How to Build a Leadership Programme That Drives Change

What does it really take to build a values-led, inclusive leadership culture that drives measurable business success? 

Stevie Ingram-Palmer, Learning & Development Implementation Manager at G4S—and author, leadership innovator, and proud PRTA award recipient, joins Foundation & Friends, host Natasha Kalinga, together they explore the game-changing Next Level Leadership Programme, a 60-week initiative that’s not only transforming leadership at G4S but also reshaping the way global organisations think about talent, strategy, and culture.

This episode will provide award-winning insights on:

• How to design leadership programmes that are strategically aligned with business goals
• The value of blending digital learning with real-world business projects
• Why “one size fits all” leadership development is no longer fit for purpose
• How G4S built a culture of empowerment, inclusion, and innovation across global teams
• What the future workforce expects—and how to meet those expectations

This episode is packed with insight for L&D professionals, HR leaders, organisational development specialists, DEI advocates, and anyone responsible for shaping workplace culture or leadership strategy.

If you're looking to move beyond surface-level training and embed leadership as a core driver of business transformation, this conversation is not to be missed.

Don’t forget to subscribe, leave us a review, and share this episode with your network. 

For more about the Princess Royal Training Awards or to learn how to apply, visit: Princess Royal Training Awards

Listen to more episodes in the Foundation & Friends podcast series, here. 

Transcript

Stevie Ingram-Palmer 1 (00:00.204)
I guess if you think about it, everything we do should in some way empower our organisations to meet its business objectives.

Natasha Kalinga (00:15.576)
Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Foundation and Friends podcast. I'm your host, Natasha. You're listening to season two, episode five, and this is part of our special series celebrating the inspiring work, best practice, and valuable insights that exist within our Princess Royal Training alumni network. Today, I'm absolutely delighted to be joined by Stevie Ingram-Palmer, Learning and Development Implementation Partner at G4S, the world's leading integrated security company. And a little online research tells me

that Stevie is not only a driving force in L &D, but also a published author, a mom of three boys, and most importantly, a dedicated coffee enthusiast. And to be honest, I don't know where I read that, but I hope that's right. So Stevie, welcome to the podcast. It's such a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you, amazing to be here, and what a lovely intro as well as I expect.

Did I hit the mock? Was that all correct?

Amazing, exceeding all expectations.

Natasha Kalinga (01:10.296)
Fantastic. just to kind of get us warmed up and to kick things off, can you tell us a little bit more about the program that won you a Princess Royal Training Award? And what did receiving that recognition mean to both G4S and your global talent development team?

Stevie Ingram-Palmer
Absolutely. So it was for our Next Level Leadership Program, which is a high potential leadership development program. It's for across-among organisation and it's really about developing the leaders of our future and making sure they're well equipped to lead in an impactful way. It is a 60 week program. We've got a blended approach of face-to-face and also digital learning. And there's also projects built into that where the delegates go off and

you know, work on real business projects as well.

Natasha Kalinga
And what did this kind of recognition describe to us how you felt when you kind of got the news that you guys had gone through?

It was amazing. It was really exciting and it's definitely a proud moment for all of us at G4S. I think, I mean, as you know, the award is really unique in that it's a tough process and it's really robust. You you've got to those hallmarks to be able to say that you've hit that standard. Of course, you know, the whole team behind the awards are incredibly supportive and really help, which is amazing, but you can only receive the Princess Royal Training Award based on the merits of the programme.

Stevie Ingram-Palmer (02:29.55)
So for us, it's really felt like a testament to the dedication and the collaboration of our entire global talent development team and also all the many colleagues and leaders that supported the Next Level Leadership Programme along the way. So for us, definitely validation of our shared commitment to helping every employee lead and make a difference. And we found that celebrating these collective achievements really energises our teams.

but it also inspires us within the talent development team to keep going. Yeah, really pushing for that impact. yeah, it means a lot.

Natasha Kalinga
That's really lovely to hear. And I know we do hear this a lot because you're a more recent kind of recipient. So just to kind of hear all the excitement that that gave you was like, yeah, it's really good to know.

Stevie Ingram-Palmer
Amazing. Even going through the process of applying for the award was so insightful because it really made us step back and really reflect on, what has the program achieved? What are the business metrics really telling us? How can we really measure that? And then we came away from it, of course, with the award, which was incredible. also, almost felt like we had the story of the Next Level Leadership Programme and that was a really powerful thing.

