Leading Change
How walnut.coach helped Valvoline — a global leader in automotive lubricants and services — develop leaders who could champion change, manage with empathy, and empower their teams through a comprehensive gamified learning journey spanning 3–4 months.
Leaders Who Needed to Lead Change, Not Just Manage It
Valvoline came to walnut.coach with a dual challenge: leaders who needed to navigate a period of significant organisational change, and managers who needed to shift from directing to empowering.
Change Was Happening Faster Than Leaders Could Adapt
Organisational transformation was underway, but leaders hadn't been equipped with the tools, frameworks, or self-awareness to champion it effectively. Resistance was building and the vision wasn't landing.
Leaders Couldn't Articulate the Change
Many leaders understood the change intellectually but struggled to communicate it persuasively and with conviction to their teams.
Resistance Was Mismanaged
Leaders were reacting to resistance rather than addressing the underlying emotions, assumptions, and fears driving it.
Managers Were Directing, Not Empowering
In a high-performance culture, managers defaulted to telling rather than coaching. Employee ownership and initiative were being inadvertently suppressed.
Leading Change & Empowered Management
A 4-module core program over 3–4 months, plus an extended Empowered Manager track, designed to equip leaders with change frameworks and coaching mindsets for sustained transformation.
- Setting context and the right expectations
- Understanding current reality through facilitator-led discussion
- Change Management fundamentals
- Role of a Leader in creating a powerful narrative
- Personal Change Curve — readiness and adaptation
The Flow Game in Module 2 was the moment the whole room shifted. We stopped talking about change as something happening to us and started seeing it as something we could shape. That perspective is still with us.
What Changed After the Program
Valvoline leaders emerged as genuine change champions — more self-aware, more empathetic, and equipped to lead and empower through periods of transformation.
Change-Ready, Change-Championing Leaders
Leaders left the program not just resilient to change but actively enthused about leading it. The narrative they told their teams became sharper, more human, and more compelling.
More Self-Aware Leaders
The self-assessment and EI modules gave leaders genuine insight into their change-readiness, their triggers, and their impact on team morale.
Empowered Teams
As managers transitioned from the Empowered Manager track, direct reports noticed a visible shift — more coaching conversations, more delegated ownership, more space to grow.
Clearer Goals & Accountability
The action planning in Module 4 gave every leader a tangible roadmap — not a vague aspiration — for how they'd lead their teams through the months ahead.
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