The GC Index Announce The GC Gem 2021 Finalists

We are excited to announce our GC Gem 2021 finalists. This year’s shortlisted entries have been selected from over 40 submissions made by GC Partners across the world, showcasing some fantastic work with large multinational and public sector organisations to start ups, schools, charities and voluntary organisations

This last year has been like nothing we have experienced before. Businesses have faced huge challenges and had to adapt quickly but we’ve seen some amazing work and this year’s Gem entries show there is so much to celebrate.

It was amazing to read about the innovation, collaboration, performance and game-changing achievements our GC Partners are driving across organisations around the globe.

We have five GC Gem categories:

• The Individual Gem: Most Impactful GC Index Individual Programme
• The Team Gem: Most Impactful GC Index Team Programme
• The Organisation Gem: Most Impactful GC Index Organisation Programme
• The Inclusive Gem: Driving Equality and Inclusion With The GC Index
• The Gem of a Solution: Most Game Changing Powered By Solution

You can find out more about our finalists below…

The Individual Gem Finalists: Most Impactful GC Index Individual Programme  

It is amazing to see the impact the unique insight from The GC Index is having on individuals’ lives, from children to CEOs of multinational organisations. Whether it is revelation or validation it’s having a positive impact.

We’ve heard some wonderful stories about how coaching using The GC Index framework can transform the way people view themselves with many saying they feel more potent, confident and self-aware. Our 2021 finalists for The Individual Gem are…

GC Partner – Rencai UK

Conexus Medstaff was at the early planning stages of an ambitious M&A growth strategy in America. They were displaying classic ‘growing pains’.

GC Partner, Rencai, worked with all leaders and future leaders by developing an individual coaching programme powered by The GC Index. The programme provided clarity on individual opportunities to add most value in their role and help create a culture of accountability and ownership to deliver. This helped colleagues to better understand how they can collaborate.

The programme showed leaders how to collaborate more effectively through better understanding of individual working styles and desires to impact the organisation with a focus on performance.

GC Partner – SRCD

GC Partner, SRCD, worked with Danske Bank. Coaching the Chief Procurement & Premises Officer, Taid Qazi, using The GC Index®, as part of a broader leadership coaching programme. Taid learnt how, as a Play Maker, he empowers his team, how he helps them contribute and why he wants to orchestrate the future. Change needed to happen to achieve objectives and Taid knew he needed the right team in place and for them to motivated to achieve objectives.

By using The GC Index® SRCD was able to provide Taid with a simple language and framework to understand where everyone fits and how they can collaborate to drive performance.

GC Partner – The Change Maker Group

When the pandemic hit, The Change Maker Group created a solution working with charity CEOs from across the UK to provide mutual support as well as vital facilitation on the significant changes impacting their organisations as they responded to the pandemic.  Leveraging The Change Maker Profile helped them see how their proclivities would be vital to the changes they were leading as CEOs.

Steve Beharall, Operations Manager at Newcastle United Foundation, said: “It was a fantastic opportunity to step away and review my personal performance and it gave me that little extra confidence to manage our way out of the pandemic.”

The Team Gem: Most Impactful GC Index Team Programme

The GC Index framework is incredibly powerful in teams, whether that be unlocking potential or developing better awareness of how others contribute and building stronger connections to drive better communication and better decisions.

More leaders now recognise how The GC Index framework supports organisations in forming high performing teams. There are so many amazing examples of how the framework has been used to unlock team potential, drive impactful collaboration and create game-changing teams…and over the last year we have seen how the framework can be used remotely to accelerate team working.

Our finalists are…

GC Partner – 33 Emeralds

Talent Brand, a talent acquisition company, that not only survived but transformed through Covid is building forward stronger with an award-winning digital animation business.

The onboarding of a Game Changing creative director has meant that the business is experimenting with more radical new ideas, some of which are already contributing directly to the bottom line of the business! Individual members are more aware of the positive drivers of their co-workers, and their own blindspots in terms of their working styles.

Jo Watt, MD of Talent Brand says, “The GC Index helped us to understand what made each of us tick and critically where our gaps were as a team. It was recognising who could make the quickest and most meaningful contributions for survival. Now exiting out of survival mode, it has been personally transformational to see how we have managed to transform our business for a sustainable future.”

GC Partner – Top Gun Ventures

Top Gun Ventures introduced The GC Index® following the appointment of a new CEO at HG Insights, the global leader in technology intelligence. They expanded the programme to use The GC Index® framework as on-boarding tool and to assess the leadership team.