Natasha Kalinga
You know, like you've said, those hallmarks are really an opportunity for you to kind of go, OK, like, what does this mean and how can we back this up with the evidence from the program? So, yeah, that's that's really good to hear.

Natasha Kalinga (03:56.558)
And just to dig a little bit more into the program itself, you know, we know that G4S operates in high pressure environments and as a truly global organization, leadership does have that direct impact on everything, right? So from operational performance to safety to culture, and with the pace of change today, we do know that leadership agility is more important than ever, right? So how did you go about identifying the specific leadership capabilities?

and behaviors needed to navigate and drive change effectively at your organization.

Stevie Ingram-Palmer
Yeah, great question. It was very much a team effort and it continues to be a team effort. We spend and we continue to spend a lot of time listening to our people, gathering feedback from across the business and really analyzing what's happening both inside and also outside of our industry. Our approach combines insights from our frontline teams, client feedback and also industry trends.

But importantly, we've really filtered all of that through the unique lens of G4S. As you've said, we're a global security company and we operate in approximately 100 countries globally. Wow, 100? Yeah, it really is huge and quite different, but also in places quite challenging environments.

No bad

Stevie Ingram-Palmer (05:11.214)
So a big win for the Next Level Leadership Program has been not just developing leadership skills, but really drilling down into what skills our leaders will require at G4S and then based on our business needs, but then also our service delivery as well. So we identified a need to focus on agility, which you mentioned a moment ago. Definitely strong values is really important and innovation, also that real commitment to safety and teamwork.

And what our team did was then to work and build these priorities into the next level leadership program, just making sure that it was practical, relevant and true to our culture. So I've talked to our global VP of talent development, Heather Page, about this many times. And I think if she were here, I think one tip she'd probably share is just to involve as many voices as possible in shaping your leadership programs. Yeah, collaboration. I it's a cliche.

collaboration, really does lead to better outcomes.

Natasha Kalinga
Yeah, no, absolutely. I love that kind of just including a variety of voices so that it's just not one that's dominant and it's kind of like you've said, it's a collaboration. Yeah. Yeah. And I imagine that the next challenge was really understanding whether this was working, whether the program was working, so really measuring the actual impact of that program. So, you know, one of the things that we have mentioned that we really tried to do through this awards process is focus on those tangible outcomes.

So not just the long-term potential of, for example, leadership development, but what the real world results are. So I'd love to ask, have you seen any ripple effects from the program? So things like improved retention, stronger promotion pipelines, or even better team performance? Talk to us a little bit about that.

Stevie Ingram-Palmer (06:53.162)
Yeah, no, absolutely. And actually that's been really rewarding for all of us to see. So as a team, we've tracked improvements in internal promotions and stronger engagement scores and also lower voluntary turnover. Now part of our culture is making sure that everyone can succeed, they can learn, they can grow. And as a result of the Next Level Leadership Programme, we've seen even more women stepping into leadership roles. Yeah. And that's such a huge thing when you consider that we are in a very male dominated industry.

And so all of that's been great with the data is telling us the numbers, that if we look beyond the numbers, what stands out for me personally are definitely the stories we're hearing from our graduates on how they're leading projects, how they're supporting their teams and how they're making a positive impact across not only the business, but actually the security industry as a whole. So we've had past delegates, I mean, just last week, one of our leaders in Greece won CEO of the year and that's an external award.

We've had past delegates win the same four CEO of the year in Africa. We've seen delegates have developed and led on projects that have been picked up by His Majesty's Prison Service and rolled out nationally across the UK. So really hugely successful leaders, not only within G4S, but within entire countries and entire industries. And that for me, that's the thing that's been really inspiring to witness and to be able to pull out through this award process.

Another thing that's been really exciting to see is how we've been able to successfully transition from relying on expatriate leadership to developing and promoting talent from within. great example of that, and these numbers are from memory, but back in 2015 in our Africa region, I believe it was 24 expats that were in now senior leadership roles across Africa.

Last year that was down to just four. And the Next Level Leadership Program played such a huge part in this because it's really about developing leaders with the knowledge and the confidence. Absolutely. so that they can apply that learning and be truly successful leaders within our organisation. So today, the vast majority of the country leadership teams in Africa have been through the program. So we've seen that social mobility as well within the communities that we're serving. Absolutely. great to see.

