As an army sergeant, Derrick Lorimer led soldiers on operational tours around the world.
But when it came to leading and managing within the Civil Service, he recognised he had a lot to learn as well as a lot to bring.
That was why he embraced the chance to take part in Achieving your potential – the ground-breaking development programme for aspiring line managers.
‘It deepened my understanding’
“I had up to 20 soldiers under me in the Army, so I know about people management in that way,” he said.
“But on the battlefield, it’s about issuing instructions and orders. Whereas in the Civil Service, you need an altogether different approach and the Achieving your potential programme helped me deepen my understanding about that.”
After a career in mechanical engineering spanning the British Army and major commercial companies, Derrick is now a vehicle standards assessor with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.
Preparation for promotion
He relishes the role but thinks he may want to progress as new opportunities arise and so he saw the AYP programme as great preparation for promotion.
He also said the programme supplemented what he had already learned while doing an Open University degree in Leadership and Management.
“It breaks up the elements of management really well,” he said.
“It takes you on a logical journey through its modules starting with managing yourself and then going onto collaborating with others, change management and so on.
“I’m one of those guys who’s quite curious and enjoys learning. So I spent a lot of time doing some of the extra learning.
Digging deep into the subject
“One of the big things I was really surprised about was the sheer number of resources it pointed to that are at your fingertips.
“I probably did about 18 of the optional courses signposted from Achieving your potential. They were so worthwhile and allowed me to dig even deeper into the subject matter. I also have four courses in my learning plan.”
Native Scot Derrick, who now lives in Kent, says his Civil Service role is full-on and sees him working in different places each day, carrying out a non-stop schedule of vehicle assessments.
Networking opportunities
Because of this, he did virtually all of the programme in his free time. Though when there were ‘live’ webinars his line manager took over part of his shift so he would be free to attend.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the whole programme,” he said.
“I put a lot of effort in and gained an enormous amount from it.”
Another plus he highlighted was the opportunity the programme gave him to develop networks and gain a broader insight into the work the government does.
“In a single discussion group I met someone who worked in nuclear fuels and another person whose job was taxing bananas coming into the UK. It was a fantastic eye-opener.”
Find out more about Achieving your potential, including how to register.