Tag Archives: coaching

News

Former rugby stars prove a big hit at Howorth Air Technology

Rugby league players are used to making big hits on the pitch – now former stars of the sport are proving a big hit off the field, helping Howorth Air Technology stay ahead of the game on employee welfare.

Howorth’s partnership with the charity Rugby League Cares sees ex-players draw on their personal experiences and specialist training to deliver mental fitness and wellbeing workshops to the company’s employees.

The latest coaching session at Howorth under the charity’s Offload programme was delivered by Bob Beswick, whose league career saw him make 433 senior appearances for clubs including Wigan, Widnes and Leigh, as well as 25 international caps for Ireland.

Howorth director John Hale said teaming up with Rugby League Cares has proved to be a great match.

“The positive impact of the Offload sessions delivered to our teams flows through to productivity and the bottom line. The partnership with Rugby League Cares is one of the many building blocks that has enabled our business growth and employee engagement over recent years,” he said.

The partnership also sees Howorth staff hold events at its sites in Bolton and Salford to raise funds for the charity.

Rugby League Cares, founded 10 years ago, is an independent charity which supports players at the end of their careers by providing education and training grants to equip them with the skills and qualifications they need for the next stage of their lives. It also provides practical and financial support to current and former players who have poor health or are enduring hardship.

In the communities where rugby league is played, the Offload programme has helped tens of thousands of people in businesses and organisations to better manage their own mental wellbeing and support those around them.

Many Howorth staff are avid RL fans and the company has won several awards for its commitment to the development, wellbeing and engagement of its employees.

John said: “We have a proud culture of valuing and empowering our people, providing a safe and enjoyable place to work and enabling them to receive the technical and wellbeing support they need to develop in their jobs and thrive in their lives as a whole.

“We know from the positive feedback we’ve received that the Offload sessions are of real tangible benefit to the individuals taking part, their family circles and friendships.

“People feel that they help them to build resilience and coping strategies. They’ve been motivated and empowered to look after themselves from a mental fitness and wellbeing perspective, and that in turn has had a beneficial impact on the business and employee engagement.

“We have six Offload workshops each year, which are well-attended, and we provide monthly drop-in sessions as part of the programme too. We also help the charity by raising funds, and we open our doors to RL players who are looking to transition from their career as a professional athlete, to help them to understand business and the 9-5 life.”

Howorth, which has its headquarters in Farnworth, Bolton, and a facility at Raven Locks in Little Hulton, Salford, designs, manufactures and assembles ultra clean air equipment for use in operating theatres, and for the pharma, biotechnology and life science industries. The company, which turns over more than £20m a year, employs over 130 staff across its operations in the UK and the United States.

John was among the guests at a recent event at Speaker’s House in Westminster. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons and president of the Rugby Football League, hosted the event, which was held to showcase the work of Rugby League Cares and recognise the support of its partners.

Chris Rostron, chief executive of Rugby League Cares, said: “We were delighted that Howorth were able to join us at Speaker’s House as we celebrated both the important work the charity does in rugby league communities and the vision we share with our partners for enhancing the mental fitness of those closest to us.

“Howorth’s progressive and proactive approach to mental wellbeing is reflected in the company’s continued growth, and everyone at RL Cares is proud of the part we are playing in that success. Howorth’s managing director Jim Liptrot and his team are passionate advocates for our Offload programme and we would like to thank them for championing our work so enthusiastically within the corridors of power at Westminster.”

Finance and Banking, News, North of England

HURST blazes a trail with new Vistage Inside leadership development programme

Independent accounting and business advisory firm HURST is blazing a trail with a new leadership development programme for 12 of its rising stars.

HURST is the first accountancy firm headquartered in the north to launch a Vistage Inside programme for future leaders.

Vistage, with 45,000 members worldwide, is a global leader in personal development and advisory groups for CEOs, key executives and leadership teams, providing insight, fresh perspectives, peer advisory groups, coaching and mentoring.

The two-year Vistage Inside programme combines tailored workshops with speaker sessions, insight papers, webinars and one-to-one coaching.

