Smart Coaching and Training | Business Support, Consultancy, Mentoring

Transforming Businesses and Lives | Coaching, Mentoring & Training for Excellence

 

+44 (0)7788425688 | info@smartcoachingtraining.com

 

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Our Scope
    • Our Approach
    • Social Value
  • Our People and Partners
  • What We Offer
    • Signature Corporate Training, Longer Courses and Retreats
    • Workshops and Short Courses
    • On-Line Courses
    • Behavioural Preference Profiling with C-me
    • Diversity, Inclusion and Teams
    • Wellness at Work
    • Coaching and Mentoring
    • Keynote Speaking, Talking and Writing
    • Consulting and Facilitation
    • Psycho-social Adult Development
    • Intercultural Globality
  • Our Clients
  • Profiling
  • En Español
  • Contact us

27/11/2017 By Isla Baliszewska

Being a Positive Disruptor for TEDxBristol 2017

Being a Positive Disruptor for TEDxBristol 2017

Tess McCoughlan of Flexidb and Halina Jaroszewska at TEDxBristol 2017

 

TEDxBristol is the biggest TEDx event in Europe and is all about spreading new ideas, making an impact and building free knowledge to share to a wide community.  This year TEDxBristol took place in November, with the powerful theme of Dare to Disrupt! focusing on “Bristol’s positive disruptors, whose ideas and actions are ripping up the rule book and having a global impact.”

 

The picture here was taken in the Community Partners hub by Alyssa Haggarty, Trainee Solicitor at Burges Salmon, who were headline sponsors at the 2 day event. Burges Salmon VIP guests throughout the 2 days were asking everyone they came across why they dared to disrupt. Tess Coughlan-Allen from MindDoodle & Flexidb and one of the amazing TEDxBristol 2017’s Community Partners said ‘thinking is non-linear’.  SCT’s very own Halina Jaroszewska who was part of TEDxBristol 2017’s organising team with responsibility for Community Partnerships said she dares to disrupt because ‘I can and do … it’s such fun’.

 

TEdxBristol 2017 was a great success, a sell out and trending on Twitter. The much appreciated sponsorship from the Community Partners enabled community groups, young people and the much older people to attend who might not have been able to do so. A result in line with TEDxBristol’s core values.

 

Post event, TEDxBristol held a Wrap Up Dinner for its partners and Disruptors.  Read more about that event in Richard Hill’s article.

TEDx logo

Filed Under: Enterprise & innovation

08/08/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Can you see the Glass Full of Opportunities?

Can you see the Glass Full of Opportunities?

Glass Half Full

The old question of whether the glass is half full or half empty is simple – the glass is always full.  Air exists, it is a combination of gases, so even with no water in the glass, it is always full.  The glass is full of opportunities.

How is your emotional perspective on news?  Do you tend to see things from a pessimistic or an optimistic viewpoint?  First off, there is no right way for everyone to emotionally experience the same things.  But some of us will tend towards seeing opportunities.

There are countless examples of businesses making huge gaffs or having serious setbacks that they then turn around to their advantage.  It took GoCompare ages to realise how much their moustachioed opera singer annoyed people, yet when they did they used it to up their PR by killing him off, blowing him up and generally doing away with him in spectacular fashion, thereby fitting with what their customers wanted.

Trunki had a business threatening situation when one of their manufacturers fitted dodgy locks that came off and were a potential hazard.  They turned the problem into an asset by using humour messaging to convince irate customers to fit the new catches themselves.

Brexit happened, Donald Trump may be the next President of the USA, Rio has managed to host the Olympics….but what happens next?  The UK could talk itself into a depression, Mr Trump might bring all kinds of unimagined and unpleasant surprises, and Brazil might abandon all of its pre-Olympic pledges.

InnovationBUT…difficult times always lead to something better, there is always an opportunity to make something positive out of a negative (well, in most cases); we just have to

  • have the right attitude
  • be curious and look at what opportunities might be waiting to be uncovered
  • think innovatively; take a different perspective and see what comes to light.

