Be so much more! Do so much more! Achieve so much more!
How much are you feeling satisfied, productive and engaged in your work? Could you improve your performance in some areas? Could you use some support to help achieve your goals or ambitions?
Of course, there’s no one way to achieve fulfilment and professional success in life – not least because we all have different personalities, aptitudes, values and aspirations. But findings in established fields like humanistic psychology, together with newer fields like neuroscience, offer many clear pointers.
Combining such applied psychology with practical management experience
We help clients – individual professionals or small workplace peer-groups – to boost their effectiveness and performance in their work by advancing and upgrading their personal and professional mindsets, skills, habits/practices, and strategies for long-term impact. In a way that empowers and creates synergy between a client’s values, goals and personal wellbeing.
Our senior partner, Mike Owen, focusses in this area, bringing 25+ years’ broad business and organisational experience as well as two management degrees and wide experience in individual development and performance coaching / mentoring.
The essential starting point – good health and self-knowledge
We believe the bedrock for any fulfilling life is twofold:
A healthy individual: Well-rounded, good health, so you are (and stay!) fit, able, and motivated to take on life’s opportunities. Not just physical health (nutrition, exercise, sleep) but wider aspects like your lifestyle, mindset, emotional health, mental wellbeing, and relationships.
Self-insight: Really knowing about yourself and what you want in your life and career is key to choosing the right opportunities, being happy and ‘growing’ as a person. Key aspects include knowing your personality, strengths/weaknesses, key values/beliefs, main likes/dislikes, key aspirations, and taking self-responsbility. Self-insight is also key for being an ‘authentic‘ leader.
We can help you look at all these aspects. So you can be in a better, more positive position to plan your future, develop wider skills, and achieve the results you want.
Core performance skills we can help with:
Peforming well in any role needs a range of core’ qualities and skills, supported by useful practices/habits:
Mindset: for example, a learning/growing mindset; positive outlook; open-minded, curiousity, self-confidence, passion and integrity.
Self-management: including control over thoughts/emotions; focus; drive/energy; persistence; courage; adadptability; patience; willpower and time-management.
Relational & team skills: including listening; empathy; team motivation; collaboration; and influencing.
Thinking skills: for example, critical thinking; creative thinking; using your unconscious brain; strategic thinking; decision-making and problem-solving.
Our specialist focus: ‘high-performance’ cognitive skills
Research (e.g. by jobsite Indeed, 2016) has indicated, from amongst the range of skills above, the top-ranking qualities typical of ‘high performers‘ at work revolve around problem-solving, drive, a learning mindset, strategic thinking, collaboration and adaptability. These are the key areas where we often focus on with clients – particularly strategic thinking skills.
Of course, most executive situations or challenges call for specific combinations of skills, knowledge and approach. Based on all the different management scenarios he’s actually experienced in his own career (unlike many coaches!), Mike will have relatable insight to help boost your handling of most executive situations. Including elevating your general ‘situational‘ skills like how to ‘read’ situations, how to consider both inner-self and outward influences, and how to make choices efficiently.
Supporting you along the journey to achieving goals and ambitions
Whatever your hopes or aspirations for the future, success will be more assured if you apply a range of proven achievement tactics. Ranging from the best way to define goals and plan the ‘journey’, through managing your mindset and emotions, to keeping motivated and dealing with challenges and obstacles. Mike can help you make use of all the best tactics, habits and tools along the journey, as well, of course, as providing friendly encouragement, guidance and support.
Individualised 1:1 or small peer-group coaching:
For individuals, choose either a short number of intensive, in-person coaching sessions (each lasting 2-3 hours) or a series of shorter (60-minute) sessions run over several weeks or months (either online or in-person). Coaching over a period is usually better, as it gives more opportunity to link to current projects/challenges in your job and more time for vital practice, reflection and feedback. Of course, all our coaching is tailored and designed to suit each client.
For employers who perhaps have a small number of staff with similar coaching needs, we can likewise offer short/intensive or multiple-session ‘group’ programmes. We deliberately limit each group to just two or three people, so everyone has enough 1:1 coaching attention as well opportunity to share and discuss experiences and challenges together. Of course, programmes are carefully designed with the employer’s senior management to suit and support coachees’ current projects as well as learning needs.
We use a variety of approaches and methods, but typically including a mix of goal-setting, questionnaire, self-reflection, guided input, mental models, suggested techniques, skill practice, discussion and feedback and, crucially, action/commitment planning.
Every coaching session is centred around each individual, giving plenty of space to explore your thoughts and reflect on your experience, consider the improved/future outcomes you want, and then help you identify actual tactics, behaviours and actions that will move you forward.
For areas of health/wellbeing support, our extended team includes qualified expert fitness/health coaches
FREE, initial ‘discovery’ consultation
The overall aim with our individual development and performance coaching is to help our clients elevate their levels of confidence, skill, effectiveness and fulfilment in what they do.
What specific performance issues are on your mind ?
As a first step, we suggest a no-cost, totally confidential 1:1 chat with Mike. Either online or by phone. Tell him what’s on your mind and discover some ideas/proposals about how he could assist.
Phone us on 01886 881092 or fill in the Contact page on this website.