New Possible’s British Training Awards sets out to discover and celebrate the organisations that are truly passionate about L&Ds role in building a thriving workforce.
In our latest ‘Sharing Success’ series, we interview British Training Awards Winners to shine a light on the inspiring initiatives that are improving workplaces across the UK and beyond. In this article we chat with Darren Salmon from Nationwide Building Society, winners of the ‘Retraining/Upskilling Initiative of the Year’ and ‘Financial Services Initiative of the Year’ categories.
Introducing Darren Salmon
Darren started his career as a branch leader, where he developed a strong interest in coaching, performance and the practical realities of leading operational teams. That experience shaped his belief that leadership development has to feel relevant to the day-to-day pressures leaders are facing, not separate from them.
Darren now works as a Lead Coach on At Our Best, Nationwide’s operational leadership programme. Darren shared:
“My role is to help leaders translate the programme into real behaviour change through coaching and practical support. I also support the development of our coaching team, helping coaches build their confidence and develop their practice so we can deliver high quality coaching at scale.
What matters most to me is that the programme does not just give leaders new tools. It helps them use those tools in the moments that matter, with their teams and the challenges they face day to day.”
About Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide Building Society is owned by its members, not shareholders. That’s anyone who banks, saves or has a mortgage with them. This means they can always focus on what’s best for them. It’s their fundamental difference and what makes them a good way to bank.
Developing Capability from Within: Nationwide’s At Our Best Transformation
Nationwide Building Society has transformed operational leadership capability through its flagship At Our Best programme, combining large-scale leadership development with an innovative reskilling initiative that turned colleagues at risk of redundancy into a highly skilled network of Performance Coaches. Together, these programmes have strengthened operational excellence, improved leader effectiveness, and delivered significant business impact across the organisation.
From Skills Gap to Bespoke Solution
The initiative began when an external audit identified a gap in operational capability within Retail Services and recommended a costly off-the-shelf skills programme. Recognising an opportunity to build on existing strengths, Nationwide’s Learning & Development team instead designed a tailored in-house solution: At Our Best.
The programme was created to help operational leaders strengthen performance, improve team effectiveness, and embed a culture of continuous improvement. At the same time, Nationwide identified a group of experienced colleagues facing redundancy and saw an opportunity to redeploy their expertise by reskilling them as Performance Coaches - the critical support network underpinning the programme’s success.
When asked why Nationwide Building Society decided to develop a bespoke leadership programme rather than implement an off-the-shelf solution, Darren mentioned:
“The original brief was very specific. We wanted to strengthen operational leadership and support leaders to build the habits, confidence and discipline needed to run high-performing teams.
An off-the-shelf programme would have given us useful leadership content, but it would not have been close enough to the world our leaders operate in every day. Our leaders are working in complex, fast-moving environments where customer outcomes, team performance and day-to-day leadership are closely connected. We needed something that reflected that reality.
Building the programme ourselves meant we could design it around Nationwide’s culture, language and operational excellence framework. It also meant we could create something practical and recognisable, using the real situations leaders face rather than generic case studies.
That bespoke approach has been a big part of the programme’s success. It has helped leaders see the link between leadership behaviour and operational performance and it has made the learning easier to apply in the flow of work.”
Building a Network of Performance Coaches
Colleagues at risk of redundancy were offered the opportunity to transition into coaching roles, leveraging their operational knowledge while developing entirely new skills. The reskilling journey began with a three-month intensive development programme covering practical coaching techniques, reflective practice, and the principles of At Our Best. This was followed by external qualifications, including the Catalyst 14 Foundation Certificate and accredited Coaching Apprenticeship training.
To ensure long-term success, coaches continue to benefit from supervision, quality assurance, annual CPD workshops, and peer learning groups. The initiative has successfully created a network of more than 20 Performance Coaches who now work across the business helping leaders embed new behaviours and ways of working.
We asked Darren why coaching was chosen as a core element of the At Our Best programme, and what role it's played in the programme’s success:
Darren explained: “Coaching is often described as the “secret sauce” of At Our Best and I think that is because it helps leaders bridge the gap between knowing what good looks like and actually doing it consistently.
The programme provides a clear operational framework, but coaching is where leaders explore what that means in practice. It creates space to work through the real challenges of implementation, whether that is holding performance conversations, building team accountability, using data well, or stepping back from being the person who solves everything.