 

It is the unexpected that often happens. Adam Peaty just won a gold medal for swimming, but as a child he didn’t like water, however that didn’t stop him pursuing opportunities to win.

To enable you to be curious and innovative remember the following:

  • Look for perfection in the situation – what can you learn right now?
  • Take full responsibility for the situation that you are in – what are you missing or not seeing? What are the powerful questions to ask to increase / deepen / make sense of your understanding? How might you have contributed to what occurred?
  • Be clear about your desires / intentions and focus on them – go back to basics … check in with your values … how in alignment with them are you?
  • Look for signs of life / momentum and be grateful
  • Be loving, respectful and honouring of all others – colleagues, clients, customers, competitors especially when you both are at odds with your thinking and goals
  • Focus on your environment – how can you clean up your act in all senses?
  • Give yourself credit for amazing courage!

 

Isla Baliszewska and Halina Jaroszewska – 2016

 

Filed Under: Enterprise & innovation, Mindset, Motivation

29/06/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Change The Wallpaper

Change The Wallpaper

Effective ChangeChange is not always sought or planned and not always welcomed.

 

Last year 14 year old Domanik Green hacked into his school computer in Florida.  Did he alter exam answers?  Did he meddle with pupil’s grades?  No. He changed the school computer’s wallpaper.   His reason was simple; he wanted to annoy a teacher he didn’t like.

Some people interviewed after Brexit admitted voting Leave because they were annoyed, wanting to make a point, and they were alarmed at the result. The result has bred high levels of uncertainty and alarm at an unknown future with warnings of doom and calamity looming.

Domanik faced criminal charges for a third degree felony with a maximum sentence of up to 5 years imprisonment and a $5000 fine.  All he wanted to do was make a point.

GETTING THE RIGHT DESIGN

  • Things change.
  • Change has consequences.
  • We are not necessarily able to control change, but we can influence it.

Whether we choose to make a small change or a huge one, we should think about WHY we are doing it.  What might be the unintended consequences?  Domanik probably thought he might be banned from computer access, it is unlikely he considered he might face criminal proceedings.

The great thing about Domanik’s story is that his actions highlighted weaknesses in the school IT policy – he watched his teacher log in using his surname as a password, and apparently other students knew several teacher passwords.  So another unintended consequence of his hacking activities was the overhaul of the school’s IT security.

Change can have positive side effects:

  1. Opportunities for reflection
  2. Opportunities for invention and innovation
  3. Opportunities to improvise and improve

 

A final thought –  How can you influence change, whether it has already happened because of external forces, or the changes that you want to make yourself?

Isla Baliszewska

Filed Under: Decisions, Enterprise & innovation, Managing Change

23/03/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

How mentoring and coaching supports leaders

How mentoring and coaching supports leaders

Following on our theme of  sharing the success stories of some of those we work with and come across, here is the story from Svitlana Surodina, CEO of Skein, another of  the businesses that connected with Halina under the Growth Voucher scheme.  Skein have just been approved by Crown Commercial Services as an official supplier for UK public sector organisations.

“CEO of SkeinSkein is actively growing with some new world-known clients such as TP-link and University of Geneva and we are going  through multiple client project launches and in addition an investment  process for our own projects.

“Developing leadership skills is an integral part of what I do daily, working with a rather large team right now, I need to make sure I communicate the vision and overall business goals by inspiring my team and generating within them the energy and passion that is necessary to proactively make decisions and execute in operations. These skills are developing constantly and as much as they are acquired organically via daily work, sometimes it is important to gain access to professional mentoring advice to more effectively handle new situations or operate in a fast growth environment.

More and more weight is gained by such skills, such as the ability to support a positive and optimistic environment within the team,and understand their aspirations and moods.

For 2016 I am going to focus on scaling up our own product (advertising analytics system, sAnalytix.com) and take a limited number of client technology projects with particular focus on the potential of postive impact the project has. For example, we are working on a library crowd-science project for University of Geneva.  And we’re very pleased that Skein has been approved as an official Crown Commercial Services supplier.”

