Dealer principals and line managers taking the Honda Institute’s leadership programme saw an 8% increase in departmental profitability and a 62% rise in customer service satisfaction six months into their 14-month course.

Ian Whitley, manager for learning and development, said success was measured by dealership improvement rather than looking at academic or theoretical perspectives.

The Honda Institute is also introducing web conferencing into the programme to make it more time-efficient.

Running as a pilot this year, the basic Accredited level, which previously took 14 months, has been reduced to nine by replacing six half-days of seminars with three full days, along with two days training. Three seminars, amounting to another 1.5 days, will be given via web-conferencing. 

The aim is to increase time in the dealership by cutting time and cost of travelling, said Whitley.

The second level, Premier, takes 13 months and the third level, Master, which is being introduced this month, will take 12 months. These will also be reduced in time if the pilot is successful.

Whitley said the programme focused on personal effectiveness, managing and leading people and delivering outcomes.

At Accredited level the focus is on providing the foundation skills for leadership, at Premier level on high performing teams and at Master level participants develop advanced leader-ship skills.

Its first group of participants – 56 dealer principals and senior managers – graduated in December. 

The end of the programme was marked by a two-day Premier leadership conference which included talks from a former commander of UN Forces and a neuro-linguistic programming practitioner to help dealer principals lead and motivate teams more effectively.

The training centre has around 275 members.