Developing the capability of the Regional Directors at CrossCountry Trains

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Tom Joyner, Managing Director at Cross Country Trains, instigated a new organisational structure. This was established to reflect the slightly different regional priorities, and 4 new Regional Directors have been appointed. Karen Doores, HR Director at Cross Country Trains has been supporting the new Regional Directors with informal coaching during the last 7 months of the pandemic. Both Karen and Tom have identified that there was a need to provide additional personalised development for each of the Regional Directors and requested train4change supply leadership coaching support sessions.

Four of the t4c coaching team have been working with the Regional Directors from January 2021, using the process illustrated below:

The Regional Directors have commented

‘A really beneficial and helpful experience. It was good to talk through situations and be able to get to the solutions myself through the conversations. I was able to take so much, it has built my own confidence and has given me skills in being able to step back and think through situations. ‘

‘I really felt like you understood me and even where I wasn’t able to articulate things well, you were able to understand. You were also really good at not telling me the answers to things (even if I wanted you to!), but getting me to feel confident in the answer that I came to….I think this was key in the confidence building.’

‘The headline would be that I am far happier ‘in my own skin’ and with who I am and I have broken down a number of disabling areas. I felt very much at ease, getting a great deal of value from the sessions’.