Case study · CP Catapult · Bespoke leadership development for innovation specialists
CP Catapult knew they wanted situational leaders. We built the programme to enable it, and the Manager Approval NPS rose by 151%.
CP Catapult knew they wanted situational leaders. 10X built the programme to enable it, and their teams' Manager Approval NPS, scored in a 360, rose by 151% (from 33 to 83).Manager Approval NPS
A 360 score from each manager's own team, on how well they are led, measured at the start of the programme and again at the close.
23
managers developed across three cohorts of CP Catapult's specialists
9.5/10
how the cohort rated the Performance Partner, with 6 of 11 workshops scored 9 or higher
100%
bespoke, built around their own situational leadership philosophy
Executive Summary
- Sector
- Innovation and smart cities
- Buyer
- People and Development leadership
The Brief
Take CP Catapult's managers of technical and innovation specialists, and make situational leadership, the approach the organisation had already chosen to drive, the way they actually manage. Build it bespoke around that idea across three cohorts, not as a standard course with the theme painted on.
The Outcome
A fully bespoke programme with situational leadership as the thread through three focus areas. Twenty-three managers across three cohorts rated the Performance Partner 9.5 out of 10, and the proof landed where it counts: their teams' Manager Approval NPS, a 360 score of how well they feel led, rose from 33 to 83.
01 / The Trigger
Brilliant specialists do not want managing one way.
CP Catapult does not employ many people who like being managed one way. It is a UK innovation accelerator working on smart cities and connected places, a group of technical and innovation specialists who are expert in their fields and used to running their own work. CP Catapult had already worked out what their managers needed: the ability to flex how they lead to the person and the moment. They came to 10X with that answer, situational leadership, and a clear wish to drive it through everything.
What makes these people hard to lead by default
01
Autonomous experts
Specialists used to owning their own work, who do not want managing by default
02
Deep specialism
Technical and innovation depth that a manager rarely shares
03
Novel, project-driven
Hard problems with no playbook, where the right approach shifts constantly
04
Curious, questioning
A culture that pushes back, where leadership has to earn its standing
The people CP Catapult's managers lead are autonomous, deeply expert, and solving hard problems that have no playbook. They respond poorly to a single managerial setting applied to everyone, and a manager rarely shares their specialism, so leadership has to earn its standing rather than assume it.
That is a specific discipline. The leadership that works with these teams is adaptive: reading where each person and each piece of work actually is, and adjusting accordingly. CP Catapult could name it. What they wanted from a partner was someone who could make it real across 23 managers, not explain the theory back to them.
So this was never a question of teaching CP Catapult a model. They had chosen situational leadership deliberately. The brief was to take that choice and build an entire programme around it, so it became the way these managers led their specialists, not a slide they nodded along to.
02 / The golden thread
CP Catapult brought the idea. We made it the thread through everything.
Most development programmes are a fixed model with the client's language painted on top. CP Catapult's was the opposite. Situational leadership was their own choice, and because everything 10X builds is bespoke, it became the genuine spine of the programme, woven through all three focus areas rather than taught as a standalone module. By the close, situational leadership was not a topic CP Catapult's managers had covered. It was the lens they used on relationships, on performance, and on culture.
One thread, through three focus areas
The thread
Situational leadership
Match how you lead to the person and the moment, rather than defaulting to one style.
Building Relationships & Business Planning
Reading where each person and each project really is before you plan, rather than assuming a starting point.
Managing Performance & Coaching
Flexing between directing and coaching depending on the person and the task in front of you.
Team Culture & Driving Innovation
Building the curious-not-critical culture that lets expert teams take the risks innovation needs.
03 / The Work
Bespoke from the diagnostic up, three cohorts, one thread.
The bespoke build came first, and the way 10X works made it possible. Every CP Catapult manager completed a Manager Strength Index: a situational judgement assessment that scores each one against the behaviours of good management and surfaces their individual strengths, opportunities and development focus, so the programme started from where this cohort genuinely stood, not from a guess. It then ran across the three cohorts as three Prime workshops, one per focus area, each followed by an Elevate session where managers worked the real problems they had brought back from leading their own teams, learning as much from each other as from the room. A 10X Performance Partner stayed embedded across the engagement, known across CP Catapult and reachable between the workshops rather than turning up to deliver and leaving. Situational leadership ran through all of it.
