Suntory Global Brand House
Suntory Global Spirits engaged Leading Kind to design and deliver a programme of work focused on strengthening inclusive behaviours, leadership confidence and employee experience across its Brand House Scotch & Irish team.
The organisation wanted to ensure that leaders and teams were equipped to create and maintain an inclusive culture and to respond effectively when behaviours fell short — whether involving colleagues, suppliers, customers or visitors.
Initially commissioned to deliver inclusion-focused training, early conversations highlighted the importance of first understanding the experience of staff and the practical realities facing leaders and teams. In response, we designed an approach that combined the diagnostic and dividend stages of our Diversity Delivers framework.
Working flexibly across a globally connected workforce, Leading Kind designed and delivered a programme that combined:
- qualitative diagnostic research,
- leadership engagement,
- employee insight gathering,
- and executive development facilitation.
The work included:
- review of existing engagement and culture survey data,
- focus groups and interviews with employees across teams,
- analysis of leadership, communication and workplace culture themes,
- and a facilitated executive development session focused on practical action and accountability.
Our qualitative approach allowed us to move beyond headline survey results and explore:
- employee experience,
- leadership confidence,
- communication and behavioural norms,
- workload and wellbeing pressures,
- and how inclusive behaviours were understood and applied in practice.
The diagnostic identified many positive aspects of the workplace culture, including strong peer support, commitment to colleagues and pride in the organisation. Employees largely described Brand House as a place where people could be themselves and where leaders were open to listening and improvement.
The work also highlighted opportunities to strengthen:
- leadership confidence in addressing challenging situations,
- consistency of people management practice,
- communication during periods of change,
- employee confidence in speaking up,
- and the practical embedding of inclusive behaviours into day-to-day operations.
Importantly, the diagnostic surfaced issues that had not been fully visible through survey data alone, providing the leadership team with richer insight into employee experience and clearer evidence to inform action planning.
Leading Kind facilitated an interactiveexecutive development session focused on:
- exploring the organisation’s inclusion “dividends and deficits”,
- improving confidence to manage challenging behaviours,
- understanding the balance between intention and impact,
- and co-creating practical leadership commitments.
The session provided senior leaders with:
- evidence-informed insight,
- practical areas for focus,
- and a platform to agree a clear action plan with defined deliverables and accountability.
The work helped establish strongerfoundations for:
- inclusive leadership,
- psychologically safer conversations,
- more confident responses to inappropriate behaviours,
- and a more connected and sustainable workplace culture.
What our client said about us
We were looking for a training provider to help a particular area of our business around how to create and maintain a culture of inclusive behaviours at work. When we went through a procurement process, we found that Leading Kind stood out as a provider that was most aligned with our values and the approach that we were looking to take.
During the discovery process, Lynn at Leading Kind picked up on some issues that we were not aware of.
The qualitative approach to data gathering(conversations with employees from across the teams) allowed the Leading Kind team to really dig deep into the feedback, which meant that the results of the discovery process were much more valuable than a simple survey would have been.
Post discovery, our initial session with Lynn and Simon provided the leadership team with interesting insights and some clear key areas to focus on. The session was an interactive and thought-provoking one and attendees felt it was a valuable use of time.
It has given our leadership team a great platform on which to build their action plan moving forward.
Throughout the process, Lynn has been helpful, communicative and has built a trusting relationship with the senior leaders that she has met so far and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.
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