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Consultant story:

Jacqui Purnell, Resilient Leaders Consultant

I’d spent over 30 years in leadership roles in Pharmaceuticals, much of it with large multinational organisations leading Business Units and multifunctional teams.

Some of the companies like Procter and Gamble were excellent at valuing people and investing in their development, with leaders measured on their ability to retain and develop employees. Others, sadly, were not.  I’ve always really enjoyed and been motivated by nurturing and developing talent so in 2018 I decided to use my knowledge and experience to focus on this fulltime.

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Why did you need leadership training?

For a while I worked for other organisations running both group and one-to-one leadership development programmes. However, I wasn’t always comfortable delivering programmes developed by others.  I wanted to develop my own approach and realised that whilst there was lots of leadership development material to work with, little of it focused on resilience and how to fundamentally change behaviours.

Why Resilient Leaders Elements (RLE™)?

Many leadership training courses focus on emotional intelligence, whereas resilient leaders also consider cognitive behaviours.  I think that often leadership development programmes provide an insight into who you are and areas for development but not necessarily the direction, ongoing support and tools for how to really change your behaviours. 

 

In essence, you need to practise behaviours to embed them and it’s really difficult to get people to practise things that are new or uncomfortable.  Because the challenges provided by the Resilient Leaders Development Programme (RLDP™) are tailored to specific needs, individuals are far more motivated to practise the behaviours they need to develop or use more frequently. The ability to re-assess and measure progress is really helpful to maintain momentum and motivation.

The simple structure of Resilient Leaders Elements means it is easy to work with and being able to give clients access to the Resilient Leaders Development Programme provides the basis for really focused, productive conversations based on areas of need.

How has it helped you professionally?

In addition to providing a really useful framework for developing others, it has given me the knowledge and confidence to know where I need to focus. I’m using the RLDP™ to help guide the direction of my business and to continue my own personal growth journey. I’ve already grown by an average of 19% overall across all of the RLE™ facets and significant growth in my robust decision-making has really improved the way I work with clients. 

 

Because the results are based on self-assessment, I was a little sceptical at first, but the feedback I’ve received has shown that it’s pretty accurate. The feedback engine is really helpful in that it helps not only to verify how accurate your self-assessment is, but also to highlight that often, you tend to underestimate yourself and how others perceive you.

Has it helped in any other ways?

As part of the consultant accreditation you need to work with three volunteer ‘test clients’ to ensure you’re fully competent using the RLE™ framework and the RLDP™. One of my test clients was my daughter and I have to say that this process really has been unbelievably helpful for her. She’d been working as a team manager in hospitality. She was feeling challenged by the workplace culture, a poor work/life balance and was stressed and frustrated. She’d had some skills and knowledge training but like most young people, hadn’t really undertaken any personal development. 

 

Once she’d started her RLDP™ journey she very quickly started to see the benefits and in fact, completed over twenty challenges on self-awareness and authenticity over 5 months. I think the programme can be of great benefit to people throughout their careers but have certainly seen the difference it can make to someone just starting out. However, my daughter says it best herself:

 

“The RLDP™ has been a huge help in developing me as a manager in the early stages of my career. It has been a great tool in teaching me to reflect on negative experiences and allowing me to use them to grow as a manager. It has helped me tackle issues from a different perspective and taught me to value myself and my skills. 

 

I used to struggle with stress. This was due to being afraid to ask for the support I needed. However, working with the RLDP™ I can now identify when I need support and feel I can ask for it, making me happier and less stressed in my role.

 

The RLDP™ helped me to identify what was important to me and what I needed from a managerial role. In November I was successful in getting a GM role which is a great fit for my values and aspirations.”

What are your plans now?

At the moment I’m focused on getting out and about and talking to lots of different people about RLE™. I’m really keen to understand people’s specific needs before proposing solutions and the RLE™ accreditation has given me the confidence to be able to ask questions and really understand how I might be able to help.

 

I’ve currently got several potential projects that I’m working on; all are different but I can use RLE™ to help in each case.

I don’t have a fixed view about the type of client or work I’ll be doing and that’s thanks to my own personal development. I’m much more open to listening and understanding before offering up solutions.

What would you say to anybody considering the resilient leaders consultant accreditation course?

Do it. You will benefit personally irrespective of whether or not you decide to take it forward into a new career. It’s great being part of a community that is passionate about personal development and really motivating being around people who have a real passion about developing people and delivering quality interventions.

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