Case Study
Sarah Boorman
Project Support Officer Health Education England
Accelerate Programme 2015
I
was a bit reluctant about the programme at first, as I wasn’t sure what to expect of it. When I first read the information about the programme it seemed like it was targeted at higher-level/higher-banded staff and so I questioned whether I should be on the programme. However, when I started the programme, by the second day I knew I had made the right choice to attend. Having studied Psychology at University, the programme felt familiar and I really enjoyed it. As the programme progressed I could feel my confidence growing and I began to feel like myself again. What really helped was talking to the other people on the programme and realising that they didn’t see me by my band.
I do feel that I have changed and developed leadership skills as result of the Accelerate course. I already had leadership skills in my previous roles before I joined the NHS. However, when I had started with the NHS I felt I had lost those skills and so when I did the course I developed a new style of leadership that suited to the different calibre of people that worked in the NHS.
My confidence has benefited from being on the course and it helped my colleagues to see me as an equal member of staff rather than being labelled a certain pay band.
When I first started the course I was starting a new job, my confidence in my abilities were already low, some days I felt incapable of fulfilling my role and thought about leaving the NHS. I believe that my learning of NLP had an impact on both myself and my new team. I felt the programme helped me to become more organised, manage my work priorities better and connect with my new colleagues. I believe I benefited my colleagues by being on the course. I used the content I learned with my new team, such as rapport, matching tone, mirroring to build relationships. I refer to the resources quite frequently. When I am given a list of jobs to do I use the time management tools with my colleagues that help me to prioritise the work. I discussed the organisational content with them and demonstrated it in my own work with them and I definitely feel that it has rubbed off on them and helped them too.
I plan look into NLP further and have discussed this with my Manager and I have spoken about doing the Practitioner course. The Accelerate Programme has given me the skills and confidence that have helped me to carry out my current role. I have had the opportunity to demonstrate my learning by running a team bonding session with some of my colleagues, using some of the content learnt from the course. My session was received well and I know that if it wasn’t for the Accelerate Programme and such theories as the self-esteem model I would have not had offered to deliver that session. Whenever I get nervous about something, I imagine that I am in a dark small room about to step out into this big bright light. I will then close my eyes take a deep breath and step forward. It’s amazing how this technique has helped me so many times to lose those nerves and think, ‘Yes, I can do this.’
The Accelerate programme has helped with my career; within 6 months I got another promotion as result of the programme.
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