HURST’s bespoke Developing Leaders initiative is being delivered by Victoria Gee, former managing partner at executive search company Warren Partners, in her role as the founder and chair of a Manchester and Cheshire Vistage CEO peer advisory group.

The programme began this month with a full-day workshop and a talk by award-winning speaker, business author and ‘corporate athlete’ Brad Waldron on the key habits of highly-effective leadership.

Chris Stewardson, the HURST partner who is leading the programme for the firm, said: “The partners firmly believe it is essential to equip our developing leaders with the commercial, client and people skills to ensure the continued success and growth of the practice.

“Several of the HURST board have benefited from Vistage membership for some time, and we are now bringing Vistage to a wider group of people in the firm who are developing into a leadership role. The group is very excited to be working with Victoria to assist with their self-development and look forward to putting their learnings into practice.”

HURST focuses on advising entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses with turnover of £10m and above across all sectors. Clients include Kinaxia Logistics, M&I Materials, Beechfield Brands, Duerr’s, Oliver Valves, Lancashire County Cricket Club, Krones UK, Creamline Dairies, Arighi Bianchi, Scapa Group and Hyde Group.

Victoria said: “HURST’s senior leaders have seen the value of developing their skills and knowledge in partnership with our organisation, and it’s great to see the firm taking an impressively proactive approach to developing its leaders of the future and investing to ensure they continue to meet the expectations of its entrepreneurial client base and team.

“The practice has a fantastic culture, a great reputation and a strong position in the market, which all set it apart, but its leaders understand they cannot be complacent as they compete to attract, retain and grow their talent.”

She added: “We provide an environment where people can learn and be challenged in an open, supportive way that’s aligned to the culture at HURST.

“Our aim is to ensure that they are not only great technical accountants but also rounded leaders who understand entrepreneurs and the challenges and opportunities they face, and who are equipped to have the right conversations at the right time.

“As the first accountancy firm headquartered in the north to have launched a VI programme of this kind, it’s extremely exciting to be working with HURST and helping to bring on its next generation of leaders.”

Andy Perkins, managing director of international operations at Vistage UK, said: “The partnership between HURST and Vistage is a great example of our mission in action.

“Through this collaboration we’ll be able to support HURST to do more of what’s important to the firm – focusing on personal and business growth, supporting its people to become better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results, as well as placing the values of trust, challenge and care at the centre of everything they do.

“We know that better leaders have a positive impact on their companies, families and communities, and we are thrilled to be supporting HURST in its continued growth plans and developing its leadership talent of the future.”

HURST is due to move its head office to a new flagship development in Stockport in the spring to accommodate its growing team. The firm is taking 11,000sq ft at 3 Stockport Exchange, the latest phase of a £145m project by Muse Developments and Stockport Council.

HURST is taking a 10-year lease and will occupy the entire fifth floor at the building. It has been based since 1998 in Tiviot Dale in Stockport town centre, but has outgrown those premises. The new HQ will give the firm scope to expand from 120 staff to around 170, which it aims to achieve over the next three years.

Coaching, News, Thought Leadership

Giving people something to believe in

Written by Business Coach Des Kennedy

“OKRs are not a silver bullet. They’re not going to be a substitute for a strong cultute or for stronger leadership, but when those fundamentals are in place, they can take you to the mountain top” – John Doerr.

Business leaders who embrace Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) do so because they seek transformational change. But it’s important to remember that the framework itself is not a silver bullet.

Introducing and embedding OKRs takes time, commitment and buy-in at all levels. And even when you’ve mastered the skills required, you may still find you are not achieving the outcomes you’d aimed for.

That’s because, although OKRs is a powerful tool, it’s ultimately your people that make change happen. So, understanding what drives and connects them is key to OKRs success.

Businesses are human systems. And, like all systems, the better organised and interconnected they are the better they perform.

