GHP April 2017

18 GHP / April 2017 , 1704GH03 Creating Exceptional Managers and Teams RiverRhee has been providing support tomanagers and their teams since 2009, with a focus on the life sciences sector. We invited Owner and Principal Consultant Elisabeth Goodman to share the secrets behind the firm’s success. RiverRhee’s background is in the life sciences market, as well as in business support groups such as library and information management, IT and HR. The firm works well with small to medium sized Biotechs, and also with larger public sector organisations. Elisabeth outlines the services that the firm offers to these clients and how it works to ensure that they receive the solutions they need. “Teams and their managers can be so busy dealing with getting things done that they do not always take the time to understand and value the differences and strengths within the team, or to think about the why and the how of what they are doing. “As such, here at RiverRhee, we provide off-site and in- house training, workshops and one-to-one coaching to build and develop our clients’ teams, enhance their management skills and simplify and streamline their processes. We also assist them in optimising their use of information and knowledge to deliver consistent quality to their customers, and, ultimately, help them to ensure that their business changes succeed.” The nature and range of RiverRhee’s services have evolved since the firm started seven and a half years ago, and they are continuing to evolve to reflect customer need as the market changes, as Elisabeth explains. “In order to remain at the forefront of emerging professional and market developments and to provide our clients with the support they need to succeed, we are constantly amending our service offerings. For example, we are now doing more one- to-one coaching to develop managers beyond our three-day Introduction to Management and are developing a course to help them transition to more senior leadership roles. “Additionally, we are introducing team building activities into our team development workshops. We have been making increased use of personality tools such as Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and NLP (NeuroLinguisticProgramming) communication styles to foster understanding of strengths and diversity within the team. We have developed a Lean and Six Sigma Green Belt programme for organisations that wish to take their practitioners beyond our introductory one-day course in process improvement. And we now have an introduction to sales course (The First Steps in Selling) to help scientists who are transitioning to sales and business development roles. “In order to support clients through the changes they need to make to be more effective and efficient, we are now including more tools and insights on managing change within other courses such as the one-day Introduction to Project Management, as well as having a dedicated one-day course on Managing Change.” Internally, the firm draws on the expertise and experience of Elisabeth, who spent 25 years in Pharmaceutical R&D, prior to setting up her own company. She held line management roles in Information and Library management, and internal training and consultancy roles supporting business leaders and teams on a global basis. Elisabeth has a BSc in Biochemistry and an MSc in Information Science. She is accredited in Change Management, Lean Sigma, Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner. She is also a member of the APM (Association for Project Management) and is just finishing a three-year term on the committee of the Enabling Change SIG which she helped to set up. RiverRhee operates an Associate model, bringing in other trainers and coaches to complement Elisabeth’s skills and resources in response to client need. Two Associates who are particularly involved currently are Liz Mercer and John Hicks. Liz Mercer is a Human Resources professional, with 30 years’ experience, mainly in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech. Liz understands the challenges of leadership, management and team development. She also runs her own business providing training, facilitation and coaching, for individuals and teams: with a particular interest in the challenges for virtual team leaders. Liz has a Masters in Organisational Behaviour, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, is accredited in MBTI and has a certificate in Coaching. John Hicks spent the first ten years of his career in science within academic, contract research and environmental laboratories specialising in Chemistry. John then worked with two of the leading scientific instrumentation companies providing technical sales support to large Pharmaceuticals and