This is where you can hear our latest news and see links in which you may have an interest. We would also like to share ideas and thoughts with you and would be delighted to receive your suggestions. If we are all to be successful in this fast moving age it will be good to share stories and support positive change.

The NO 1 Reason Why People Leave their Organisation is their Boss!

The number one reason why people leave organisations is their line manager. And those poorly led are 50% less profitable and 44% less productive according to a gallop survey of over 1m employees.

Add to this the latest CIPD employee outlook review, which suggests over 50% of employees are not consulted on decisions that affect them and feel they have little say in what they do or confidence in their senior management.

It doesn’t paint a rosy picture of highly motivated individuals being effectively led by emotionally intelligent people who recognise the value of a collaborative and inclusive style that enables everyone to flourish and give of their best? Do you recognise any of the behaviours identified through the gallop survey or the CIPD report within your organisation?

Would you like leaders at all levels of your organisation to inspire, engage and empower people to maximise discretionary effort and personal contribution? Would you like everyone to be motivated, productive and delivering enhanced results and greater profit as part of a high performing team? If so then we really do think we can help.

It isn’t all about new knowledge and skills, it is more about developing high self awareness and the right mindset to choose to take responsibility to change habits and behaviours for long term personal, team and organisational benefit. If you like the sound of this then we would love to start a conversation…no push or hard sell…just an informed discussion that would allow us to understand a little more about your needs and aspirations and for you to see whether our style and approach feels right for you and your organisation. If you would like to get in touch then please click here and ask us to call you.

‘Be the Best you can Be’

March 9th 2011 saw the public launch of 21st Century Legacy, an educational charity that Developing Potential helped to establish over the last 4 years. Its aim is to inspire, engage and empower young people to ‘Be the Best they can Be’ through an innovative schools programme.

The launch event, held at the British Olympic Association was very well attended, and the charity was introduced by its founder Dr David Hemery CBE, explaining his vision to have this programme as a lasting legacy from the 2012 Olympic Games.  He also gave a personal insight into his own school days, where he suffered from dyslexia and at age 14 was small and slightly built – asking the audience which member of an old school photograph looked the least likely to be an Olympic Champion?

He went on to sporting greatness and successfully completed 4 degrees, including a doctorate and authored 4 books and says he and his teachers would have been shocked to know of his success.  This helps to underpin his view that everyone has a spark of greatness within them and that the role of teachers and parents is to help young people find this and unlock it for themselves.

A number of other speakers also gave short messages of support, including Lord Colin Moynihan, Chair of the British Olympic Association, Sir Keith Mills, Vice-Chair of LOCOG, Mark Sawyer from the charity’s cornerstone sponsor, Jeff Nicholas, from the Royal Mint, another sponsor and Ade Adepitan, the Paralympian medalist.

This was a proud moment and the culmination of four years hard work and the start of the real journey now to recruit hundreds of schools to take part.  If you are part of a school community or would like your local school to get involved then please visit www.21stcenturylegacy.com to find out more and help all young people develop their potential to the full.

The programme is designed to build confidence and support personal growth in the pursuit of achieving personal dreams. The underlying principles of the programme are self managed leadership, coaching and replicating the performance of high achieving role models, including Olympians.

Such has been the success to date that organisations have asked Developing Potential to create a version for business leaders to inspire them to achieve exceptional sustainable performance.

We have developed a programme to help your individuals and teams ‘Be the Best they can Be’. Either as a short one-day motivational event or a longer-term programme, Developing Potential has the experience and expertise to make a real difference to your performance. If you would like to learn more call us on 020 3303 0496 or please click here.

British Cycling shows how to develop exceptional individual and team performance

In 2008 the British Cycling team swept the board in Beijing bringing home 34 Olympic and Paralympic medals. One of the keys reasons for their success was the humble and determined Performance Director, Dave Brailsford. In a talk he gave to Youth Sport Trust in 2009, he stressed the importance of a winning mentality and that all his athletes had to be potential winners and not just hopefuls. It was also interesting to note some of the technical advancements that gave the team an edge.

However, he emphasised that the main difference was the power and effectiveness of their leadership and coaching. He had introduced a new involving style to the team in 2004. The ethos and process he described is the method that Developing Potential has advocated over the last ten years. It integrates the traditional style of telling and giving technical information (IQ or intellectual input) with drawing and pulling from performers their experience and thoughts by listening and asking effective questions.

The intention of asking questions is to raise awareness in the performer and to encourage them to take personal responsibility for their actions. The success of the coach or leader is underpinned by their lack of ego and shifting to build a positive relationship (emotional intelligence) with the performer. 

Dave Brailsford told a powerful anecdote to support his total belief in this method of coaching. He said that after introducing this empowering style one of his most senior coaches wanted to continue with mainly technical advice and drive their own agenda as to how the athletes should train.

Dave had a choice to stay with the old or continue with the new. He let the senior coach go and as a result found that results improved further. He said that this was due to the lifting of the fear created by the old style that enabled the athletes to make greater progress. Do you have involving leaders and coacher’s enabling others to flourish and perform?

One to One Coaching and Mentoring

Elite performers in the world of sport and business have coaches and mentors. Why? Athletes and leaders understand that today’s winning performance is no guarantee of tomorrow’s success. Coaches support and importantly challenge their performers to move to the next level of achievement.

There have been numerous evaluations of coaching in business, both independent and through leadership and coaching companies – the majority demonstrating a significant return on investment. Getting support and challenge from a highly skilled individual who will facilitate higher achievement makes sense.

At Developing Potential we are well versed in the principles and practice of coaching/mentoring, understanding that enhanced self-awareness, though effective questioning and making the choice to take personal responsibility, is the key to high-level performance.

We now take that knowledge and support individuals to achieve exceptional and sustainable performance. Outcomes from our individual coaching programmes include; alignment of personal vision, values, goals and action, enhanced relationships with colleagues, greater psychological flexibility, more creativity and innovative thinking, better teamwork and overall enhanced performance.
If developing exceptional performers and your business performance is on your agenda then please call +44 (0) 20 3303 0496 or contact us here.

Links

21st Century Legacy is an educational charity that the founders and partners at Developing Potential helped to establish and which we strongly support. Delivering a programme for secondary school students, designed to empower and inspire them to ‘Be the Best they can Be’. Its origin comes from London winning the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games and the creation of a legacy.

The programme includes facilitation skills development for teachers, Olympians visiting schools to inspire students and a series of modules to develop life skills. The aim is to support young people in setting out and pursuing their dreams and to learn and implement for themselves lessons from high achievers.

To find out more or more or to get involved please click on the logo.

Nineteen Minutes supports the diverse employees of organisations in making the most of their lives and achieving the right work/life balance. Its name is derived from an Office of national Statistic use of time survey that found the average time per day that a working parent spent with their children was just nineteen minutes.

Underpinning the success of their programmes is the philosophy and practice of effective coaching which Developing Potential endorses.

To find out more please click on the logo.