At Lancia we recognise that every individual is unique. That is why we take a holistic and sustainable approach to growth in personal and professional development. Our LIFT coaches support our team members by creating a one-to-one space for conversations to take place.
LIFT provides each member of the team with opportunities to reflect and improve, learning and training, safe space to test ideas and most importantly a self-directed, asset-based approach that works for them.
In this Q&A we talk to Immy Ireland, to give us the low down on why the team at Lancia love LIFT.
Q: How has the LIFT programme enhanced your personal or professional development during your time at Lancia?
A: Massively. LIFT helps me to understand where I am at currently, personally, and professionally, and where I want to get to. It helps me to understand key focus areas that will allow me to develop in the direction that is important to me as well as defining specific initiatives that will allow me to do so. LIFT sessions hold me accountable to achieving my own development goals by providing a space for me to track my progress against these and have discussions with my LIFT coach based on this. We are then able to plan next steps together.
In terms of professional development, LIFT helps me not only to progress, but to so in areas that are specifically and personally beneficial to me. This could be supporting me to get qualifications or attend external courses in a particular area, or it could be through my LIFT coach acting as an advocate for me and my own development needs during internal resourcing conversations – the output from which decides which projects I am allocated to.
Q: How has LIFT’s self-directed flexibility benefitted your ability to access career development support?
A: LIFT’s self-directed flexibility means that LIFT is much more than a development framework or performance tracking stream. I can access whatever career support I need. Sometimes that’s more structured sessions around future planning and goal setting, sometimes that is a walk around Bristol while chatting about my aspirations and how I am finding everything at that moment. Sometimes it is a sound boarding on a particular problem or scenario and sometimes its collecting and discussing colleague and client feedback.
Having this flexibility means that I can get whatever sort of career development support I need that day or week. This enhances the breadth of support I can access and allows me to see greater and more tangible benefits in terms of my career development – I can act both on the small scale and on the larger one, as our conversations span both.
LIFT also acts as a link between my work and my development. So, anything that surfaces from my LIFT conversations in terms of initiatives that will help to drive my development, my LIFT coach is already speaking with LanciaConsult to see how my work can support actioning those (which could be through project allocation, external courses or qualifications, or internal support in the form of lunch and learns or 1:1 support).
On top of that, I can push and pull LIFT coaching as it suits me. Prepping for a LIFT session is never a task that I am having to manically prep for last minute – I can ramp up and reduce LIFT sessions around my client work and other commitments. My LIFT coach ensures that the conversation is always maintained but never adds stress.
Q: How would you describe LIFT’s coaching experience?
A: Valuable, important, fun. Very much tailored to me and personal to my needs. Relaxed and never pressured or worrying. I feel valued, listened to, and like I have someone on my team who is also actively helping me to progress in my personal and professional development.
Q: How has LIFT enabled you to build collaborative and transparent team dynamics?
A: On top of having a LIFT coach, we also extend the relationship into ‘LIFT families'. This means that each Managing Director and Principal heads a LIFT family, including their respective LIFTees, and then their LIFTees, and so on. This means we have a group that comes together, each actively invested in the development of those around them. This is outside of project work, creating a separate and safe space where we can focus on developing ourselves as well as discussing, calling out, and celebrating the development of those in our LIFT family.
If you’d like to learn more about working with Lancia, find out more about starting your career with us.
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