Developing 2,000+ leaders through a Brandon Hall Gold award-winning journey at a global energy company  

How Hemsley Fraser built LEAD for Team Leaders, a leadership programme for a British multinational oil and gas company with 93,000 employees across 70+ countries, reaching over 2,000 leaders with a 4.5 out of 5 satisfaction score.

93,000+

employees across 70+ countries 

2,000+

leaders completed the programme 

4.5/5

 learner satisfaction score 

Brandon Hall Gold

award for learning and development 
Top_20_Leadership_2026

The organisation

This British multinational oil and gas company employs more than 93,000 people and operates in over 70 countries. In 2021 the company announced its Powering Progress strategy, setting a target of becoming a net-zero emissions energy company by 2050 while continuing to grow shareholder value and meet global demand for a robust energy system. Hemsley Fraser has partnered with the organisation since 2017, originally on practical, technical leadership skills.

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The challenge

By 2022, delivering the Powering Progress strategy meant middle managers needed to become key drivers of organisational performance, not just technical delivery. Leaders needed to build psychological safety in their teams, hold space for opposing pressures without forcing false trade-offs, and lead through a recently reorganised business, all while the impact of any new learning had to be measurable against manager behaviour, team engagement, business outcomes and retention.

Rapid deployment was a priority. The programme needed to go from development to launch in two months, work across a wide range of geographies and contexts, and balance virtual, group and self-directed learning for a genuinely global, always-on workforce.

The solution

Hemsley Fraser, in close collaboration with this British multinational oil and gas company, designed and delivered a 12 to 15 week leadership journey built around the organisation's culture, strategic pressures and specific capability gaps. 

 
Built on evidence, not assumption

Hemsley Fraser and the client first surveyed company leaders directly to understand what learners actually needed, then combined those findings with business strategy input and expert insight to shape the resulting programme, LEAD for Team Leaders, rather than starting from an existing course.
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  • A 12 to 15 week leadership journey, with 33 hours of formal learning delivered virtually in small, guide-facilitated groups
  • Guides who are qualified coaches, modelling the mindsets and behaviours the business wanted to see, rather than simply presenting content
  • A dedicated Leadership Hub giving learners on-demand access to bespoke content and personalised learning pathways, from curated playlists to group learning opportunities
  • Learning delivered in a little-and-often format to support higher transfer back to the job, structured through launch, small and wider group sessions, self-reflection, group feedback, action learning and peer coaching

Results

  • Since its April 2022 launch, more than 2,000 leaders have completed the Brandon Hall Gold award-winning LEAD for Team Leaders programme

  • Learner satisfaction stands at 4.5 out of 5, with NPS scores improving as more leaders complete the programme

  • Employee surveys show increased engagement scores and team leadership scores among participants' direct reports

  • Hogan 360° assessment data comparing pre and post-learning results shows marked increases across the leadership mindsets and behaviours the programme targeted

What made this work

  • Surveying leaders directly before designing the programme, so LEAD for Team Leaders addressed what learners actually needed rather than a generic leadership curriculum

  • Using qualified coaches as guides, not just facilitators, to model the behaviours the business wanted leaders to adopt

  • Measuring behaviour change over a full year through repeat 360 assessment, not just an end-of-course survey

  • Designing for rapid deployment (development to launch in two months) without sacrificing the depth of a 12 to 15 week journey

 

The leader survey reflects Excite, the guide-facilitated small groups reflect Engage, the little-and-often structure with peer coaching reflects Embed, and the 360 assessment repeated a year later reflects Evolve, the programme's impact tracked and improved over time rather than assessed once and left alone.

FAQs

Building a leadership journey that reaches a truly global energy workforce is a significant undertaking. Here are the questions organisations most commonly ask us before they start

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Consistency at this scale starts with surveying the people who will actually use the programme before designing it, so the content reflects real, shared needs rather than assumptions. For this energy company, that meant combining a direct leader survey with business strategy input, then delivering the resulting programme through small, guide-facilitated virtual groups so every learner had the same core experience regardless of location. 

Developing leaders who can navigate genuine uncertainty?

If you're looking to build leadership capability that holds up under real strategic pressure, across a large and complex global workforce, we'd love to talk. Get in touch to find out how we can design and deliver a programme built around your organisation's specific challenges. 
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