Leadership on a New Wavelength: PrideFM
Earlier this year Ron Toufeeq and his team requested that the Organizational Effectiveness and Development (OED) group create a new leadership training program targeted at operations managers. Recent events in the industry along with organizational changes at Pride have highlighted a need for training in certain managerial competency areas. Specifically targeted were the areas of Interpersonal Communications, Performance Management and Managing Time and Priorities. To meet this need the OED group created a new program called Pride Fundamentals for Managers, or PrideFM.
PrideFM is On the Air
On October 18th the PrideFM pilot program was launched. Sixteen operations leaders from across the organization were in attendance. The attendees included Rig Performance and Rig Asset Managers, Country Managers, HSE Management, Field Support Managers, Technical Coordinators and Subsea Superintendents. The participants’ years of experience at Pride ranged from just a few months to over 25 years and they represented many different cultures.
Content Immediately Applicable
The program lasted four days and covered a lot of material. The Crucial Conversations course from Vital Smarts was the focus of the first two days. This course teaches people not to avoid difficult conversations by enabling them to take out the emotion (make it safe for everyone) and reach a mutual purpose for the discussion. In the industry we work in this skill is extremely valuable to have and many drilling companies are utilizing this training.
The other content covered a variety of areas such as coaching, setting performance expectations, reviewing performance progress, leadership, decision making, time management and delegation. Participants in the program also had a one-on-one coaching session with an OED team member.
When participants were asked would you recommend this training, the overwhelming response was positive.
- "Yes, the material would be helpful to leads offshore”
- “Yes, it provides a broad overview on leadership and provides Pride’s expectations on how it wants it done”
- “Yes, it will support our growth as managers”
Beyond the Classroom
The program is more than just a four day classroom event. Prior to attending participants must complete an on-line training course and a 360º assessment. During the coaching sessions participants review their 360º feedback and discuss creating an individual development plan (IDP). After the program participants will complete their IDPs, a 30 day course evaluation, and provide monthly online updates for six months on personal goals they set for applying the knowledge from the training.
Support from Leadership
Several leaders visited the program to emphasize the purpose and outcome expected for attendees of this program as well as provide their personal insight as leaders. Visitors during the program included:
- Chris Johnston, Vice President and Managing Director, North America
- Chris Weber, Vice President, Operations Support
- Dave Demski, Director, Technical Training and Competency
- David Frost, Vice President, HSE
- Gilles Bocabarteille, Vice President, Asset Management
- Tony Seeliger, Vice President and Managing Director, Europe, Africa & Asia
Tony Seeliger, who is now opening up Pride’s new office in the Netherlands, gave a great message to participants. He said, “that among all the elements of successful leadership, there are four things that are important for a leader at Pride to focus on: Decision Making, Accountability, Having those ‘Crucial Conversations’ and Strength of Character.”
The Next PrideFM Date
Because this fist program was a pilot there will be some necessary improvements and changes. An after action review will take place and managers should be able to attend an improved PrideFM in the near future. So keep yourself tuned in to hear more about PrideFM and other great training and development programs coming your way in 2011.
PrideFM Participants. Back row: Michael Young, Darren Hedley, Simon Watson, Gary Walding, Robert Ward, Flavio Bertin, Leandro Melo. Midde Row: Jon Hollis, Scott Bozych, Chad Coburn, Bryan Sanchez, Christopher Bassam, Scott Davis, Justin Schatz. Front Row: Didier Chaix and Lourenco Machado.
