to focus on key areas of the programme has really helped me get a lot out of it. You can ask questions you might not get the chance to ask in an open forum and for me it just reiterates and reinforces everything I’d learned. I was able to use the one-to-one to really focus on what was important to me and my team and to set some goals for the future.”
Rob Ward, Divisional Director, commented on where next; “We have got an awful lot out of ‘The Leadership Zoo’ this year and the impact it is having is far greater than anything we ever imagined. But it doesn’t end there. The job is not yet done. We want to show the rest of our staff the importance of ‘The Leadership Zoo’ and all its valuable lessons. Because the more people we can communicate these principles the better our performance will be across all areas of the business.
Ian Mitchell, Senior Divisional Director, Marshall Motor Group concluded by telling us, “New and used car net profitability is up by over 6% year on year! The key philosophies of ‘The Leadership Zoo’ have played a huge part in helping us achieve this result. With the team entirely on side everyone is working incredibly hard to finish the year on a high note. The managers have talked about each module long after it was over and many have told me that the programme has been lifechanging!
“I have never seen such a positive response following any training. I think it is due to the content being ‘right on the money’ and the delivery of the content being novel, stimulating and exciting. In the beginning I suspected that we would not be able to penetrate everyone to change their behaviour. I was wrong. The programme has changed everyone it has touched to some degree and has in fact had a profound effect on many.”