Skein

 

 

 

www.skein.co

 

Filed Under: Enterprise & innovation, Growing your Business, leadership, Uncategorized

21/04/2015 By Isla Baliszewska

Change your words Change your world

Change your words Change your world

How our bodies are dictates what and how we think. What and how we think dictates what we say and how we say it. What we say and how we say it dictates the results we get. And reverberating around the world can be heard – But that’s not what I meant! [that is the title of a book by Deborah Tannen] You have misunderstood me! If only you listened! Why can’t you get on the same page!

As Barak Obama said in what is considered to be his best speech ‘Don’t tell me words don’t matter’ Watch this. Every word counts. Every word matters. That is so whether the words remain in your head or whether they are given form in the world either verbally or in print. Was it what Obama said or how he said it that really counted, really mattered? Listen and let us know what you think.

The question is …are words innocent or are they guilty? Can words ever be innocent? Is it the words that should be on trial or …… ? And the ‘or’ is this … is it the way we say the words that counts, that matters? Is it how we interpret the words we hear or read that is the deciding factor? Is it the picture, the image, the dream that the words create that influence us? Check out how changing the words written changed the outcome dramatically.  Notice how behaviour was when the words were changed. What did you see?

Taking a step back into our heads: Shad Helmstetter wrote a book called ‘What to say when you talk to yourself’. He asserted that where we need to start is with the continuous loop soundtrack that plays in our head. To check it out and discover exactly what we are telling ourselves all the time. To check out whether what we are telling ourselves is fact or fiction. To check out if indeed what we are telling ourselves is our stuff or what someone else has, sadly with our permission, planted in our consciousness. How often do we clutter clear our brains? We pay more attention to our laptops, PCs, mobile devices, making sure they are clean, safe from cyber-attacks, defended against Trojan horses, inoculated with something like Norton against viruses than we do to the magnificent organ that is our brain. We dutifully bring everything from the moment of our birth – even when we were in vitro – without checking whether it is relevant, fit for purpose, in service of our best selves or even necessary. Then we wonder why we have challenges with communicating clearly and effectively!

In 1971 Albert Mehrabian concluded from his research that face to face communication consists of
• Words (what is actually said, the literal meaning) account for 7% of the overall message
• Tone of voice (how we say the words) accounts for 38% of the overall message
• Body Language accounts for 55% of the overall message.

Read the full article here.

And when all are in alignment from the speaker communication is relatively easy with the interpretation of the hearer being the influencing factor. When any of the 3 aspects are out of alignment communication is a challenging process certainly. For example when the words are positive and the tone of voice anything but or the tone of voice is upbeat with body language anything but.

What we say is what we make happen. What we think is what we create.

Words make a Difference

As always it is our choice. Thinking, wishing, hoping that everyone out there will change to make it OK for us is a delicious dead end. Knowing and really understanding that, once we decide to change W H Murray asserts that ‘All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.’ Once we get that by changing our mind set, by definition everything out there has to change. Once we truly get that by taking responsibility for our thoughts, beliefs, patterns, habits, actions, words, behaviours, ditching permanently those that no longer serve us, we can change our world significantly.

Goethe wrote ‘Whatever you can do or dream you can, Begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it Begin it now!

Halina Jaroszewska

Filed Under: Decisions, Enterprise & innovation, Mindset, Personal Development, Training Tagged With: training

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Read our Newsletters

Recent Posts

  • Keeping tradition at Fallas Valencia
  • Forget ‘Lived Experience’: Diversity + Entrepreneurs = more money
  • Productivity and Wellness: Confidence, Communication, and Motivation
  • Cognitive: the most important type of Diversity
  • Rubbing salt into the API wounds

Contact Info

+44 (0)7788 425688
info@smartcoachingtraining.com

Smart Coaching & Training Ltd, Reg No 08362126

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Twitter

My Tweets

Facebook

Copyright © 2023 Smart Coaching & Training All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Website design by TEA Websites