So, what makes people want to get behind a common goal and embrace a different way of working?  At AuxinOKR we believe the answer starts with purpose. Or, to put it another way, a person’s ability to answer these two simple questions:

  1. Why am I doing this?
  2. Why are we doing this?

Belief in a common purpose motivates people to alter their behaviour both individually and collectively. When this behavioural change leads to positive outcomes their belief gets stronger and motivation increases.

OKRs enable this process to gather and maintain momentum. It’s worth exploring each element in detail to see how they relate to each other.

Purpose

More people today want to work for employers with a clear purpose. Businesses and organisations that aren’t just there to make money for a single stakeholder or achieve growth at all costs but that have a set of deeply held values that they, as employees, can subscribe to and believe in. While increasingly customers and other stakeholders of a business expect it to do more than offer products and services.

Consultancy firm EY defines companies with purpose as those that “create value for a broad set of stakeholders, including society and the environment and that have an aspirational reason for being that is grounded in humanity and that inspires a clear call to action.”

Research shows that 75% of executives of purposeful companies recognise that purpose drives value over the short and longer-term. Including: building customer loyalty; preserving brand reputation; delivering innovative products and services; as well as attracting and retaining top talent.

Beliefs

It is widely recognised that our belief system drives our behaviour. Educational psychologist Dr Bobby Hoffman proposes that human behaviour is based on a set of five tacit self-beliefs that in aggregate determine what we do, how we do it and how we see our accomplishments. These self-beliefs are a set of guiding principles. Operating on a subconscious level these five self-beliefs are:

  • Control
  • Competency
  • Value
  • Goal-orientation
  • Epistemology

Motivation

Motivation at work falls into two categories. Extrinsic motivation is driven by the prospect of external rewards such as a pay rise, bonuses or recognition for a job well done. While intrinsic motivation comes from inside and speaks to a positive emotional response, like a feeling of enjoyment and fulfilment for example.

There are many reasons why we, as individuals, turn up for work every day. These include: enjoying our role; the challenge it presents; the culture of the organisation we work for; the people we work with; the opportunities it provides to further our career; and the money we receive at the end of the month.

Conventional wisdom states that those who are more intrinsically motivated make better employees. In his best-selling book Drive author Dan Pink sets out a model for helping employees become more intrinsically motivated. Stating that rewards alone do little to improve a person’s engagement with tasks and that the ‘carrot and stick’ approach of old is no longer effective in the modern workplace.

Self-determination theory suggests that people are motivated by three innate needs:

  • Autonomy — people need to feel in control of their own behaviour and goals.
  • Competence — people need to master the skills required for success.
  • Connection — people need to feel a sense of belonging and attachment to others.

Behaviour 

Effective business leaders realised long ago that the ‘command and control’ approach of the past is simply not sustainable. Recognising instead the importance of clarity, connection and consideration in every person-to-person interaction. A leader’s role is to guide and encourage individuals towards certain positive behaviours like:

  • Championing company values
  • Commitment, cooperation and collaboration
  • Welcoming new ideas
  • Supporting, trusting and respecting one another
  • Communicating clearly and often

OKRs as a catalyst

When looking at purpose, beliefs, motivation and behaviour in this way the common themes that run throughout each become apparent. But if a business is to achieve transformational change, it needs defined goals and a clear plan to achieve them as well to measure progress. And this is where Objectives and Key Results come in.

When combined with a clear purpose OKRs act as a catalyst increasing conductivity between beliefs, motivation and behaviour.

OKRs actively encourage autonomy, competence and connection (self-determination) amongst teams while providing demonstrable proof that behavioural change delivers positive outcomes.

When your employees believe they have a positive effect on outcomes at work, they become more motivated and engaged. While the conversations, feedback and recognition OKRs promote, support and encourage them as they learn and grow.

As the habits and skills required become second nature so OKRs help build a high-performing team. A team with clearly defined goals and committed actions. With true transparency and accountability. A team that is willing and able to communicate clearly and celebrate each other’s successes.

