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Building a Strong Leadership Pipeline at PBS
Building a Strong Leadership Pipeline at PBS
How do you build a strong leadership pipeline across different teams, locations and operational environments?
For PBS by Ponticelli, a leading offshore operations company, the answer is to invest in leadership development early and create shared behaviours that become part of everyday working life.
Through Leadership Fundamentals, PBS is strengthening leadership capability across the organisation while encouraging senior leaders to continue investing in their own development.
PBS Leadership Fundamentals: At a Glance
The challenge
PBS needed to create a consistent approach to leadership across onshore and offshore teams working in complex, high-pressure operational environments.
The approach
Working with the Academy of Leadership and Management, PBS introduced Leadership Fundamentals to establish shared leadership expectations and behaviours.
The programme combines practical workshops, workplace application, peer-led conversations and continued professional development for senior leaders.
The outcomes
Onshore leaders are showing stronger alignment with wider business objectives and greater awareness of how their leadership behaviours affect others.
The programme is also gaining momentum as leaders share experiences and leadership conversations cascade across the organisation.
The impact
PBS is building a more consistent, values-led leadership culture across the business.
By investing in leaders at every level, it is strengthening current performance while creating a sustainable leadership pipeline for the future.
Leadership Fundamentals in Practice
We spoke to Adam Mason, GMOC Director at PBS, about the programme, its impact across the organisation and his own continuing leadership journey.
What were the key objectives and themes of the Leadership Fundamentals workshop?
“The focus was to embed PBS Leadership Fundamentals as lived behaviours, not just concepts. Crucially, the workshop reinforced that how we lead is as important as what we deliver.”
For PBS, leadership development is not simply about understanding a set of principles. It is about applying them consistently in everyday decisions, conversations and interactions.
What impact have you seen among onshore leaders?
“After a year of embedding the fundamentals, PBS is seeing stronger alignment across the first cohort. Leaders are increasingly linking their actions to wider business objectives.”
Adam has also seen the programme gain momentum through peer-led conversations, with leaders sharing their experiences and helping the principles cascade naturally across the organisation.
Why is PBS introducing the programme to offshore leaders?
“Consistency is key. PBS has a significant offshore leadership population and leadership expectations apply across the business.”
Given the complexity and risk profile of offshore operations, strong and consistent leadership is essential. The engagement shown by offshore supervisors and team leads through the wider Supervisors Toolkit initiative has been particularly encouraging.
What does PBS’s continued investment say about its approach to people?
“For PBS, leadership is about giving people the autonomy to lead with integrity and do the right thing.”
While Key Performance Indicators remain important, PBS also places emphasis on Key Behavioural Indicators. This reflects the organisation’s belief that culture and behaviour directly shape performance.
Leadership Development Does Not Stop at Qualification
PBS’s commitment to leadership development is also reflected at senior level.
Having achieved Chartered status and completed Level 7 leadership development, Adam has continued his professional development through Level 8 study.
What motivated you to progress from Level 7 to Level 8?
“Since becoming Chartered, I’ve found the investment in time has repaid itself with regard to my strategic outlook and general approach, so progressing to Level 8 was driven by keeping that going.
“The challenge is always time, with a consortium group business to run and four daughters, but it’s an investment worth making. The CPD route I’ve taken has deepened my thinking and helped me to reflect more critically.”
What have you gained from continuing your leadership journey?
“The Level 8 is pitched at senior executives, so it allows time for reflection, including journalling key leadership interactions.
“I’ve enjoyed reflecting on both things I’m proud of as a result of the strategic approach we’ve taken and some more difficult situations and how I’ve navigated them.
“More than anything, continuing my leadership journey has helped me use reflection to enable improvements.”
What message would you share with other leaders?
“Don’t wait until you feel behind to invest in yourself.
“Continuing to develop isn’t a nice-to-have if you get time. It’s part of the responsibility we carry for the people around us.
“If you are already a leader, it’s 90% about emotional intelligence development rather than capability to deliver.
“The more you grow, the more self-aware you become about how you show up, how you listen and how you respond under pressure. That awareness directly shapes the experience your team has every day.”
A Long-Term Commitment to Leadership
Leadership development is not only about gaining knowledge or completing qualifications. It creates space for leaders to reflect, grow and become more intentional in how they lead others.
Reflecting on PBS’s continued commitment, John Patterson, CEO of the Academy of Leadership and Management, said:
“I have had the pleasure of working with Adam and his extended leadership team over the past couple of years. It is inspiring to see a leader staying true to his organisation’s values and purpose when faced with adversity in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous market they serve.”
By developing leaders across onshore and offshore teams while supporting continued learning at senior level, PBS is creating a shared leadership culture built for the long term.
Would you like to invest in a long term commitment to leadership?