The programme boosted trust and helped cross team collaboration and a means to manage performance feedback as well as assignments/career management and vacant hiring.

Commenting on the programme Bjorn Kirchdorfer, from GC Partner Top Gun Ventures, has been delivering the CEO said, “He gets the right outcomes and also makes the entire process not just easy but enjoyable!”

GC Partner – West Midlands Employers, delivered with Franklin-Hackett

West Midlands Employers (WME) built an innovative programme, utilising The GC Index®, to help partners across different organisations break out of silos, understand each other and ultimately work more effectively.

They brought participants from Walsall Safeguarding Partnership together and used The GC Index® to help participants understand how they can contribute. The framework helped create a space to think, talk and build those all-important relationships to achieve a common goal.

Since taking part in the programme, Walsall Safeguarding Partnership, which was formed last year following changes to government legislation, has launched an all-age exploitation pathway and family safeguarding model – a reflection of the borough’s pioneering shift towards more joined up provision for vulnerable children and adults.

The Organisation Gem: Most Impactful GC Index Organisation Programme 

Over the last 18 months Organisational Impact Programmes have really come to the fore with GC Partners carrying out some amazing work to unleash organisational impact.  Everything from helping unleash organisational energy to supporting restructures,  transformational change programmes to any business process.

This Gem recognises GC Partners who have been working with organisations to improve effectiveness using The GC Index. Our Organisation Gem finalists are…

GC Partner – The Cause Effect

The Cause Effect has been working with the Modular Off-site Contractor Reds10 for the past 18 months to create and implement a plan to achieve a leadership position as a ‘Space as a Service’ provider. The aim to treble performance over four years. The Cause Effect used The GC Index to give the leadership team an in-depth understanding of their make-up , help them understand how and where the they were having impact, what strengths and combinations of strengths had brought them their success to date and much more.

Fundamental though was the need to help the leadership team to embrace new ways of working, to empower team members to develop and lead their growing functions and to engage and inspire the very many new team members who would join the business and it moved from a small, family business to a thriving, medium sized enterprise.

Paul Ruddick, CEO of Reds10, said, “I believe that most senior management teams are dysfunctional in some way and their Boards probably all know this but often don’t understand the real reasons why. ‘The Cause Effect’ have opened the window onto these reasons for us so everyone can now at least understand where everyone is coming from and really get much more aligned behind our purpose.”

GC Partner – The Change Maker Group

The direction of change in the UK’s public service sector is towards integration. Hospital trusts, councils, public health, commissioners, care bodies and third sector organisations are working together to improve the quality of life for our citizens.

The Change Maker Profile was used to enhance personal insight, encourage different thinking and energise collaborative working.

Greg Smith, Diabetes Lead, Wiltshire Health & Care says, “I have become more confident in approaching other specialists to develop process / pathways to improve patient care. The Change Maker Profile played a big part in helping me value the personal contribution I make.”

GC Partner – Makman Technology Consulting

Following Akakus Oil Operations determination to transform as an organisation, the leadership team saw the need to identify high-potential talent to serve as the third line of management/leadership and a cornerstone for future succession. Makman Technology Consulting was brought-in to aid in identifying the sought-after talent to serve their future transformation – The GC Index® was used for all top 200 leaders and then cascaded further through the organisation.

The Inclusive Gem: Driving Equality and Inclusion With The GC Index

The GC Index has been built with the belief that everyone has a positive impact and contribution to make, whether they are a global Fortune CEO or a child in a developing country.

The focus on impact means it removes a layer of unconscious bias and this has seen it being introduced by organisations to help drive their equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives. It is being used at every point through the employment lifecycle from recruitment to outplacement.

This Gem recognises GC Partners who are using The GC Index framework to help move the equality, inclusion and diversity agenda on. Our Inclusion Gem finalists are…

GC Partner – Conscious Connections

GC Partner Conscious Connections, designed a solution for teachers and learners using The GC Index® and The Young People Index® to establish their top proclivities to align teaching and learning styles, for maximum engagement of all learners.

Conscious Connections is helping create teaching teams who will assist each other in creating lesson plans that teach to all five proclivities. This is leading to more inclusive lesson plans, curriculums being structured around The GC Index framework aligning teaching and learning styles. Fundamentally the solution focuses on getting all students running towards learning not running away from it.

