Laurell A Hector, McManus HRD | Manage HR Magazine | Top Team Development Solutions in UKLaurell A Hector, Managing Director
When teams underperform, managers struggle with difficult issues or communication breaks down, symptoms are often more visible than causes. Leaders may see limited collaboration, while employees experience unclear expectations, delayed information or limited opportunities to contribute. An apparent training need may instead reflect established working practices, inconsistent leadership or a lack of accountability.

For 25 years, McManus HRD has worked with organisations to understand these challenges. Rather than beginning with a predetermined development programme, the consultancy explores what leaders want to achieve, listens to staff and examines the gap between intended and actual practice. This helps establish whether the response should involve development, process changes, coaching or a combination of approaches.

“Clients often come to us with a clear view of the problem. Our role is to understand what is really getting in the way and what needs to change in everyday practice,” says Laurell A Hector, Managing Director.

Hector brings more than 30 years of experience across HR, learning and organisational development in the public, private and third sectors. Her work encompasses leadership and management development, organisational design, team effectiveness, executive coaching, performance management, culture and equity, diversity and inclusion. McManus HRD draws on a network of experienced associates for specialist perspectives when clients need them.

Understanding the Real Challenge

In one organisation, leaders felt a team was not working together effectively but regarded monthly meetings as successful. When Hector attended a meeting, she observed that information was being shared, but employees were not contributing. The meeting offered little space for discussion, challenge or collective problem-solving. The issue went beyond communication frequency to the quality of participation and expectations shaping the conversation.

  • Our role is to understand what is really getting in the way and what needs to change in everyday practice.

The example illustrates why an initial diagnosis needs to be tested. Different groups can experience the same workplace differently. Understanding those perspectives makes it possible to focus on the behaviours and conditions that influence how a team functions, rather than assuming that another workshop will resolve the difficulty.

Turning Development into Better Management

Another organisation wanted greater consistency and confidence across its management population. McManus HRD explored senior leaders’ expectations and managers’ experiences, then combined group development with individual coaching. The work focused on practical responsibilities: setting clear expectations, giving useful feedback, making decisions and dealing with problems before they escalated.

Senior leaders subsequently reported greater consistency, stronger performance and more solution-focused behaviour. HR and senior managers spent less time intervening in matters that managers were increasingly able to resolve themselves. These observations matter because development has greater value when it changes everyday management practice, not simply how participants feel at the end of a session.

Tools such as DiSC Flow© can help individuals recognise differences in communication styles and adapt how they work with colleagues. However, an assessment tool is only useful when it supports a clearly understood development need. The objective remains better relationships, more effective leadership and stronger team performance.

Building Capability That Lasts

The value of development becomes evident in what happens afterwards. Self-assessments, coaching, feedback, follow-up conversations and agreed measures help establish whether new approaches are being applied and whether they are improving day-to-day leadership. They also reveal where further support is needed and where managers are ready to work more independently.

Hector aims to build independence rather than reliance on external support. Managers need the confidence to exercise professional judgement, address difficult conversations and hold people accountable, while creating conditions in which others can contribute and develop. Sustainable improvement depends on those behaviours becoming part of normal organisational life.

McManus HRD’s work has grown through referrals and longstanding relationships. Its emphasis on understanding the problem, developing practical capability and sustaining change underpins its recognition by Manage HR Europe as a Top Team Development Solution in the UK for 2026. The recognition reflects an approach in which team development is not treated as a one-off event, but as part of strengthening how people lead, collaborate and deliver together.