To learn more about OKRs and how to use them in your business, visit www.auxinokr.com

News

Using OKRS to transform business in a new working environment

Managing the challenges of rapid business growth while also adapting to a hybrid world of working forced by the global pandemic will be among the topics raised at this year’s international OKR Forum 2022.

National business coach Peter Kerr will highlight how the business management framework tool of OKRs can help overcome the challenges faced by hypergrowth companies, while also helping create a strong team culture to establish resilience to adapt to new ways of working.

Peter Kerr, MD of the rapidly expanding UK-based specialist coaching consultancy AuxinOKR, will be a key contributor to the OKR Forum event, being held virtually on February 3. He will be talking to Lavanya Gopinath, director of operations at Chargebee, about the challenges of rolling out OKRs across a global tech business with a geographically dispersed workforce.

The OKR Forum is the fourth event of its kind featuring a mixture of keynote speakers, expert workshops, and case studies of OKR implementation. Delegates can learn from international brands such as LinkedIn, Colgate-Palmolive, and Renault on how to engage teams for better outcomes with the agile goal and performance management framework, known as OKRs.

AuxinOKR, which has clients around the UK and overseas – including SAP, ASOS, Which?, Bitstamp, Chargebee and South African bank absa – has a proven record of helping ambitious companies and organisations establish an OKR strategy that enables them to achieve their goals.

Chargebee is a leading international subscription billing platform on a fast-track trajectory powering some of the fastest-growing SaaS and subscription-based businesses in the world. The company, valued at $1.4b in April 2021 has more than 3,000 customers across the US, Europe and rest of the world. Digital transformation has accelerated the opportunities for Chargebee, and the company saw OKRs as a tool to drive cultural change across the business.

Peter Kerr says: “Chargebee is a fabulous company with a great product. Digital transformation across more companies has created huge opportunities for Chargebee but they recognised they needed to change themselves to become a stronger, more agile, and resilient business.

“Chargebee saw OKRs as a way to create a focus and clarity across the entire business, spread across several countries. OKRs have helped establish a new culture, one where everyone is clear about the company vision and key goals and their roles in helping achieve growth and success.

“And, of course, this was made even more challenging by being implemented during a pandemic. OKRs helped Chargebee accelerate the push for collaboration, transparency and understanding during this difficult period.”

This year’s OKR Forum online event will feature world-class OKR experts such as Ben Lamorte, Felipe Castro, Francesca Nardocci, Melanie Wessels and many more, along with leading international companies.

For more details visit: https://hopin.com/events/okr-forum-2022/registration

News

Local entrepreneurial mum who transformed her life through therapy launches fund-raising book to show others what’s possible.

A local entrepreneur who just 4 years ago was a single mum on maternity leave from working as a social worker at Newport City Council, wondering how to create a business that could give her flexibility around her new baby, is celebrating a fabulous achievement today, having become a bestselling author for the 3rd time, but this time being at the helm of the process showcasing 16 other incredible women, and also fundraising for NAPAC – National Association for People Abused in Childhood, a charity that supports survivors of childhood abuse.

Natasha Bray, 34, from Bridgend who Studied Masters in Social Work at Cardiff University and BSc Psychology with Criminology at Uni. Glamorgan has created the collaboration book “When Women Heal” as part of her work with other female entrepreneurs who are looking to move forward from trauma, tragedy feeling stuck or self-sabotage and is delighted to announce that the book went bestseller within hours of its release, flying straight in at Number 1 on the Amazon bestseller charts in over 10 categories including No 1 in Inspiration and Spirituality, knocking Jay Shetty off the top spot and No 1 in Entrepreneurship overtaking global inspirational speaker Simon Senek and also The E-Myth’s Michael Gerber and No.1 in Starting a Small Business category along with Business Coaching and Mentoring Skills; International Business and Finance; Home Based Business as well as No. 1 bestseller in business biographies to name just a few!