Natasha Kalinga (09:14.636)
And if ever for our listeners, if ever there was a time to take the notes, as you can see, this, you know, they've been really successful in what they've done. So I'm sure you are taking notes. And especially now as organizations across the UK are thinking about how to, you know, really move beyond that one size fits all leadership program and towards more culture specific strategic aligned development. What would your top advice for organizations looking to build leadership programs?

Stevie Ingram-Palmer
Okay, so I think from our experience as a team, the most effective leadership programs are definitely grounded in real work and real challenges. So we found huge value in building in projects that solve genuine business problems and that encourage collaboration across different parts of the organization. So we hear from our delegates time and time again after their graduation ceremony, which is always a really fun, fun event. And they're kind of

getting the opportunity to reflect on this huge 60 weeks of work and growth. And they all say to have had the chance to collaborate with other leaders across their regions, they find that really impactful. So that's been great to see. absolutely. So that's been amazing. I think another favourite part of the Next Level Leadership Program for me is after each project, the teams present back the projects that they've been working on.

experience.

Stevie Ingram-Palmer (10:36.832)
It's not uncommon for Heather Page and Brent O'Brien, who are our senior vice president and our vice president for global talent and development. That's a mouthful. It's not unusual for- Shout out them though. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's not unusual for them to take that idea or that project, put that team in front of the right people in our organisation at the senior level. And then we see their project being scaled across our organisation. That's quite a common thing that we see.

of that continuity and that championing of them to the next level.

And it's amazing because you really see, first of all, great innovations, great ideas. How it's just so incredible to see, but you also see them as leaders, realizing it's within their power to make real innovation and real transformation, not just for their team, but for the whole organization. So that's, that's always great. So I think that's probably a really long winded answer.

Natasha Kalinga
It's great advice, I'm taking notes.

Well, I'd say it's definitely also really important just to keep your training aligned with your companies they use and try and continually gather that feedback, know, celebrate the wins, learn from the setbacks and just always keep that focus on helping people grow. So my top tip would be make your program as practical, but also as relevant as possible.

Natasha Kalinga (11:56.394)
Absolutely. And I love the focus on kind of really empowering the leaders and taking them to the next level. So it just doesn't stop there. You you're kind of championing them, you know, even beyond the programme to go beyond, right? It's such valuable advice, especially for anyone designing a programme with that long term impact in mind.

Natasha Kalinga (12:19.17)
And that brings us to a bigger question because we know that leadership programs do not exist in a vacuum. They both shape and are shaped by the organizational culture that they sit within. So I'd love your take on this. Do you think that culture is something you can consciously build or is it something that naturally emerges? And how do you go about influencing it in the right direction?

Stevie Ingram-Palmer
Great question. think a bit of both. think culture wherever you are, it naturally evolves. We're not always intentional about culture unless something's gone wrong or we're trying to fix something. I find, actually I find the topic as a whole really fascinating on culture for that reason. So I think it's something that we need to be mindful of always, even when things are going well. I think from, you know,

From my experience, believe that culture change definitely works best when everyone's involved. That seems to be a theme in a lot of my answers today, doesn't it? No, it's good for me. absolutely. I think it's so important. I mean, if we look at the Next Level Leadership Program, it's been designed so that participants are hands-on, they're working on real projects, they're sharing their ideas, and we also involve managers and leaders as mentors, but we encourage the energy and the ideas to come from participants themselves.

Community collaboration.

Stevie Ingram-Palmer (13:39.406)
you know, creating regular forums for feedback and open discussions has really helped people feel invested in shaping the company's directions. And that's the kind of culture we want to be building. So I definitely say, you know, if you give people a real voice and make it easy for them to contribute, chances are they will. But then I think if I think more broadly about projects where you're being intentional about culture change, you know, it can be really tricky. And something that will probably be true for a lot of us is that, you know, if we sit in a central function,

we're really grappling with how to influence without authority. And that's a really tough thing to do. So my personal experience here is that it's really important that right from the outset, you're bringing everyone towards that same kind of goal. Or my teens hear me all the time talk about the North Star, which is the same thing, you know. Yeah. I think storytelling is a really powerful tool here. And that goes beyond just sharing facts. It's where you really need to create

I did point here.

Stevie Ingram-Palmer (14:37.784)
purpose-driven narratives that inspire action and connection with people emotionally. Again, that's tricky to do because if you don't strike the right balance, you can lose people by having something that's either too woolly or out of reach. I guess, you know, what might that look like in action? Well, for me, it's kind of aligning your cultural efforts with major organisational projects to avoid confusion and contradictory messages.

