Building leadership capability from the inside out.
FMCG. Leadership Development
Carrera designed and delivered a six part workshop series to drive critical leadership and coaching capability in a team of frontline managers that needed to deliver greater cohesion as a cohort and more accountability for driving results within their teams.
The Challenge
Our client is an Australian-owned FMCG success story that has driven significant growth through NPD and expansion of retailer channels.
That growth created a familiar inflection point. The middle-management team was a mix of long-tenured operators who had grown into leadership roles on the floor, and newer hires bringing different organisational experiences. The business needed them to come together as a cohesive leadership group and build the people leadership capability to sustain the next phase of growth.
The specific challenges we needed to address were communication cohesion across the management cohort, the ability to drive accountability and performance in their teams, and developing the self-awareness and coaching skills that underpin long-term leadership effectiveness.
What Carrera Delivered
Carrera was engaged because of their track record in FMCG environments and their explicitly interactive, coaching-led approach to capability development. The program needed to feel relevant to people managing complex manufacturing operations — not generic leadership theory delivered to a corporate audience. Carrera’s practice of tailoring all case studies, role plays, and activities to authentic workplace situations was central to that fit.
Michael and Nicola Floyd co-facilitated a six part workshop series + three follow up sessions where they delved into core aspects of leadership for front line managers - including self awareness, leadership communication, accountability and decision making. Rather than lecture-style delivery, the methodology was built around coaching - powerful questioning, interactive activities, and role plays drawn from the client's own operational context.
The Outcome
Across all nine participants, the program achieved strong results on every core measure. 100% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that course objectives were achieved and 94% were very confident in applying the learnings to their role. Satisfaction was equally consistent across content relevance, facilitation quality, and practical applicability.
Participant feedback highlighted what resonated most: the interactive, peer-based learning format; the practical, workplace-relevant scenarios; the quality of facilitation and open discussion; and the precision of the frameworks provided. The areas identified for future development — more cross-participant interaction and broader case study diversity — informed Carrera’s design for the follow-up embedding sessions.
Beyond the feedback, the program identified a number of participants with strong leadership potential and provided targeted development pathways. Others presented clear signals about where continued coaching investment would yield the most return — intelligence that the clients' leadership team could act on directly.
There also has been a meaured decrease in abseenteism, early attrition and workplace incidents due to greater accountability on team members and more robust practices in place to set expectations and communicate directly.
“The program covered topics relevant to me and my role — the facilitators encouraged interaction and were always willing to assist and answer questions.”
Program participant