Frontline Leadership Is One of Sospro’s Success Factors

Sospro is a Finnish company in the child welfare sector, operating nationwide in 35 service units. The company has a total of 348 employees. One of Sospro’s defined strategic success factors is strong frontline leadership.



“Our strategy has three critical success factors, one of which is that we have the best managers in Finland,” says Teemu Annala, CEO of Sospro.

A Clear Framework and Model Were Needed for Frontline Leadership

“We already had team-level goals derived from our strategy, as well as all the tools for frontline leadership, from development discussions and competence assessment discussions to the early support model. However, we felt that these were more like separate, individual elements, and we began to think about what actions and ways of working are actually used to lead performance in everyday work. We realized that we were missing a sufficiently comprehensive approach and framework for practical frontline leadership,” says CEO Teemu Annala.

Competence in frontline leadership, and success in it, is a critical success factor for Sospro. For this reason, the company wanted to invest properly in leadership development and create its own methodology and shared language for frontline leadership, which would become an integral part of daily management and Sospro’s entire leadership system. The goal was for every manager in the company to apply the agreed shared model of frontline leadership in their own leadership work, strengthening collegial support and the management of managerial work.

SLII® and Educo’s Expertise Made a Strong Impression

“We explored different frontline leadership models and methodologies and concluded that Blanchard’s SLII® offers the kind of framework for frontline leadership that we want to learn and embed as part of Sospro’s leadership foundation and operating culture,” says Teemu Annala.

Although Educo Valmennustalo, as Blanchard’s Global Partner in Finland, was in practice the only party able to bring the SLII® model to Sospro, the decisive factor was Educo’s strong experience and expertise in leadership development.

“Educo impressed us with its experience and expertise in designing and implementing impactful leadership training programs. Already during the introductory phase, we felt that this was a partner who speaks the same language as us and has clearly identified the need for frontline leadership development that organizations have, and where we also had room to develop,” says Teemu Annala.

Leadership Training Designed for Sospro’s Needs

A 10-day training program tailored to Sospro’s starting point was built for the organization. It was carried out over the course of one year in modules of two consecutive in-person training days. In addition to the intensive in-person training days, the program included pre-assignments, guided application, and online clinics related to applying the SLII® model. A steering group dedicated to the training program also supported the process. What made the implementation exceptional was that all approximately 45 participants were in the same group. For this reason, some of the training days were facilitated by two trainers.

“The content of the training program was tailored to our leadership system, even though the strong conceptual perspective of SLII® was present in every training day. It felt like a shared language was found for the training. The frontline managers, middle management, and senior management who took part in the trainings have given excellent feedback on the in-person training days, and the participants have gained valuable learnings to take with them,” says Teemu Annala, describing his experience of the “Johda huolella -johda huoletta” leadership training.

“I appreciate the way the trainers fully engaged with questions related to our industry as well. The trainers were very experienced, which was also evident in the strong yet relaxed approach with which the in-person training days were delivered. It has also been very important to Educo to understand how the learnings have been implemented in everyday work and how that implementation could be supported already during the training itself,” continues Teemu Annala.

Visible and Measured Results

“The training met its objectives, and the SLII® learnings have also been put into practice. Before the final training session, an SLII®-kuntotesti was carried out, and based on its results, the participants have begun implementing the learnings in their everyday work. We will also measure the development of leadership competence later on,” says Teemu Annala.

According to him, the quality of frontline leadership has improved. In leadership situations, there is now a better ability to identify what kind of leadership is actually needed, and leadership style is adapted more precisely based on the task- or goal-specific needs of the person being led. This is visible in a reduction in situations of both over-leading and under-leading.

Invest in Identifying the Development Need

Teemu Annala offers advice to others planning a similar development initiative:

“The organization needs to have a strong understanding of the cornerstones of its own leadership competence and the direction in which it wants to take leadership. This clarifies what the organization is looking for from the training and how the learnings from the training are intended to be implemented in everyday work. There also needs to be an understanding of what changes are being sought.”

“Based on this positive experience, we will continue our cooperation with Educo. For example, new managers will also receive SLII® training, because it is now Sospro’s frontline leadership model. We will also support the use of the training learnings and the SLII® model through various support tools and solutions,” adds Teemu Annala.