How the programme ran
01
Built around their thread
The programme was assembled bespoke around CP Catapult's chosen philosophy, so every workshop reinforced the same situational-leadership lens rather than introducing a competing model.
02
Diagnostic first
A Manager Strength Index across the cohort surfaced where CP Catapult's managers genuinely stood before any content was set, so the bespoke design met real gaps, not assumed ones.
03
Worked on live challenges
An Elevate session after each Prime workshop, where managers brought the real situations from leading their specialists and worked them through with peers.
Who was in the room
Twenty-three managers, leading the people who solve the hard problems.
Team leads, innovation and funding leads, technical and project managers, communications and people leads, across three cohorts of CP Catapult's specialists.
04 / What the team says
The thread, in the managers' own words.
Here is how CP Catapult's managers describe what the programme changed for them.
“Fantastic training, extremely engaging and fun. Situational leadership was a big one for me: be curious, not critical. I'm now much more mindful of my language in different situations.”
“It's an opportunity to reflect, ideate and learn, which is easily forgotten when we're in 'do, do, do' mode. The openness, fluidity and relatable examples made it a standout experience. My biggest takeaway was that team culture is something to actively nurture and tend to.”
“Compared to so many previous courses, this was really one of the best. The facilitator is super humble, with great energy but not overbearing. After so many years of doing things the same way, it's inspired me to change things up.”
“Excellent presenting, very engaging, and keeps everyone participating throughout. I've picked up new methodologies for assessing team safety and developing feedback from them.”
“It helps to keep focused on improving management skills. The facilitator really listens and is excellent at extracting key points and highlighting them to everyone. We always left on a positive note.”
“It's been great learning from colleagues about how they tackle different management tasks and challenges. You pick up so much from hearing other people's approaches.”
05 / What changed
The proof is not what CP Catapult's managers said. It is what their teams said.
At the start of the programme, each manager's team scored them in a 360, and the Manager Approval NPS, a net score of how well a team feels led, sat at 33. By the close it had risen to 83. The same managers, the same teams, fifty points higher. That is the result that matters here: the people being led reported being led better.
Manager Approval NPS, scored by each team in a 360
Each manager's own team scored how well they are led, at the start of the programme and again at the close. The Manager Approval NPS is a net score running from minus 100 to plus 100. CP Catapult's moved from 33 to 83, a 151% rise.
And the cohort backed it up
9.5/10
how 23 managers rated the Performance Partner across the programme, with 6 of the 11 workshops scored 9 out of 10 or higher.
What the cohort does differently now
01
Curious, not critical
Managers read the person and the moment before reacting, and watch their language across different situations.
02
A coaching approach
Being more present and more conscious of coaching rather than directing by default, moving between the two by what the person and the task need.
03
Reading the room for safety
New methods for assessing team safety and drawing honest feedback from the people they lead.
04
Culture, actively tended
Team culture treated as something to nurture deliberately, not leave to chance, so expert teams can take the risks innovation needs.
Why the bespoke build mattered
A philosophy CP Catapult already believed in, made real across the whole programme.
CP Catapult did not need to adopt someone else's model. They had already decided what good leadership looked like for their specialists, and the value 10X added was to take that idea and build an entire bespoke programme around it, delivered the way a Performance Partnership runs: an embedded partner, the work measured at the start and again at the close, and the focus kept on the real problems on managers' plates. It landed as a lived lens rather than a slide. That is what changes when development is built around your thread instead of bent to fit a course.
06 / Start here
If you already know the leadership philosophy you want your managers to live, a generic course will only dilute it. CP Catapult brought theirs, and we built the whole programme around it.
Every partnership between 10X and a client is entirely bespoke and unique. Book a no-obligation call with one of our Development Experts to scope how we could support you and your situation.