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04/04/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

The Big Ask

The Big Ask
How Talking Books were born
How Talking Books were born

“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

 

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

Filed Under: Being Confident, Presenting and Presentations

23/03/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Be the Best You Can Be

Be the Best You Can Be
Be the Best You Can Be
Isla Baliszewska with David Hemery at Marlborough Chamber of Commerce

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

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: coaching, Mentoring, Mindset Tagged With: coaching, Mentoring, Mindset

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 Skein 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.”

Skein

 

 

 

www.skein.co

 

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

10/02/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

Brand Yourself to Success

Brand Yourself to Success

Webinar - Personal Branding using Emotional Intelligence 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.

Register Now

Filed Under: Career Development, Decisions, Emotional Intelligence, leadership, Personal Development

02/02/2016 By Isla Baliszewska

A personal Leadership Journey

A personal Leadership Journey

AT SCT we like to share the success stories of some of those we work with and come across; we love this story from Lorena Oberg, who Halina connected with under the Growth Voucher scheme.  Lorena is on Channel 4’s Bodyshockers on February 10th.  Here is her leadership journey:

Lorena Oberg laser tattoo removal “My personal road to leadership came from a place that many women are in.  Being told for years that I was “always drawing attention to myself” and that I “only ever did anything so I could get thanks” took me to a place where I was very uncomfortable getting praise and heaven forbid being the spot light.

I had to learn that it was ok to have a camera in my face and to talk about a subject that I excelled at because PEOPLE were interested in what I had to say.  I had to learn that it was ok to have celebrity clients and put them on my website.  It was years before I actually did a section on my website with my celebrity clients because I thought it was “pretentious” to do so.  I “didn’t want to toot my own horn”.

I was able to pin point this and I had media training in order to feel more comfortable in front of a camera.

I was right about ONE thing, even back then.  I thought if my work was good enough, the right people would hear about me and hear they did.  I soon began to be invited to lecture at conferences overseas. Now, I also speak in the UK at very prestigious events such as Professional Beauty.  Public speaking was not the issue for me, it was the getting praise that I had the problem with.  The whole things where people come to tell me they follow my work and ask for my autograph still, freaks me out.

I’m at a place in my journey where I’m happy to take credit for what I have achieved professionally and I have accepted that I’m a leader in my industry…ish…..  Anything I do outside of that, my charity work, I try to do it under the radar.  I don’t like it when people make a fuss over something I’ve done that really….any decent human being would do given the chance.  No one will ever find out about that side of my journey.  I prefer to be behind the scenes, quietly, no fuss, often, not even my children know.

So much of what I do is not about physical beauty but about empowering women that come see me.  There is something that children of abuse have, that sixth sense…that we just know when someone is part of our tribe.  I’ve accepted that I’m a role model to many, and I take that very seriously.  Empowering someone can be as easy as looking at them in the eye and telling them that they don’t need to be there because there is nothing wrong with them.

I’m humbled by what I do and proud that I’m one of a handful that can get real results on stretch marks and removal of permanent makeup and take my responsibility very seriously. ”

Lorena Oberg

Print

 

 

 

www.lorenaoberg.co.uk

Filed Under: Enterprise, Growing your Business, leadership

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