StratPro with TAB finally gave me a cohesive and collaborative team

Stephen Attree, Managing Partner of MLP Law based in Manchester, became a TAB member in 2015. After almost six years of reaping value from being part of a peer board and working with his facilitator, Paul Winterbottom, Stephen has utilised one of TAB’s other offerings: The StratPro Business Transformation Programme.

In recent years, one of Stephen’s business challenges has been his struggle to spend the right time on the right things. There was a lot of weight on his shoulders, and he was responsible and accountable for too much. About halfway through the pandemic, Stephen was bringing other several issues to his board, including how to position the business. But, within all of that, was the fundamental issue of trying to release some responsibility to his leadership team. He knew he needed to focus on their capabilities and the Stratpro programme seemed ideally suited to help the leadership team develop in supportive and collaborative way.

Stephen had some specific expectations from the programme: to have a better functioning, more able leadership team and to have senior meetings where he was less involved.

Now coming to the end of the programme, Stephen said: “It has exceeded my expectations. It has worked exceptionally well for me and the leadership team who now feel like they have a genuine stake in the business and a voice in meetings.”

Gareth and Alissa from the MLP team

When Stephen originally proposed the programme to his team, they reacted well. There was a bit of uncertainty around it, but they quickly realised that this was about elevating and empowering them to be better at their roles and giving them the authority to get on with those tasks and objectives.

Stephen added that they did have the vision and values before, but it was all driven by him alone. After StratPro, its now driven right through the business, leading to a stronger culture and higher employee satisfaction. The consistency of conversations and focus means there’s a lot more clarity around the business’ values, and his team feel liberated to be able to share their opinions more easily.

However, Stephen did say he found it harder than he thought to just sit back and let the teamwork and express their opinions. That’s been a big learning for him.