Case study: Efficiency North
EN:Lighten programme
How we helped Efficiency North cultivate empowered leaders, strengthen collaboration, and drive sustainable performance through coaching-led leadership.
Our client
EN is a member led and owned consortium of social housing providers, committed to efficient procurement, adding social value, environmental sustainability and economic regeneration in Northern England. They are a forward-thinking organisation committed to fostering a high-performing, collaborative, and coaching-led culture. With a strong foundation of psychological safety across the organisation, EN sought to enhance leadership capabilities, improve communication, and drive a culture of empowerment across all levels.
Our solution
In partnership with EN, we designed and delivered EN:Lighten, a two-phase leadership and coaching development programme, focusing on both staff (Coaching-Led Environment - CLE) and managers (Coaching-Led Performance - CLP & Coaching-Led Leadership - CLL). The goal was to encourage ownership around performance and development, improve problem-solving skills, build coaching capabilities, enhance leadership confidence, and embed coaching as a core cultural and managerial practice.
Our approach
We implemented a structured programme incorporating:
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Diagnosis Phase: Organisation-wide feedback including 1:1 interviews and focus groups to identify key developmental needs and objectives.
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Coaching-Led Environment (CLE): A three-day coaching programme for all employees, focusing on self-awareness, individual performance and development stretch, collaboration, and active coaching skills.
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Coaching-Led Performance (CLP): A four-day programme for managers, developing leadership and team empowerment strategies, supported by 1:1 coaching and 360-degree feedback.
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Coaching-Led Leadership (CLL): A one-day intensive leadership day to reinforce coaching as a leadership practice, develop authority, presence and impact and drive long-term organisational change.
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Masterclasses: Additional training for all employees on resilience management, effective work skills, and impactful presentations complemented the core learning.
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Follow-up Impact Assessment: Data-driven reviews to measure effectiveness and reinforce long-term change.
The impact
The EN:Lighten programme has led to significant improvements in leadership effectiveness, team collaboration, and individual empowerment across the organisation:
Skills Development & Problem-Solving:
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Understanding others' perspectives improved, with consistent practice rising from 27% to 48% among employees.
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Confidence in problem-solving independently increased by 14%, with more employees taking ownership of decisions.
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Coaching skills such as active listening, questioning, and feedback improved, with a 15% increase in managers identifying as proficient.
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Psychological safety and leadership adaptability saw a notable improvement, with 50% of leaders reporting a significant impact on their ability to foster trust and manage change effectively.
Behavioural Shifts & Leadership Growth:
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29% increase in frequent coaching conversations among managers, embedding a coaching-led culture.
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Self-awareness improved significantly – 83% of leaders reported an increase in self-reflection and personal growth
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86% of managers reported a positive influence on their ability to shape organisational culture.
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67% of managers reported improved delegation skills.
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Stronger team collaboration was demonstrated, with structured tools like the Strengths Deployment inventory and Lencioni’s framework enhancing team performance.
Sustained Cultural Impact:
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Coaching as a leadership style became more intentional, with managers incorporating structured tools to enable staff growth.
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A shift towards a “One EN” mindset, breaking down silos and fostering collaboration across business areas.
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Commitments from employees and leaders to embed EN:Lighten learnings into daily practice, as demonstrated in a board-led all-hands event.
Business impact:
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The Executive Management Team has evolved from a group of heads of departments to a team embracing collective leadership responsibility, acting effectively to support each other to develop the organisation. Meetings now focus on discussion, better quality feedback and decision-making. The coaching model is used to challenge and progress thinking, understanding and problem-solving for business improvement, rather than the previous focus on reporting activity and outcomes.
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The models and language of the EN:lighten programme, blended with the EN values, have provided a lens to look through in evaluating operational issues and challenges in order to rationalise them, with many examples of this at all levels of the company.
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The adoption of check-ins at the start of internal meetings has further strengthened psychological safety and inclusivity.
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Board members have commented on the increased confidence of staff.
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PDR (Professional Development Review) process has been re-designed and re-structured in consultation with staff to be more efficient and effective and aligned to the learnings from EN:Lighten.
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There is greater cohesion across the company and it is a fun place to work, with various team initiatives taking off, including an EN football team!
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Coaching methods learned have given staff confidence to have difficult conversations and enable them to take responsibility for their own development.
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Behaviour changes learned through the EN:Lighten programme have had positive effects on communication and consequently improved business processes.
Conclusion
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The EN:Lighten programme has successfully laid the foundation for a coaching-led, high-trust, and high-performance culture at EN. With structured development, intentional leadership, and ongoing reinforcement, EN is positioned as a benchmark for coaching-led leadership excellence. The challenge now is to sustain this momentum, ensuring coaching remains embedded as a key leadership practice into 2025 and beyond.
Hear from the EN CEO and Board Members
What made you reach out for this support?
“Working with the Ambito team has been an impactful and enjoyable process. From the first enquiry to the closure of the coaching programme, they have provided a genuine and authentic interest in support our organisation’s corporate development and added value throughout the process. A real standout area for Ambito is how the theory is contrasted with reality and their experience of real life coaching comes across very strongly. Sometimes programmes such as this can be "done to you" however, Ambito "do it with you" to achieve the aspired outcome in a truly collaborative way.”
Lee Parkinson - CEO
What was the experience like?
“The consensus across the Senior Leadership Team is that EN:Lighten has been transformative and changed the culture.”
Liz Butcher – Corporate Communications Manager
Our impact was so significant that we were asked to present the Inspire Award for outstanding leadership at their annual awards ceremony. The impact of the programme was always intended to go beyond the delivery and influence the culture of the organisation as a whole.
The Inspire programme has also been nominated as a finalist for the British Training Awards for the Not-for-Profit Initiative of the year award.
We established a baseline of engagement in a staff survey questionnaire prior to the start of the programme. We intend to remeasure engagement at the next annual staff survey at the end of 2024 to further measure impact. While we wait for this to happen, we have received encouraging initial feedback from many operational heads of departments.