Case Study · Prostate Cancer UK · Charity & non-profit · One approach to management, built on the charity's own values
Prostate Cancer UK built one shared way to manage, on their own values, across a charity where every manager does a different job. Over two years, 65 of their managers made it their own.
Prostate Cancer UK built one shared way to manage, on their own values, across a charity where every manager does a different job. Over two years, 65 of their managers made it their own.Managers developed across Prostate Cancer UK
0
from specialist nurses to fundraisers to data and digital teams, every kind of manager the charity has
2 years +
of continuous partnership since 2024, re-commissioned for a second programme and continuing into another year
8.8 / 10
Performance Partners rated across 52 sessions, with 26 of them scoring 9 or above
3 pillars
Impact, EDI and Wellbeing, the charity's own values, at the centre of every workshop
Executive Summary
- Sector
- Charity & non-profit
- Buyer
- Senior Learning & Development Manager
The Brief
Develop managers right across Prostate Cancer UK, from the specialist nurses and health information teams who support men with prostate cancer to the fundraisers, marketers, data and operations people who power the charity, and do it as one organisation. Not a generic management course bolted on, but a single Prostate Cancer UK approach to management, built on the charity's own pillars of Impact, EDI and Wellbeing, so that every manager, whatever their job, leads in a way that is recognisably theirs.
The Outcome
Over two years, 65 managers across every part of the charity developed against one shared approach to management, grounded in Prostate Cancer UK's own values. The programme was rebuilt and re-commissioned for a second year, the Performance Partners were rated 8.8 out of 10 across 52 sessions, and the partnership is continuing into another year, the clearest signal of all that the work is landing.
From the sponsor
Working with 10X this year has been invaluable. They were able to meet our managers exactly where they needed to, and grounded the programme in our three key pillars of Wellbeing, EDI and Impact.
You could see the managers realising that this wasn't a one size fits all programme, but one genuinely developed to make them better in the context they work in at Prostate Cancer UK.”
Shanice McBean
Senior Learning & Development Manager, Prostate Cancer UK
01 / The brief
One charity, one cause, and managers doing fifty different jobs towards it.
Prostate Cancer UK is built on people doing very different work towards one cause. A specialist nurse supporting a man through diagnosis, a community fundraiser running an event, a data manager turning donations into insight, all of them leading teams. The charity saw clearly that if it wanted those teams to thrive, it needed to invest deliberately in the people leading them, and to do it in a way that fit Prostate Cancer UK rather than a generic template.
Like most managers anywhere, Prostate Cancer UK's had often been promoted for being excellent at their craft, and had rarely been given a dedicated, ongoing programme to build the management side of the role. When we listened to them at the start, the same wants came up again and again: practical tools they could use in the real flow of the work, when the day-to-day is coming at them full speed, and the chance to learn alongside other managers rather than working it out in isolation.
They were also clear that one more off-the-shelf course was not what they needed. What they wanted was something built around Prostate Cancer UK: its mission, its people, and the three things the charity holds itself to, Impact, EDI and Wellbeing.
So the brief to 10X was specific. Build one approach to management that any manager at Prostate Cancer UK could recognise as theirs, ground it in the charity's own values, and make it reach every corner of the organisation, not just the senior team.
02 / Built on their pillars
Not an off-the-shelf course. A Prostate Cancer UK approach to management, built on the charity's own values.
10X did not arrive with a fixed course to install. We built the programme around the three pillars Prostate Cancer UK already lived by, Impact, EDI and Wellbeing, so that developing as a manager and living the charity's values became the same act rather than two separate things. Every workshop, from holding effective one-to-ones to coaching and developing people, was framed through those pillars and through the real situations Prostate Cancer UK's managers were actually in.
The charity's three pillars, at the centre of the work
01
Impact
Management framed around the charity's reason for being. Managers learned to connect their team's day-to-day work to the difference Prostate Cancer UK exists to make, so that delegation, prioritisation and performance all pointed at impact.
02
EDI
Equity, diversity and inclusion treated as part of how you manage, not a separate session. Building balanced, inclusive teams and leading people fairly ran through the work on feedback, coaching and difficult conversations.
03
Wellbeing
Managing in a way that protects people, the manager included. In an organisation whose cause is health, the programme made wellbeing a management responsibility: in how workload is shared, how one-to-ones are held, and how managers look after themselves.
How it worked
We were never the expert at the front of the room.
10X's principle is that most of the answers a team needs are already inside it. So the rooms were built for Prostate Cancer UK's managers to learn from each other, not to be lectured at. A specialist nurse worked a real problem next to a fundraiser; a data manager compared notes with someone from policy.
The Performance Partner's job was to draw out what already worked across Prostate Cancer UK and connect it, then bring back fresh material in response to what each cohort raised. It answered, directly, the thing the managers had asked for at the start: the chance to stop solving the same problems alone.
