Case Study: Stannah – Engineering a Step Change in Performance and Culture
Good People Leading Great Things Case Study: Stannah – Engineering a Step Change in Performance and Culture
Helping a high-performing engineering team at Stannah align faster, lead deeper, and deliver with sharper focus across global functions.
Context & Challenge
Stannah’s engineering function was already delivering. But with an increasingly complex global market, emerging competitors, and a shifting internal landscape, the team saw an opportunity to go further: to bring new products to market faster, and to work more efficiently.
The invitation was to support the team in sharpening their strategy, strengthening their ways of working, and aligning more fully across the leadership group—while also gaining insight into how things were working across both the UK and international contexts.
It wasn’t about rescue. It was about edge.
Approach
We started with curiosity. I used principles from my Performance Circle and Edge & Alignment framework to listen across the system—engaging engineers, leaders, and cross-functional teams within the UK and internationally to gain a fuller view of what was working, what was stuck, and what wanted to emerge.
Rather than seeking early agreement from the team leader, I offered an unfiltered mirror of insights. Their response was grounded and open: some patterns matched their thinking; others were unexpected and energising. We chose to work through these findings first with the leadership team before extending them across the wider organisation.
Leadership Alignment & Action
We worked through a series of four away days that loosely followed my G.R.O.W.T.H. Team Coaching Framework, guiding the team through a rhythm of reflection, alignment, and action.
Preceding the Away Days
The aways days were preceded by a period of one-to-one coaching with Andy Hoath the then head of engineering and design.
That relationship provided an essential foundation—not only for understanding the broader system but for building trust and alignment ahead of working with the wider team. Coaching with Andy continued throughout the engagement, but from the outset I made it clear—to both him and the team—that this wasn’t his agenda I was working to. It was the team’s agenda. Andy was a key part of that, but not the driver of it.
That distinction was crucial to establishing the psychological safety required for the G – Grounding phase of the G.R.O.W.T.H. journey: a space where the team could begin from shared understanding, not hierarchy or assumptions.
Away Day 1: Grounding
We began by debriefing the feedback I had gathered from across the business. This day focused on how the insights landed—both intellectually and emotionally—and gave the team space to reflect on how they were being experienced as leaders. It created awareness, built trust, and surfaced an early sense of what they wanted to shift.Away Day 2: Relating & Owning
The team turned their attention inward and toward one another—naming relational patterns, surfacing assumptions, and beginning to own both individual and collective contributions to how the team operated. We explored accountability, influence, and the behaviours that would enable a stronger leadership culture.Away Day 3: Working & Transforming
With clearer relationships and shared ownership, the team could now focus on how to lead more effectively together. We worked on strategic priorities, ways of working, and tangible improvements in alignment, communication, and decision-making. The transformation was visible in both posture and practice.Away Day 4: Horizon
Finally, the team lifted their gaze—connecting current changes to longer-term vision. They explored what it would mean to lead boldly in the face of complexity, what future leadership needed to look like across UK and international contexts, and how to stay aligned as priorities and pressures evolve.
Each away day built on the last—turning reflection into rhythm, and insight into sustained change.
From Insight to Impact
What followed was a shift from reactive delivery to deliberate leadership. The process fostered trust, focus, and strategic agility.
The team leader also engaged in personal reflection and realignment, enhancing clarity in their role and increasing coherence across the leadership group.
Outcomes
Faster product delivery and more agile innovation
Improved cross-functional efficiency
Greater openness and cohesion in the leadership team
Strategic clarity grounded in shared reflection and accountability
Testimonial
“I commissioned Stefan to lead several projects focused on team performance and culture. His approach, grounded in both theoretical knowledge and practical leadership experience, provides unique insights and quickly established credibility with a highly experienced team. This capability has led to outstanding results. I have complete confidence in recommending Stefan for one-on-one coaching, team building, and project performance reviews.”
Andy Hoath — Then - Head of Engineering (& Design)
Team Coaching
Team coaching is more than an away day, a set of post it notes and an actions list; it’s a full blown travers of the dysfunction mountain. All teams have them, but few are open enough to face into them.
Andy and his team are proof that some are.
You can read more about the G.R.O.W.T.H team coaching model stefan has created and used; Here
If you’re…
…a senior leader navigating complexity, growth, or change. Leading a high-performing team ready to find its next edge and/or looking for honest partnership, strategic insight, and grounded transformation Let’s talk.
Stefan
Stefan Powell
Executive coach. Strategic advisor. Leadership partner.
If this resonated with you…
If this message resonates with you, and you’re one of the good people leading great things, let’s talk.
Get in touch and Book an inquisitive call here.- If any of this topic resonated with you and you have something you’d like to share with me or if you’d like to discuss working with me on this topic - stefan@stefanpowell.co.uk works really well for me.
Connect with me on linked in and read my long form posts on the rotating topics of Work, Rest. Play, Sustenance and Love every Thursday
Sign up to my newsletter ‘Be The Waves” here - which collates each weeks long form post on a monthly basis and you’ll get to read it later in the month
I’ll continue this in 4 to 5 Thursdays time when I continue the topic of ‘Rest” in my Thursday Journal.
Book an inquisitive session with me to find out more about what I do and how I do it or run a challenge or thought you have passed me.
For now; thank you
Stefan
An executive coach who specialises in helping good people lead great things.
Good people care about others, our planet and beauty. Great things are changes for the betterment of society and all that lives within an around it.
It sounds big and fun - it is.
I'm also an endurance racing cyclist and a go. getter.
You can read more about me and what I do; how I work here