You know, nothing derails progress faster than hearing about culture one week and then being bombarded with conflicting priorities the next. Yeah. And I'm sure we've all been there before where that's happened. Usually it's because that strong purpose-driven narrative that connects to all of the other stuff that's going on, maybe hasn't been developed in those early stages. I guess if you think about it, everything we do should in some way empower our organisations to meet its business objectives.

So it's really drilling down into that and pulling it out through your storytelling. And you can do that by asking three really simple, but really important questions right from the start. Yeah, absolutely. So the first is what are we doing? The second is why does it matter? And the third is how is it going to benefit everyone? Once you've got that core narrative or I call it that North Star moment, you can really tailor that then to fit the audience that you're talking to.

I take notes every...

Stevie Ingram-Palmer (16:01.698)
So let's say you've done that, you've crafted a compelling narrative for change. And while it's super important, that's only going to take you halfway there. And that brings me to kind of a common pitfall that I've seen happen time and time again, even when that narrative is spot on and that's treating a culture change project, like it's, you know, a marketing or an awareness campaign. know, tons of money.

baking it in.

Yeah, you see, know, and I've seen it before, tons of money getting spent on, you know, maybe flashy posters and workshops, but then nothing really stinks. And that's because it isn't truly woven into the fabric of daily work. you know, our policies, our procedures. So I guess a crucial takeaway is that messaging is really important to bring everyone in the same direction, that messaging alone isn't going to drive cultural change.

You really need to engage with every layer of your business.

Yeah, I think that's great advice, the mention of the North Star and really just baking that in those effective interventions, which sounds like, you know, that's what you guys are doing. Such a, I think, fascinating take on really shaping the culture from the inside out and vice versa.

Natasha Kalinga (17:15.266)
And you know, kind of finally looking ahead, you know, we do know that the future of work is already here in many, many ways, with younger generations entering the workforce. You know, there's expectations around leadership, flexibility, values, and purpose. You know, these expectations are shifting fast. So, in your opinion, what kind of organisational culture do you think the next generation of workers is expecting? And how can employers start evolving now to meet those expectations?

Stevie Ingram-Palmer
Great question again. So I think as a team, we've seen that new joiners really want to bring their whole selves to work. They want to learn new skills and they want to feel like what they do matters. So they seem to value flexibility, open communication and just that sense of purpose that you spoke about. you know, they want to know their ideas count and that they're going to be supported to grow, to develop, whatever their background is. So we're working really hard to try and create that kind of environment at G4S.

I guess my top tip for other organisations is just keep listening and keep adapting. Ask your people what matters most to them. And I guess most of all, be really open to new ideas and suggestions. there's something that people are asking for and you can make that happen.

Natasha Kalinga
Why not? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I love that. And full agreement. And I think that's great advice. And as you have said, the next generation is not just looking for a job. You know, they are looking for purpose and for flexibility and for inclusion and for authentic leadership. And, you know, I think for employers, there is an opportunity to really intentionally shape, you know, that culture and those environments to a...

point where people feel heard and supported and empowered to grow. yeah, no, in full agreement, I think that's great advice. I think it's been really insightful to hear not only what you have achieved and what G4S has achieved, but how you're really shaping the future of leadership through that thoughtful strategic development. And, you know, I did, I know I said it was my final question, but now for my final, final question. What is the one thing that you hope people say about your workplace culture, in five years' time?

Stevie Ingram-Palmer

People would say it was a really welcoming, inclusive place that empowered everyone to thrive and succeed at all levels. That's what I would hope.

Natasha Kalinga
Yeah, no, I love it. if we, you know, the words empowerment, community collaboration have really come through this episode. And I think to conclude, it's been really, really good to hear more about how your organization and team at G4S is approaching leadership development. So not just as a training initiative, but more as a strategic driver of that cultural and organizational transformation.

And I think one theme that's been consistent and one key takeaway is that organizations should avoid kind of that one size fits all situation and really focus on diagnosing cultural needs rather than kind of just, for example, relying on assumption of what you think the organizational culture is or should be. So I think you've really honed in around the importance of tailoring.

development to culture, context and people. And I think all in all, just really, really brilliant insights here for anybody that's shaping leadership strategy or looking to build a more agile, values-driven organization. So yeah, brilliant. Thank you so much. If you have enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget to subscribe, leave us a review and share it with your network.