And the work happened in the job, not just in the room. The programme alternated two kinds of session: a skill workshop where managers learned a model and committed to trying it, then a troubleshooting workshop a fortnight later where they came back and worked through what had actually happened when they did. It also met the charity's own tension head on. The hardest part of managing for a cause this emotional, as one manager put it, is balancing it with saying no.
“Clear, interesting, educational and clearly tailored to the individual. What I really like is how we're building management communities for support in our cohorts too.”
Penny Eaton, Creative Lead
03 / Every kind of manager
One shared way to manage, stretched across every kind of job in the charity.
This was not a programme for head office. It reached managers across the whole of Prostate Cancer UK, 65 of them over two years, spanning 54 different job titles. The people who sit with men facing a diagnosis and the people who raise the money that funds the research were in the same programme, developing against the same approach to management, each applying it to their own world.
Who was in the programme
Services & health information
Senior Specialist Nurses, Senior Health Information Officers, Peer Support and Clinical Services leads, the people who support men and their families directly
Fundraising & partnerships
Community Fundraising, Philanthropy, Sporting Events and Partnership managers who bring in the income behind the mission
Brand, marketing & digital
Brand, Digital, Product Marketing, Creative and Editorial leads who tell the charity's story to the public
Data, operations & enabling teams
Data, Insight, Finance, IT, People and Policy & Health Influencing managers who keep the charity running and evidence its work
Each dot is one of the 65 managers on the programme, grouped by the kind of work they do. The teams that support men with prostate cancer and the teams that fund the research developed against the same approach, in the same rooms.
65 managers across 4 families of work.Putting a specialist nurse, a fundraiser and a data manager in the same room did something a single-function course never could. They found that the management challenges they thought were unique to their corner of the charity were shared, and they built a common language for handling them, one that now runs across Prostate Cancer UK rather than inside any one team.
04 / What it became
The clearest proof is the simplest: they asked us back.
The strongest signal that the work landed is not a score. After the first cohorts in 2024, Prostate Cancer UK rebuilt and re-commissioned the programme for a second year, ran it through 2025 and into 2026, and is continuing the partnership into another year. An organisation that watches every pound does not renew something twice unless its managers are getting better.
Their managers had told us at the start that one-off sessions never stuck. A multi-year programme, grounded in the charity's own values and revisited as the organisation changed, is the answer to exactly that.
“We look forward to continuing into a new year of partnership with 10X Managers.”
What changed in the work
The change showed up between the sessions, in how managers actually managed.
Because every skill workshop was followed two weeks later by a troubleshooting one, managers came back and reported what they had tried. The accounts were specific, and they were about behaviour, not theory.
- 01
One manager stopped filling the silence in one-to-ones, ending meetings by asking "so what are your next steps?" and leaving the space for the report to fill. It quickly showed who had really engaged.
- 02
Another, quick by habit to solve every problem for the team, started meeting "what should I do?" with a question instead. Uncomfortable at first, they said, but it held.
- 03
With no formal 360 process to lean on, one manager checked it was allowed, then ran one rather than wait for permission to come down.
- 04
Several built peer support into how their teams run: a team chat the manager deliberately stayed out of, a weekly skill-share with a shared record of what got solved, a colleague who was struggling paired with one who was not.
- 05
Managers began raising performance earlier and with evidence, little and often, anchoring the harder conversations in the charity's own values so feedback rarely arrived as a surprise.
One shared language
By the end, the cohort was managing in the same words.
The clearest sign that one approach to management had taken hold was the language. Lines that started in a workshop, and a few the managers coined themselves, were soon running through one-to-ones and team meetings right across the charity.
In their own words, managers learning from each other
Hear it from the managers in the rooms, right across the charity.
“Great to meet with other managers across different teams and hear how they work. Well facilitated, inclusive and not patronising.”
“The programme was valuable, grounded in real-life situations, case studies and problem solving. It connected us with other managers from our organisation and helped us build real community.”
“Realising other managers are experiencing the same issues was a real comfort. I've started networking more with other managers to discuss challenges together, which has been incredibly valuable.”
“I found it really helpful just to know that a community of managers is here to support me and that I'm not on my own with management decisions.”
“Following the programme, I feel confident stepping into my first line-manager role. I have the tools and skills to equip me, and love that I can access the resources for the next year.”
“Great open, honest conversations where we shared each other's knowledge and expertise. The breakout sessions let smaller conversations flow really nicely, and everyone felt included.”
“I found the prioritisation models particularly useful and plan to use the importance/impact matrix in one-to-ones to better support my team's workload management.”
“I found the tools discussed really useful and will definitely use them to plan my workload and prioritise more effectively. Practical and immediately applicable.”
Across 52 rated sessions, Prostate Cancer UK's managers rated their Performance Partners 8.8 out of 10.
05 / Start here
If you lead people in a charity or mission-led organisation and want to develop your managers in a way that fits your cause and your budget, or you want one approach to management that holds across very different teams and is built on your own values rather than a generic template, that is the work we do.
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.