Angela Ponsford

I felt I was lacking practical leadership skills and was doubting my ability to lead such a large team. I had struggled with the transition from being an expert in my chosen technical field into general leadership and was second-guessing the decision to make that move. I had taken several leadership courses and read ALL the books on being a great leader, but still felt something was missing.

My mind was blown during the Deliver Value module and since then I've been looking at all the activities we do as a company through the lens of "how does this deliver value?" I confess that I have not had the capacity to fully implement it, but it's a key focus for Q3 this year! I'm going to work through the process outlined in the module to ensure that everything my team is doing is focussed on value instead of busy work.

The content was just so practical and actionable, and I was implementing in the first week. It's all based on the actual, lived experience of Marty & the team. The level of sharing from the LBT team was unexpected. They were all open books and so willing to share their thoughts with the group as well as their challenges and how they implement the practices in their team.

The team did an amazing job of personalizing the program for me. I received personalized videos from Marty & Kelilah on questions I'd asked. Emma emailed me to make sure I'd seen the videos when I hadn't opened them. She seemed to know everything about all participants even though you think you're flying under the radar! There were quick responses in the LinkedIn group to every question. It's clear that you made it a top priority to make everyone feel a part of this amazing group.

I've been able to coach my direct reports more effectively when they're facing challenges. I'm 'managing up' more effectively and challenging my boss when he's dipping down and taking accountability away from me. We have our quarterly leadership meeting next week and I feel more confident in challenging some of the old ways of doing things.

I've also been picking topics from each module and writing mini-blog posts to educate my team. They've been sharing their insights from those learnings and we have a much tighter, cohesive team from all the sharing.

Schedule the time in your calendar as soon as you sign up, and start mentally preparing for the two months. Make sure you get the link to the private podcast so you have zero excuses if you are travelling. I had 3 long weekends away during the course and I still managed to keep up with all the work by listening to the podcast while driving. NO EXCUSES!

I had been a long-time listener to the podcast, so knew that I liked the content Marty shared. I had considered joining the Oct 2021 cohort, but that didn't work out due to other commitments. So I already had it in my mind that the next time it opened was my time. I was literally looking for leadership training that wasn't just theory... so the name said it all for me! I researched the content prior to signing up and searched for reviews from former students.