Training & Coaching News from Smart Coaching Training

06/04/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Be a Great Mentor

We are all doing or have done some mentoring at some point in our lives – whether with our friends and family, or in a more formalised way through using our considerable experience of a particular sector to mentor a business owner, or colleagues at work. For those who are mentors in a work or business environment, on a voluntary or paid basis, having an opportunity to embed and build real impactful mentoring skills through some professional development can have real value for those who you are helping through your mentoring support.

The Business Mentoring Fundamentals Course in Bristol on 20th April offers just such an opportunity for in-house professionals or anyone considering or already having experience of mentoring in businesses, for owners, management, teams and individuals. Participative, interactive and enjoyable, sharing experiences and best practice, making new contacts and embedding real quality in your mentoring delivery, this is a day of great learnings that will help hone existing mentoring skills, develop new ones, build your mentoring brand and help you engage with those you are looking to support to grow and flourish.

Accredited with the IIC&M (International Institute of Coaching & Mentoring) the course provides the tools and groundwork from which to refine your mentoring and build your accreditation and professionalism..

www.associationofbusinessmentors.org

To Book click here or call Isla on 07828 516058

04/04/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

The Big Ask

“Captain Ian Fraser lost his sight at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, after being shot through the eyes by a German sniper. A single gunshot had robbed him of one of his greatest passions: reading. “ RNIB – How Talking Books were born

Charities have had a bit of a hard time lately, not least being frowned upon for questionable fundraising methods pressuring vulnerable people into giving. Last year Gareth G. Morgan (Professor of Charity Studies and leader of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research) at Sheffield Hallam University) gave his valedictory lecture ‘The End of Charity’ . In it he referred to the “extraordinary combination of threats” charities faced, including the issues of underfunded organisation, fundraising abuses and media criticism. He ended his talk saying “So, what is the end to which all charity is ultimately directed? The answer is very simple: the end of charity is public benefit. If that is our focus, both in our fundraising and our operational work, and if that can be the focus of charity regulation, then we cannot go astray.”

Halina Jaroszewska and I have been working with the RNIB fundraising staff and if we wore hats we would be constantly taking them off in deference to those fabulous people. We have discovered the ‘public benefit‘ that this charity gives. We recently spent a day with some of them in Birmingham where we were offering our knowledge and expertise on presentation and public speaking, and where we found ourselves learning and increasing our respect for those fundraisers. Our focus for the day was the RNIB Talking Books, which began in 1935 and revolutionised reading for people with sight loss. With a collection of over 23,000 titles, and with over 30,000 listeners, this service brings a gift to each of those listeners.

Captain Fraser’s desire to get back to reading inspired him to record an entire talking book and he began working with the RNIB in 1918 exploring how new technology could develop this recording ability. Today, the people we were privileged enough to work with last week are now able to promote the Talking Books as their Big Ask knowing the gift that is in those Books.

“It’s like having another voice in the house. It helps break the silence and the loneliness” (Dennis, 66, a Talking Books reader) – a gift of reading, of company, of meaning, of knowing someone cares.

RNIB Talking Books

www.rnib.org.uk

Isla Baliszewska

To find out more about how Smart Coaching & Training can help with your presentation and public speaking needs please get in touch

23/03/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Be the Best You Can Be

I recently listened to David Hemery of 1968 gold medal Olympics fame and of 21st Century Legacy fame. Last year he ran the London Marathon to raise money for 21st Century Legacy. For those not in the know 21st Century Legacy is behind the Be the Best You Can Be! programme in schools to unlock the valuable potential in each child.

David is an inspiring speaker, fundraiser, coach and do-er, and has worked assiduously with 21st Century Legacy to raise funds to ensure the charity can provide this great programme at minimum cost to schools. He has been a coach and mentor for many years and engages eagerly with the discussions around the overlaps and distinctions between the different descriptors of “coaching, mentoring, advising, consulting”.

The ultimate aim of those of us who deliver coaching/mentoring/advising/consulting is to elicit the best from those we work with and enable them to elicit their own best. David does this with schoolchildren and students giving them the opportunity to discover their own greatness on whatever scale and in whatever dimension. I do it with grown-ups to help them enhance and develop possibilities and opportunities in and for themselves. Neither of us, or anyone else in our profession, needs to worry about terminologies as long as we make sure those on the other side of the relationship understand that we are there to somehow make their lives change for the better. Be the Best YOU Can Be. As David said, it isn’t about being the best of or better than everything and everyone, it is the best YOU.

Read more about 21st Century Legacy and get your local schools on-board. Don’t let the kids miss out!

www.21stcenturylegacy.com

23/03/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

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.

“ Skein 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.”

www.skein.co

10/02/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Brand Yourself to Success

Sign up for the Webinar that will make a Big Difference to your personal branding!

Emotional Intelligence, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Mindfulness and Personal Branding are terms frequently used by psychologists and executive coaches, not often joined together. This practical webinar shows how to use these techniques to deliver major improvements in yourself, your interactions with family and friends and to upscale your career. And how to design a holistic, targeted but consistent face-to-face and Social Media presence to reflect the person you have become, which will attract the kind of people you chose.

If you want to:

Rapidly improve your career
Develop better results in your life
Transition from one role to another especially from manager to leader
Properly exploit Social Media
Understand Emotional Intelligence and how to use it
Understand Personal Branding and how to properly enhance your image
Be ‘discovered’ by having a great LinkedIn presence.

then this is the webinar for you. Read more…

David Rigby has years of experience using NLP, emotional intelligence and mindfulness within consulting roles and with individual clients specializing in personal branding, executive presence, gravitas and voice communication. He is developing his |SCT practice focusing on leadership, team building, innovation, change management and customer service, delivering public and in house training to clients throughout the UK and the Middle East.

Be a Great Mentor

The Big Ask

Be the Best You Can Be

www.21stcenturylegacy.com

How mentoring and coaching supports leaders

Brand Yourself to Success

Register Now

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