A lot of leadership development focuses on knowledge. Coaching helps leaders look beneath the surface and explore what is really driving their behaviour. That might include confidence, habits, assumptions, the inner critic, or beliefs about what high performance leadership looks like.
That deeper reflection often leads to lasting change. Leaders become more aware of the habits and assumptions shaping their behaviour, and start making deliberate changes in how they lead.”
A Practical Approach to Leadership Development
At Our Best is a 10-week leadership development programme designed specifically for operational leaders. Combining one-to-one coaching, group coaching, in-person events, digital learning tools, skills assessments, and structured leader-manager-coach conversations, the programme focuses on practical application and measurable outcomes.
The programme covers four core leadership areas:
- Setting teams up for success through onboarding, hybrid working, and team contracting.
- Managing performance through coaching, absence management, and root-cause analysis.
- Running the operation effectively through prioritisation, time management, and data-driven decision-making.
- Reflecting and improving through recognition, continuous improvement, and personal development.
A key differentiator is the programme’s highly tailored approach. Performance Coaches conduct detailed discovery work before coaching begins, ensuring support is relevant to the day-to-day challenges faced by operational leaders. Cohort-based delivery has also strengthened peer learning, helping teams tackle common challenges together.
How did Nationwide Building Society balance providing a consistent leadership framework while tailoring development to individual needs?
Darren commented: “We create consistency through the programme structure and the operational excellence framework that underpins it. Every participant works from the same core principles, so there is a common language around what high-performing operational leadership looks like at Nationwide.
The tailoring comes through the way leaders apply that framework. Participants complete a skills diagnostic mapped to the operational excellence framework, then review the results in a 1:3:1 conversation with their line manager and coach. That conversation helps them focus on the areas that will make the biggest difference to their performance.
This means the programme is consistent without becoming one size fits all. Leaders are not left to choose development activity in isolation, but they are also not forced through a generic route. They have a clear framework, supported by coaching, which helps them focus on the few things that will have the greatest practical impact.”
Creating Meaningful Impact
The combined impact of the reskilling initiative and At Our Best programme has been substantial.
More than 550 operational leaders have now participated, resulting in:
- A 10.7% increase in operational capacity, freeing up more time for customer-focused activities.
- A 9.4% increase in colleague engagement, placing engagement levels 11.2 percentage points above the financial services benchmark.
- A 15% increase in belief that the workplace is becoming simpler, supporting organisational simplification efforts.
Leaders also reported statistically significant improvements across four key leadership traits:
- Growth-oriented behaviours (+4.5%)
- Adaptability and learning agility (+2.5–3.3%)
- Goal focus and productivity (+2.4–2.7%)
- Relationship building and team development (+2.7%)
Delivering Talent Retention and Business Value
The programme demonstrates how workforce redeployment can create significant organisational value. By reskilling colleagues at risk of redundancy, Nationwide retained valuable operational expertise, avoided turnover costs, and created a new capability that continues to support business priorities.
Performance Coaches themselves report significant personal impact, describing the experience as both transformational and purpose-driven. One coach described the programme as “a real turning point in my growth and confidence,” while another highlighted how it had “redefined my professional identity and given me a career rooted in purpose, empathy and real human impact.”
A Foundation for Future Growth
The success of At Our Best has led to plans for further expansion, including rollout into Mortgage Operations, pilots within the branch network, and the development of an ongoing support framework to sustain improvements.
What advice would Darren give to organisations looking to build leadership capability in a way that delivers lasting organisational impact?
“Start with the work leaders actually do. The closer leadership development is to the conversations, decisions and performance challenges leaders face every day, the more likely it is to stick.
I would also keep the framework simple. Leaders need language they can remember and tools they'll actually use. If the framework is too complex, it becomes something people admire rather than something they apply.
Finally, invest in coaching capability. Many managers already know what they should do, but the harder work is often around confidence, mindset, habits and the psychology of leading others. Coaching helps leaders slow down, reflect properly, face into what is getting in the way and make changes that last.
For me, that is where the real impact sits. Sustainable leadership development relies on creating the conditions for leaders to make lasting changes long after the formal programme has finished.”
Judges praised the initiative's 'demonstrable impact', 'clear metrics' and ability to convert what 'could have delivered a negative cultural impact into a highly positive one'.
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