 Providing a cathartic and empowering release of many emotions the book is a huge achievement for all involved including women from across the UK, and across the globe, and she hopes to raise significant funds for NAPAC, a charity close to her heart, who she reached out to in 2018 and who supported her through the latter part of her healing around childhood abuse. The charity were so overrun with calls to their helpline Natasha could not get an answer, but the resources for survivors on their website really helped her. She has supported the charity, which is a small, not very well known charity that often misses out on funding, in other ways through her business but felt donating all the profits from the book to them was a fitting tribute. Natasha also has plans to fund NAPAC to run Wales’ first in-person support group for survivors, something she approached them about pre Covid, but is currently on hold due to the pandemic.

‘When Women Heal’ is an anthology of the magical ripple effect of success when women heal and lead themselves and is a direct result of Natasha’s teachings. Natasha, a psychology expert and the founder of the School of Healing Mastery and an Award Winning Success Mastery Coach & Transformational Pioneer in the business success industry has spent tens of thousands of pounds on her own recovery process and thousands of hours on development of her own healing methods as a result. She helps high achievers and rising leaders heal childhood wounds and rapidly unlock their “Ultimate Uplevel” through her signature healing method HeartHealing® and her uniquely developed 5 level healing approach, Success Imprinting®.

This year she has become a 7 figure business owner and bought her dream home during Covid and has just announced her pregnancy with her partner, after many years of unhappiness in previous relationships  – she is the happiest and wholest she has ever felt, and she believes this has led to her channelling her success to also create unprecedented breakthroughs in those she supports. Natasha is creating a global ripple effect through the power of healing and ‘When Women Heal” is a real illustration of this.

She said: ”This year after doing more and more work on my own healing, and unlocking new levels of my own success I have created the life of my dreams, and it is no co-incidence I have also helped more clients than ever create theirs. From being trapped by trauma to finding the confidence to grow businesses and create financial independence I’ve seen women on their knees go on to build 6 and multi-6 figure businesses provide a better life and future for themselves and their children and create lives they love they feel in control of.”

Natasha has drawn on her personal experience of healing from chronic childhood trauma and abuse to design her own healing methods which are now being shared across the world and helping other women become successful and balanced financially, emotionally and spiritually. Her approach is ‘trauma and attachment informed’ and includes an innovative combination of hypnotherapy, inner child healing and spiritual techniques.

With over 15 years’ experience in transformational work, working with thousands of entrepreneurs across 52 countries worldwide, her work has helped women break through to higher levels of love, money and success in as little as one session. She has been featured in local and national papers and recognised as one of the top 35 entrepreneurs in her country. Natasha was also highly commended at the Woman of the Future Awards earlier this year.

Natasha brings together 16 inspiring women leaders from across the globe to share their own real and raw journeys through trauma and healing. The book is a rollercoaster read of emotions as we hear honest accounts of childhood abuse, domestic violence, early widowhood and near-death experiences.

Natasha said, “We have been working on this book for over 6 months as part of wider work with all these amazing women who are really ready to move forward in their lives. They have all been supported by a wide range of therapeutic work that we have undertaken together and everyone has come together, bonding through these shared life experiences – it’s been an empowering project for everyone involved -me included. There is a real sense of power in all of these women’s stories and it’s been an honour to celebrate them in this book”.

The fact that Emma Elizabeth Godfrey found the strength to share her story, only 1 year after being thrown into widowhood after the sudden death of her husband in 2020, leaving her and her daughter to find a way through and rebuild their lives, shows the power of Natasha’s approach to healing and the strength of her clients. Emma is now a highly successful Certified Advanced Hypnotherapist, Trauma Freedom Coach and Resilience Expert and training in Natasha’s HeartHealing method.

Intuitive Niche and Message Clarity Expert Shamoni Gilani is another perfect example of the impact Natasha’s work is having. Shamoni suffered childhood sexual abuse as a teenager which left her for years with underlying depression and unresolved emotions. After struggling with illness which left her bed ridden for over two years, she started to work with Natasha and within months she saw her physical health improve and a dramatic increase in her business, leading to monthly turnover of over £25K.
Each woman’s story is very different but there are so many parts of their journey that we can all relate to and as Natasha points out “The fact is, we all have things to heal from, whether we believe we have been through ‘trauma’ or not. We all have emotional wounds that haven’t had the metaphorical stitches they need to fully heal and learning ways to move on from these is truly life changing”.

