Mitchell Phoenix - Leadership and Management Training

In 2010 - 11 Mitchell Phoenix have been working closely with Alderley Dubai, running bespoke in-house programs for senior and fast track managers both in the UK and Dubai. 

“The management team of Alderley Dubai were especially rewarding to work with. Their enthusiasm, diligence and application of ideas created the results that Nick and the senior team envisaged. In addition they made use of all the available strategies in Mitchell Phoenix projects, supporting each other, building team results and spurring each other on to deliver the maximum - a great group of people!” 
Kevin Yates, Managing Director, Mitchell Phoenix

Click here to read the case study

In discussion with a client the other day, he remarked on how many of Mitchell Phoenix's long-standing relationships are with companies in high growth; some of which have become household names during the 20 years we have been doing business with them. What is it about our approach and the results we create that suits organizations experiencing rapid change so well? Here is the answer.... click to read on

If you are searching for factors that separate successful businesses from the herd, sooner or later you will seek out a meeting with a business transformation specialist. Business transformation specialists make their career in exactly that: they arrive at companies which are performing sub-optimally, and guide those businesses to greater profit and achievement. For organizations which are experiencing difficulties, transformation specialists are ambulance, fire service, analyst, strategist, psychologist and motivator, all rolled into one.

When Ross Stuart arrives at an assignment, what does he usually find? “Almost all of the problems I find in one business I will have seen before on other assignments,” says Ross, “in fact the pitfalls management fall into are the same both within and across industry sectors.”

Here are the ten management pitfalls Ross encounters most often: 

The Ten Most Common Pitfalls in Running a Business

1. Ineffectual, poorly trained senior management
2. Lack of leadership and robust governance: no clear direction and support from the top
3. Senior management in denial
4. Poor quality
5. Narrow customer base
6. Poor financial systems
7. Poor communication with the employees
8. Poor stock control
9. Little or no marketing expertise, a depleted and demotivated sales force
10. High overheads

Mitchell Phoenix' Managing Director Kevin Yates recently published the ebook, How to Build a Successful Leadership Development Project in which he outlines the central factors required if a leadership program is to yield real return on investment. In this extract, he explores who the sponsor of the project should be...


It is quite likely that an incoming senior executive has identified the opportunity for an improvement in the leadership skills of the management group. This may be a promoted MD, CEO or someone brought in with recent experience of greater leadership capability in another organisation (competitor perhaps?) This sponsorship is the best possible start point for gathering support from the board and will be a natural step to engage the wider management population. 

Three levels of management need to be converted for the culture change to take effect.  This means CEO, board and senior operational management.  In a large organisation you will also need to engage the best of the next tier down to make it complete and secure.  After that, leadership by example and sweeping demand for better practice will permeate the business.  In the longer term, standards of behaviour have to be rigorously applied and defended.  (This latter effect will be determined by the quality of leadership thinking delivered by the development project itself).

What happens when only HR or a more junior group have identified the need? Clearly we have to build more support into the senior operational areas and the CEO has to be sold on this need.  By highlighting concrete examples of sub-optimal behaviour; raising questions about succession, ownership of goals, poor meeting management, and crisis culture we can lay the groundwork for a decision to be made.  In addition, issues of falling standards of recruitment and greater attrition can be flagged.  Lack of choice and quality in promotions and honest performance review will further bring the messages home.  Leadership profiling tools can be brought to bear to display, empirically, the opportunities for personal growth.

There has to be acceptance of this need at the highest levels.  Ready & Conger, in their analysis of why leadership development projects fail, identify lack of ownership as the principle ‘pathology’.  Their solution, ‘everyone should own it’, is long on good advice but short on how to achieve it. In this article, I discuss the 5 steps necessary to build a successful leadership development project (click to read).