June 25th, 2025
As we welcomed the New Year, CBG reached an exciting milestone, opening a brand-new Cambridge office as a result of our continued growth and expansion. We’re proud to introduce Anna Neale, a newly appointed Associate at our Cambridge office, whose recent attendance on a CIBSE Leadership Identity and Self-Awareness course provides an insight into how leadership development can transform our engineering practice. Anna kindly offered to share her insights and perspectives on the day:
“Since starting at CBG Consultants this spring I have been struck by the care, support and positivity the practice puts into staff training and development. CBG are passionate about CPD, reflecting an authentic culture of growth, innovation, and excellence, which ensures that our clients receive the best service. This aligns happily with my personal values, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend the first CIBSE Leadership Identity and Self Awareness CPD in person on 2nd April led by Suzanne Holt and learn more about growth in my leadership role.
Designed to support engineers explore how self-awareness can link to improved leadership performance by enriching the quality of our work and our relationships with those around us, the course examined ways to improve communication, collaboration and confidence in our roles. The training comprised both formally taught material and small group discussions which allowed us as participants to tie the new concepts back to our own career experiences and aspirations.
The course explored a variety of leadership skills and styles, with Suzanne initiating a fascinating discussion into the different situations where a good leader will apply appropriate styles to benefit the whole team. For example, a ‘pace setting’ leadership style can work effectively to coordinate a complex task in a short time frame, but carries risks of burnout and negativity over time, whereas the communication strategy of a ‘visionary’ style can be inspiring and motivating, and a ‘coaching’ approach is encouraging and empowering over the long term.
Crucially, the training fostered honest self-reflection including tools and frameworks for applying the ideas personally. Self-awareness roots you in reality, not assumptions, helping us to navigate real-world problems as they come. I felt the training expanded and enriched our professional vocabularies, allowing us to speak about situations, skills and strengths with more precision and subtlety beyond clichéd leadership dynamics such as ‘people-person’ and ‘good or bad manager’. Suzanne supported us to find our own, inclusive and nuanced metaphors for team dynamics and to recognise some of the barriers to self-awareness without judgement. We were encouraged to reflect in a structured way to discover our values and strengths to gain a deeper understanding of the way we work.
I really appreciated the way that the information was organised based on named and referenced techniques, models, and frameworks. As an engineer, knowing that material is evidence-based and reinforced by research literature is a reassuring mark of quality and clarity. I was impressed by the way the course highlighted how technical excellence can be paired with emotional intelligence and reflective thinking.
Recalling the day’s learning, one of the most powerful takeaway messages is that it is important to spend time and attention on what you value. Improving leadership requires reflection and structured thought to grow. When leaders understand their strengths, values, and aspirations, we are better equipped to navigate complexity with clarity, empowering faster, more confident decision-making and opening the door to coherent, meaningful, and responsive leadership.
We were given exercises to follow up our learning with personal reflection and feedback from those we respect and trust. I have found myself using the concepts and ideas since, focussing a vision for the growing CBG Cambridge office whilst using reflection and the structured questions as a starting point. The recommendations for further study materials and useful self-development tools for follow up and to apply the concepts in practice have been useful in to enhancing the direction and dynamism of the vision for CBG in Cambridge. This ongoing learning process ensures that the lessons are more than a one-off experience—they become integrated into everyday leadership.
At CBG, our practice is our people, and we want everyone empowered to learn and grow within the company. We have some fantastic team members, supporters and clients with great track records, and it feels great to know that I am supported in communicating well to bring them the most positive approaches and our best work. As CBG continues to grow, so too does our commitment to building a company where leadership is intentional, value-led, and driven by a commitment to continuous learning and feedback.
Congratulations to CIBSE and Suzanne Holt for taking such a positive step to include leadership development alongside the technical training courses. I’ll be looking out to take more opportunities for study in the future, because good leaders keep learning!“
"At CBG, our practice is our people, and we want everyone empowered to learn and grow within the company."