The Mutual Bank was founded in 1888 by a group of passionate Maitland locals. The Mutual Bank was established with the mission to ensure that financial investment stayed within the local area.
The challenges
The Mutual Bank (TMB) was in the midst of a period of significant transformation and change. During this period of change, the People and Culture (P&C) Team identified the need for strategic leadership development initiatives to motivate the organisation and leaders into the future.
In order to set their leaders up for success TMB were seeking support from an external provider to design and deliver Leadership training focused on Resilience and Change, as well as providing a ‘Train the Trainer’ element to ensure the sustainability of the program inhouse for years to come.
Starting Point
Initially in 2022, Seed were engaged to co-design and deliver a Leadership Development Program incorporating elements of change management.
During 2023 and 2024 Seed continued to develop The Mutual Bank’s leadership skills and capabilities through a deep dive into change, as well as leading with agility & resilience.
By building upon our previously delivered content, Seed skilfully creating a series of highly interactive workshops focusing on change within the Banking Industry while promoting self-reflection, and connection with all levels of leaders across the organisation.
Co-Designed Solution
Over the past two years Seed has delivered approximately 14 sessions covering a variety of topics over three projects including:
Leadership Development Program:
- Leadership Essentials: Leadership vs Management
- Embedding DiSC Profiles
- Leadership styles
- Behaviours of intentional leadership
- Moving from a team member to a team leader
- Active listening and engagement
- Giving & receiving feedback effectively
- Preparing for and having difficult conversations
Change Management Program:
- Understanding change roles
- Recognising and supporting change responses
- Overcoming resistance to change
- Leading through change with ADKAR
Leading with Agility & Resilience:
- Understanding Agility as a Leadership Skill
- Managing our energy through Load vs Pace of work
- Healthy stress and the Stress Curve
- Managing own and others stress
- Building resilience in ourselves and others
Throughout all of these projects Seed worked closely with TMB to embed pre-existing resources and training to ensure consistency of language, values and behaviours for participants.
Seed are currently working with key stakeholders in the P&C team on the ‘train the trainer’ elements of each Program to ensure continuity of learning within TMB for new and emerging leaders.
Positive Outcome
With Seed’s initial engagement with TMB having kicked off in November 2022, we’re proud to have continued our partnership with TMB into 2024 embedding participant learnings through a number of projects.
Over the course of our projects with TMB we have successfully co-designed and facilitated numerous workshops contributing to the development and retention of leaders at TMB.
This project-by-project engagement approach has allowed TMB to engage Seed for different priorities as required, based on what was happening in the organisation at any time. This approach has been ideal for an organisation experiencing significant growth and change, resulting in some amazing achievements for the TMB team.
Seed have been a delight to work with over the past 18 months. From the initial briefing session through to delivery, they really took the time to get to know our business and what we were trying to achieve. Our Team really enjoy the sessions and we have seen a material uplift in the leadership capability and motivation across the Bank.
Seed have really helped us lead our Team successfully through our period of significant change and create a dynamic environment for the future.
Felicity Laczina – Chief People Officer, The Mutual Bank
