Clare Moore

Clare is an accomplished coach and leadership facilitator, working with corporate, public and third sector clients around the UK. Her pragmatic and flexible style is valued by coaching clients and Directors seeking to drive culture change and to up skill their people.

Having started her career in British Airways and moving to Telecoms, Clare has spent the last 10 years partnering with organisations to improve individual and team performance.

What makes Clare happy?

-seeing the lightbulbs go off in people’s heads
-asking questions that help people to find their own answer
-seeing a great result to a complex project
-working with smart, funny, lively people
-family time, especially sports outdoors

Desiree Ashton

Des is known among our clients as both ‘Mum’ and ‘Goddess of Logistics’. She supports us both day-to-day and also in the delivery of bespoke development programmes. From documents to people, she ensures project logistics run to plan. She offers wide-ranging support to our consultant team and is the oil that ensures the ethos engine continues to run smoothly.

What makes Des happy?

Helping others appreciate new possibilities
Laughing with loved ones
Being on a deserted beach at sunset
Dancing like no one’s watching
Learning something new

Being Optimistic can be Learned!

While being sceptical can be a healthy way to avoid getting taken advantage of, being pessimistic – that is, always assuming the worst – can have major negative consequences on your life. Seeing only the negative aspects of any situation can cause you to miss opportunities, neglect problems that need to be solved, and fail to take action that would otherwise improve your relationships and quality of life. In fact, studies show that pessimists are more likely to develop chronic illnesses later on in life than optimists.

Optimists look for the light at the end of the tunnel the possibilities in life. If you’ve always had a pessimistic perspective, it can be difficult to shift your focus, but it is possible to start seeing the glass as half full, not half empty.

 

Practical Steps

1. “ It always happens to me” you can discard that false assumption that the World is against you for a start. It has no basis in reason or science. You may have picked up the skill of pessimism from a parent or early life experience. Either way the sooner you can link your pessimism to a set of unique circumstances rather than a perceived general malaise in the world it will be easier to change your perspective.

2. Much like in the world of investment past performance does not guarantee future success or failure for that matter. Just because something hasn’t worked out well in the past does not mean that you will be unsuccessful this time. Each occasion is different and unique.

3. “People are always blaming their circumstances… the people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them” (George Bernard Shaw). If you are unhappy with your current situation, set goals and take action. Action involves risk and you cannot guarantee that it will end positively but the upside is that some action will lead to good results. Action also gives you a sense of progress which will change your situation and give you a greater sense of control.

4. Train your brain! Your training your brain and like any muscle that needs to be exercised regularly and in the right way. Have you ever wondered why some people are able to stay positive, calm and rational under stress whilst others show anger, fear or anxiety? The former are working with the possibility of success and the later have lost control of their limbic system and have gone into fight or flight mode. Mental drills help us gain control of our limbic system and switch on our clever neo–cortex to solve the challenges we face.

5. Mental Drill:
a. Notice what you have got right in recent weeks. Take confidence from your successes no matter how small.
b. Write down what your concerns and anxieties are for the week ahead. If you are honest with yourself about them then you can see them in perspective and face them more confidently.
c. Be clear with yourself about what you control and influence? Don’t imagine.
d. Decide what action you can take to bring out the best leader in you. I say Leader because you need to lead yourself away from pessimism and towards optimism before you can lead anyone else.

6. Be a realistic optimist. Becoming more optimistic is not about looking at the world through rose tinted glasses it is about taking a measured and positive view of the possibilities in a situation.

Changing the Culture Remotely!

Building Leaders throughout the Organisation

The world of Financial Information has one constant it gets faster. Our Global client saw the need to make their Technical Support more cost effective, more consistent and swifter. Read more

Kathy de Beer

Kathy de Beer

Kathy has a strong track record delivering valuable outcomes to a variety of business clients. She is highly regarded by those individuals and teams she coaches, as well as by those who invite her to partner on more complex organisational projects.

Kathy’s academic background is in Business Psychology and she has extensive experience applying this expertise to help a range of organisations. This gives her a scientific and pragmatic approach to supporting clients, and a deep understanding of desired outcomes such as performance and well-being, and the relationship between them.

What makes Kathy happy?
– helping people, especially strangers
– doing work that other people value
– exploring outdoors with friends: by bike, boat, boots, board, whatever…
– music, especially playing in orchestras
– laughing, especially when linked to one of the above

Anthony Richards

Anthony Richards

Anthony is an Executive Coach and Management Trainer, graduating with a diploma from the AOEC. He has 12 years experience in devising and delivering Leadership Development activities focussing on communication skills. He has extended into this work from a career as a Chief Executive of an arts charity developing new work in the SW of England, and as a Theatre Director. His experience in coaching good performances from actors translates into the ability to deliver incisive and clear personal feedback, in a style which can be understood and acted upon. Anthony understands that effective leadership skills are founded on an accurate assessment of self and to that end he can work with a number of psychometric models, and assessment tools.

Anthony is skilled in using experiential learning techniques within personal development activities; turning theoretical concepts into coachable practical skills that stick.

He has designed and delivered training for Exeter, Portsmouth and Chichester Universities and Imperial College, HSBC, BMW, South West Water, Vodafone, ThomsonReuters, Source, and Action Aid. Other clients include London Underground, Harrow Council, The Royal College of General Practitioners, The Diversity Practice, and numerous others in the Public, Private and Third sector.

He is a trustee of a charity, founder/director of two UK Ltd. Companies and a governor of his local school.

Rob Pitt

Rob Pitt

Rob has worked in the field of learning and development for over ten years with a particular focus on enabling individual and team performance through coaching.  He is an International Coach Federation Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and Organisation and Relationship Systems Coach (ORSC).

Working internationally with leaders and teams in organisations from a range of sectors, Rob specialises in enabling conversations that get beneath behaviour and symptoms to understand what’s happening at a deeper systemic level, improving relationships and creating healthy change.  Alongside his work with businesses Rob maintains a percentage of non-corporate coaching work with private clients and supports other projects he’s passionate about.

His background also includes six years service in the Royal Marines, working as a professional mountaineering instructor (MIA), and leading expeditions worldwide.

He lives in Snowdonia with his wife Helen where he climbs, runs, cycles and generally enjoys the outdoors.

Graham Smith

Graham Smith

Director

Graham is passionate about helping individuals; teams and organisations work and perform under pressure. He has developed his own understanding practically within the Royal Marines and over the last 12 years as a Business Therapist helping global organisations change their ways of working to improve performance. Over that time Graham has been struck on a number of occasions by the positive correlation between those people who sustain their personal and organisational happiness under adversity and their ability to perform to their potential.

What makes Graham Happy?
– Creating laughter
– Those “ahah” moments.
– Helping people who are passionate about what they do, do it better
– Rugby and learning to Kite Surf still…
– Mountains, waterfalls and wild places err Scotland…

Getting sense out of the Mad Men

Sykes Fairbairn defining leadership

Making Progress by facing the real issues

The Client was a London based PLC advertising agency. The brief was to see how we can improve their processes and systems. Read more