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Rolls-Royce strengthens leaders’ resilience to fortify the business

Industry

Aerospace, Defence & Power Systems

Products Used

BetterUp Lead™

Powered by the Human Transformation Platform

THE CHALLENGE

Building a stronger Rolls-Royce to be high-performing:

Rolls-Royce is an enduring and iconic brand known for quality, engineering excellence, integrity, and commitment to its customers. Since Tufan Erginbilgic joined Rolls-Royce as CEO in 2023, the company has been committed to becoming an even more “high-performing, competitive, resilient, and growing business” to ensure its success continues for the next century and beyond.

Rolls-Royce recognized that to build a stronger Rolls-Royce, it must “invest in the capabilities of its people, ensuring a high-performing, resilient and world-leading team.” Rolls-Royce needed leaders across all businesses—Civil Aerospace, Defence and Power Systems —to be supported so they could perform at their peak and support their teams, especially during times of immense uncertainty and change.

THE SOLUTION

Investing in leaders' ability to be resilient and navigate change:

Rolls-Royce got started by ensuring key leaders and critical talent were equipped with the mindsets and behaviours to navigate change themselves and lead others through change. How people process change and strategize what action to take next is a deeply personal experience that often varies from person to person. Since coaching is one of the most effective and efficient ways to shift mindsets and build behaviours, Rolls-Royce partnered with BetterUp to coach its leaders over 6 months with BetterUp Lead.

Through BetterUp Rolls-Royce leaders received unlimited 1:1 coaching from BetterUp’s experienced, credentialed leadership coaches, as well as access to curated digital learning experiences to further support their development. Leaders focused on strengthening skills like resilience, agility, stress management, focus, strategic planning and goal attainment.

“Our transformation is making us stronger, higher performing and more resilient by the day. We need to work as One Rolls-Royce and think about different ways of collaborating and delivering together with a growth mindset to help us continuously transform and to keep achieving winning outcomes.”
— Mary Glowacka, Global Head of Learning and Leadership Development, Rolls-Royce

Improving mindsets and behaviours to improve the business

Rolls-Royce is taking a bold and holistic approach to evolving and strengthening its organisational capability, investing heavily in leadership skills across the board. In addition to BetterUp, Rolls-Royce works with London Business School and other strategic partners to provide teams and leaders of all levels with the mindsets, tools, and capabilities required to drive the business forward.

After 6 months of using BetterUp Lead™, Rolls-Royce leaders improved and surpassed the benchmark in every dimension.

Highlights include:

% Capability Improvement after BetterUp Coaching

“BetterUp has been the perfect partner in helping our leaders and colleagues develop a differentiated, human-centric leadership approach, building resilience, agility and well-being. I think that we are unlocking potential in a way that we have not managed to do before, and we’re already seeing the positive impact of this on our culture and performance, across our teams and across the business.”
Mary Glowacka
Mary Glowacka,
Global Head of Learning and Leadership Development,
Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce leaders' higher resilience extends beyond themselves and can impact business performance.

Source: Kellerman, Gabriella and Seligman, Martin. Tomorrowmind. 2022.

High resilience companies vs. low resilience companies

3.7X

higher return on equity

High resilience companies vs. low resilience companies

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High resilience companies vs. low resilience companies

+42%

higher return on assets

High resilience companies vs. low resilience companies

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High resilience companies vs. low resilience companies

3.2X

higher year-over-year growth

High resilience companies vs. low resilience companies

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Leaders feel the impact, and their performance improvement ripple throughout the organization.

“

My experience with BetterUp has helped me build my confidence. This is always something I have lacked, so it is a huge benefit for me. As a consequence, I can be more focused and believe more strongly in the strategic direction that I am setting for my area. This has enabled me to work more effectively with the team around me and ensure I can deliver what the business needs to be successful. You cannot be told to be more confident, so my coach has helped me discover reasons within myself to be more confident and how to maintain this in the future. This was particularly helpful as we went through the uncertainty of the company reorganisation.

”
—Rolls-Royce Programme Executive in Aftermarket Operations and BetterUp Lead™ member

Prioritising people to propel the business forward.

Rolls-Royce’s investment in its leaders is already paying off, and it is just the beginning. Rolls-Royce was the best performing European stock in 2023 and has carried that momentum into 2024 with strong first half financial results. Differentiated investment in its people is fueling business momentum. Rolls-Royce will continue to emphasise people development and prioritise people investment on its multi-year transformation journey.

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