Transformational Leadership produces Measurable Culture Change at Barclays Bank

In a climate of breathtaking change in the banking sector, the Service Provision Department at Barclays Bank Plc. targeted leadership as paramount in launching the new culture. A behaviourally based training programme in Transformational Leadership was implemented by SyCon - The Sporting Bodymind Group and supported by coaching using a validated 360º feedback instrument. Both the performance of the group leaders and the climate they created were significantly enhanced over those of a matched group in a before and after controlled study using 360º feedback and a climate survey.

In September 1999, 26 group leaders at Barclays Bank were given an initial 360 degree feedback instrument. They participated in a two-day workshop in October followed by two individual coaching sessions: in November 1999 and February 2000. In May they were given a second 360 Transformational Leadership Questionnaire (TLQ) and a further coaching session a month later. Thus the whole programme ran from September 1999 to June 2000: a period of 9 months.

We were fortunate to have a control group, matched for job role, location and size of team. This group received the 360 degree TLQ in September and again in May 2000 but no training or coaching interventions.

As measured by the TLQ, the intervention group's scores increased across the board of the transformational behaviours between September 1999 and May 2000, on average by 8.75%. In terms of outcomes we measured effectiveness, satisfaction and the leaders ability to inspire extra effort in their people. We showed that our work demonstrably improves leadership performance: effectiveness went up over the 9 months by 6.3%, satisfaction up by 6.7% and extra effort up by 10.3%. All scores for the control group either went down or stayed the same.

In addition an independent Climate Survey was conducted by a student at Birkbeck College, London in the departments of both intervention and control groups. This measured the following items: flexibility, responsibility, standards, rewards, clarity, team commitment.

The climate survey questionnaire was given to over 200 people: that is the wider departmental staff, not just the group leaders' immediate reports.

Again the results showed that the intervention group scored much higher than the control group: on every measure the intervention group's scores went up over the research period - sometimes as much as 8 per cent - whereas the control group's scores went down - in some cases as much as 9 per cent.

Thus SyCon - The Sporting Bodymind Group's development of Transformational Leadership creates a measurable improvement in organisational climate. From this we can conclude that training even a comparatively small group of managers can have a significant 'ripple effect' on teams and whole departments - a substantial return on investment.

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