Swindon Coaching Team Member David Rigby recently spent eight months in the desert near Abu Dhabi coaching and advising the government on customer service.

David (you’ve guessed it on the right of the picture) says:

The Abu Dhabi Municipality offers 400 services to its people. With the opening of one-stop-shops, in the six cities in the Abu Dhabi desert area known as Western Region, the citizens were no longer obliged to travel the 100-200 miles to Abu Dhabi to undertake several transactions. One hundred of these services were, in theory, offered at the one-stop-shops, called TAMM centers. In practice only three of them could be undertaken in one visit. I developed processes to enable all the services to be offered through media including web, phone, call centre, SMS etc. They were all redesigned to international standards and to standard templates. None of which would be of much use unless the frontline staff knew how to use them, so this is where my coaching skills became very important.

My client was Ebrahim Alhosani Director/ Integrated Government Services Western Region Municipality, And on first meeting he said “I am studying for my masters from Harvard, what do you study?” One of my clear learning objectives is about spontaneity, and thinking on my feet responded “I study learning who to ask for help.”

The only way I could manage this project was to ask for help and give help in return. The key challenge was always knowing who to ask without losing face.

As a first-time visitor to UAE at the beginning my main challenge was the food – what it was and more importantly how to eat it. I took my training very seriously – first of all asking my Arabic assistant how to eat rice with my right hand without it spilling everywhere. Not to mention how to eat while sitting on the floor on special occasions – including making sure my feet pointed the right way.

One of my team from Jordan asked me why I asked people for help, as it appeared to be a sign of weakness in his culture (at least among the males). I told him that it saved so much time and gave better results. An example I gave him, was that I discussed with his boss how to get a number of documents printed and rapidly delivered to me from 100 miles away. He suggested using a taxi. It worked brilliantly.

My Arabic customer services trainer, Maher Al Nukkary, asked me for help with his life. I coached him to identify and live his vision: he is now in Australia studying for his second degree in translation. I never told him what to do only helped him make a decision.

Some of the work required demonstrating international best practice – EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) and ISO (international Standards Organisation). Not my best subjects, but I knew who to ask for help from my colleagues in the UK, which was based on the relationships I had built in the past.

One of the things we wanted to know was what the citizens thought of the service they were currently getting . So, we asked them!

We were looking to improve the way the customer facing staff worked. Who are the people who are best likely to know? You guessed right! So – we asked the staff!

So how do you ask for help without losing face? It’s about developing a mutual trust with the person you are asking for help, and making yourself available to help people.

This is when your coach can be a very important person. Someone you know and trust, who can help you identify the issues and enable you to decide who and how to approach to resolve them. Someone who you know who’s on your side.

Up to £1000 of matched funding is available per organisation to help it’s leaders to devleop their skills and grow the business. (That is, to receive £1000 you need to spend £1000 too!)

The current Leadership and Management Advisory Service (LMAS) scheme has been running since April 2011. If you benefitted from the previous scheme you are still allowed to benefit from this one. If you are to qualify, these are the key criteria.

For businesses

• Planned growth of 20% per year over the next 3 years – in turnover or staff numbers.
• More than one person involved in the organisation, ideally two or more full-time equivalent employees. (Technically: “have at least one employee in addition to the senior leader.”)
• Not more than 250 staff.

For social enterprises / charities

• As above, however growth requirement is 10% per year over three years.
• Support could be given to unpaid staff such as a trustee

As the scheme progresses, and individual applications are considered, it becomes clearer which businesses qualify. There has also been some “softening” in requirements as we have seen that the criteria for growth are about plans and not a need to show growth from past results.

We can help with coaching, training and other solutions to help you to develop your leadership and thus your business. We can talk through with you this and other grant opportunities for your business.

Contact us now to find out more!

Just in Time Training seems to be the “in thing.” This is about receiving training in short blocks just when you need it. People recognise that if they go on a training course and do not make use of what they learn immediately, they forget it.

Coaching, including that which we deliver, uses as its raw material the fresh challenges that the client faces. It helps clients to learn from their experience and to grow in the skill of learning from their experience, so coaching is great for embedding training.

It is worth remembering that coaching can also be used to develop other new skills, Just In Time, without taking any further time away from work and in a completely bespoke way. You choose what you want to learn and apply the training to your actual situation, in a way that is not constrained by the content and context of any fixed course materials.

You just need to make sure that your coach has a sufficient skill base in the relevant area, and we’d be happy to talk to you about that!

Thanks to those who listened in to our guest appearance on Swindon Radio 105.5 on Monday evening. Regular presenter Gerry Reilly was joined by Peter Jones from the Federation of Small Businesses to interview Richard, Ann-Marie and Stephen from the Swindon Coaching Team.

I enjoy these conversations, and part of the excitement is never quite knowing what the presenters, or listeners who phone in, will want to ask about. The conversation was wide ranging with a lot of interest in the history of our team, what coaching is all about, and what people might experience from an encounter with us. We emphasised that coaching is personal, and so people usually want to meet us, have an informal chat, and get to know us before deciding on any coaching – and that is the way we work. We mentioned our next event at Swindon Connections, and our current special offer of free coaching taster sessions.

Peter was interested in the range of different kinds of coaching we offer (from business coaching to relationship coaching to coaching young people) and wanted to hear about the background and experience of the coaches in the team. I think I was as surprised as him to realise the diversity of backgrounds we have, which help us to connect with our clients and their issues. Our collective backgrounds include work in sexual health, in Information Technology, as a doctor, in marketing, hypnotherapy, and starting a business… I won’t take up space with the full list!

The last laugh was had by Stephen when he was asked about good techniques for stress-busting. He talked about the benefits of a good belly laugh and how he has been instrumental in setting up a laughter club in Swindon!

Our coaches were again at Bible Society today. We are continuing to offer pithy half-hour coaching sessions to employees. For convenience these sessions are held during and after the lunch period and there is no cost to those taking part.

The sessions delivered today were much appreciated. We are grateful for this opportunity to offer this coaching which helps staff to deal with work or personal matters in this way which is of benefit to them and will also increase their enjoyment and effectiveness in the workplace!

We look forward to continued involvement with Bible Society, and welcome enquiries from other local businesses or charities who are interested in this scheme.