Natalee Holmes, Founder of Conscious Connections says, “The GC Index simply shows who people can count on and what for…”

GC Partner – InfinityGlobal.io

InfinityGlobal.io, part of the Route2Work Group, aims to deliver a series of game-changing edtech solutions via a world-class digital platform.

The team has been working with a global organisation specialising in Recruitment Process Outsourcing and Managed Service Provider solutions, utilising The GC Index®, to level the playing field through a recruitment without bias model and support a social mobility agenda by identifying previously undiscovered talent.

Kanishka Misal, CEO of InfinityGlobal.io, said: “With The GC Index®, we can help clients bridge the gap between understanding their people and mapping them onto processes – for maximum impact. It’s about letting the way people work best become your engine of productivity.”

GC Partner – SQ Unlimited

A large corporate company wanted to run a Generic Management qualification for their staff with disabilities and special needs who have been identified as future potential leaders in the business.

In partnership with GC Partner, SQ Unlimited, The GC Index was introduced as part of the Management Learnership, which is a 1-year programme, to help learners discover how they can make a unique contribution with confidence as future leaders. The GC Index is positioned with learners as a golden thread to enhance their learnership journey.

The Gem of a Solution: Most Game Changing Powered By Solution 

95% of the ways we can use The GC Index we don’t even know yet and this is where it gets really exciting! We are constantly seeing new innovative and creative ways our GC Partners are embedding The GC Index into their own solutions to drive impact.

This Gem will be awarded to the most game-changing Powered By Solution. As well as a precious stone, a gem is also described as an ‘outstanding person or thing’ so The GC Gems just seemed like the perfect fit.  Our Gem of Solution finalists are…

GC Partner – Your Future Impact

Using The YP Index GC Partner, Your Future Impact, developed a Self-Awareness & Growth Mindset Workshop. The programme starts the journey of self-discovery, focusing on the triangle of core skills required for their future: academic skills, personal passions and values, and team working strengths using The YP Index®. The programme encourages students not to neglect their purpose and passions. They learn how to consider these passions as a potential future occupation and a way of developing a sustainable work-life balance.

Bridget Rosewell, Chair, Atom Bank says, “The insights from the tools Strengths Unleashed use gave me the language to have a conversation with the top team that would otherwise have been difficult. Their engagement with the senior team has catalysed their ability to engage with one another in a more productive way.”

GC Partner – EIT InnoEnergy, in partnership with Enterprise Lab & Enlit

EIT InnoEnergy, the European innovation engine for sustainable energy, developed The Career Impact Programme. Every year the 18-month Programme, underpinned by The GC Index® and GC Impact tools, runs alongside hundreds of University students’ academic studies focussing upon organisational impact.

The programme bridges the gap between education and enterprise, preparing students to maximise their impact when they enter the world of work and enables employers to best integrate the future talent into their organisations.

More than 600 Masters Students have completed the Programme​ so far at a rate of 150 per year, 480 products have gone to market and more than 380 start-ups have been supported.

GC Partner – Quanta Consulting

Quanta’s practical solution has been to use The GC Index as a measure of Potential Energy (as seen by the self) and their customised solution to assess the Kinetic Energy (the behaviours and actions as seen by others in the workplace).

A client said, “Quanta’s approach of combining The GC Index with Quanta’s Kinetic Energy Profile has been by far the deepest and most useful analysis in my career.  It has shown me exactly why I am good at my job but why I am also frustrated, stressed and feeling somewhat trapped.  The road ahead is now much clearer, and I look forward to my journey with Quanta over the months ahead.”

GC Partner – Strengths Unleashed

Strengths Unleashed developed a Triangulation process that incorporates The GC Index®. This uses best of breed tools in order to identify an individual’s natural talent, motivation, change mindset (The GC Index) and role preference, then sense checks these against benchmarked 360 data.

With this data they are able to pinpoint areas of development for leaders and lay out a path to success for them to better succeed.

Bridget Rosewell, Chair, Atom Bank says, “The insights from the tools Strengths Unleashed use gave me the language to have a conversation with the top team that would otherwise have been difficult. Their engagement with the senior team has catalysed their ability to engage with one another in a more productive way.”

We will be announcing our GC Gem 2021 winners at a virtual ceremony, on Thursday 22nd April 2021.

Thank you to everyone who entered this year and good luck to all the finalists…