EY Lane4

Crowned the “ultimate, unanimous winners” of this category by the PMAs judges, leadership development consultancy EY Lane4 delivered a leadership development programme for transport company First Bus that “clearly demonstrated an impressive, multilayered approach to achieve clearly defined outcomes”.

Leadership Lab was a senior leadership development programme created to support First Bus to prepare its leaders to drive and deliver its strategic transformation. It provided the executive team and the top 100 leaders with a series of hybrid learning and development interventions.

First Bus had not previously prioritised investment in leadership development. However, the company faced turbulent times post-Covid, and developing a consistent leadership approach and capability was critical to short-term stability and future growth. 

EY Lane4 identified three noticeable patterns of leadership behaviour that required advancement. Leadership employed a “command and control” style, which resulted in leadership being hesitant and waiting for directives rather than taking the initiative. There was also a “pervasive atmosphere of artificial harmony” as staff shied away from broaching challenging discussions; and leaders were working at a level below expected. 

The key components of the resulting programme were face-to-face workshop modules and virtual masterclasses. For the virtual masterclasses, four external experts from industry and academia focused on customer, sustainability, growth and strategic transformation – the four key pillars of First Bus’s transformation strategy. For the executive team, the team "brought the outside thinking in”. One such example was a Team GB gold medallist, who explained their sport’s goal structure. This “led to a lightbulb moment and the adoption of the same structure and guiding behaviours for First Bus’s revised strategy”. The awards judges described this as “very enterprising”. 

Between 2023 and 2024, First Bus’s employee survey scores increased by between 6 and 20 per cent on metrics such as engagement (up from 52 per cent to 60 per cent); empowerment (up from 49 per cent to 55 per cent) and inclusion (up from 59 per cent to 66 per cent). And there have been seven promotions to director/head roles and six new director positions created. “This was a compelling narrative of a consultancy that used a number of techniques over a period of time to implement real change in line with the organisational and people strategy,” the judges said.