She added: “These incredible women leave you with a strong message of hope, inspiration and optimism as they share their stories of great success after adversity and I hope this will show others what is possible -because when women heal, we change the world.”.

Natasha’s book is available on Amazon Kindle as well as in paperback via Amazon.

As part of the online launch of her book, Natasha is hosting a global summit where all 16 women will be sharing their journeys and celebrating their stories of success.

She is also hosting a live fundraising event on the 26th June in London where all ticket sales will also go to NAPAC.

Kim Bond, Fundraising Manager, NAPAC  said “We truly value Natasha’s ongoing support for NAPAC and this extraordinary collaboration she has driven through over such a challenging year. It’s the generosity and confidence of supporters like her that enables us to continue our work supporting adult survivors of childhood abuse in their recovery.”

“Our support service hears from hundreds of people every week, and we’re hugely grateful to our donors who help us to continue listening, learning and investing in survivors.

“When women heal, we change the world. Fact.”

 

L & D, Law, South East

Law Firm Boyes Turner Launches New Coaching Service

Leading law firm Boyes Turner, based in Reading, today announced that it is expanding its existing wide range of employment law and HR offerings with the launch of a new coaching service. The service is aimed at any organisation looking to offer coaching to its employees and reflects the direction that law firms need to move towards, according to Boyes Turner.

The Boyes Turner employment team has been acting for some time as an extension to human resources teams, providing them with an integrated range of employee advisory services. The coaching service is a continuation of this and has been developed in response to client requests for the firm to play an all-round advisory role, rather than offering purely legal support.

Whilst coaching isn’t a regulated industry, Boyes Turner considers regulation important. All Boyes Turner’s coaches are accredited with one of the major coaching bodies. The new service is available on a 1:1 or team basis and covers a variety of topics including executive and career coaching.

Helen Goss, Partner, Boyes Turner, commented,

“Organisations benefit from providing coaching to their employees by helping them address the war for talent in terms of attracting and retaining the best staff. It encourages employees to feel valued and so increases loyalty and motivation, improving productivity.”

The move into HR services, in addition to legal solutions, reflects the views of Boyes Turner that the future for law firms lies in advising clients on issues beyond the purely legal. As a firm with many fast-moving tech clients, Boyes Turner continually evolves and develops its services to ensure it continues to add real value, as clients’ business models change.

Helen added,

“Our clients tell us that what they want are solutions to their problems. Sometimes the solution is a legal one, but requirements are often more complex and need a broader approach. Coaching is just one way we work can work with HR to provide this. Boyes Turner is one of the few law firms to recognise that businesses increasingly want their legal teams to play a broader advisory role – and to actually offer this.”

SAR Support

Also announced today by Boyes Turner is the availability of a new service to help with subject access requests (SARs), which, like the coaching service, is designed to provide a solution to issues HR teams have told the firm they regularly encounter.

With the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018, individuals are increasingly aware of their rights. One of these is the right of customers, suppliers and employees to request to see what data a company holds about them. The new SARs service combines the expertise of Boyes Turner’s lawyers with the latest AI technology. It will provide organisations with a cost-effective solution to dealing with SARs, thus helping avoid possible fines and reputational risk.

Barry Stanton, who heads the employment team at Boyes Turner said,

“Since the introduction of GDPR we have seen a marked increase in the number of SARs that HR teams are faced with. A combination of the speed needed to respond, the large volume of data which HR teams need to review and the eye-watering fines at stake make these one of the key issues keeping HR up at night.”

Boyes Turner’s solution demonstrates how the firm is continually innovating. Barry commented,

“As a business we’ve never stood still because our clients don’t. We are among the first wave of law firms to realise we need to mirror the changes our clients are going through. This means becoming real business advisors rather than just suppliers of legal services.”

More details can be found at https://www.boyesturnerhrsolutions.com/