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in person newsletter
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Spring 2010
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A warm welcome to the latest series of "In Person". It has been a while since my last Newsletter. However, despite the "crunch", it's been an exceptionally busy year and we'd like to share some of our success stories with you.
As you know, one of our areas of expertise is developing Leaders so that their teams and individuals can perform at their best in times of change. This involves designing specific one to one programmes for individuals - e.g. 'Coaching For Performance' as well as designing programmes for a Whole Department/Function and Teams - so everyone is focussed and fit for the next set of business challenges.
When you are facing these challenges, you may want to talk to an independent professional, who understands from both the business and personal point of view, and we encourage you to contact us.
Call Anne Calleja on 01865 339372 or email us at: anne@link-fortune.co.uk.
Anne Calleja
Managing Director
Link Fortune International Ltd
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| Feature: Pulling Together |
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In these interesting economic times, one cannot really blame organisations for focusing on their customers, their sales targets, their costs, and meeting their legal liabilities. But sometimes focusing too much attention solely on the external factors that drive a business, can result in the internal factors being ignored.
An organisation is only as good as the staff that it employs and the performance that the whole team can generate. As external forces get tougher, it's all too easy for senior teams and managers to pass that pressure on to their staff.
In extreme cases, the internal culture can become one of bullying, stress and fear for the employees. Staff will be less willing to share useful innovations for fear of "raising their head above the parapet" and will be more disposed to activities designed to "protect their own corner".
For most organisations, this is not a healthy environment in which to work - motivation falls and productivity suffers.
At Link Fortune International, we understand that in stressful times, it is even more important to create an internal culture of trust and partnership, and for leaders to communicate and share their confidence in the current and future plans of the organisation. Managers also need to demonstrate their trust in their teams to deliver against these plans.
This is vital in retaining your key employees and keeping them performing at their full potential. Whilst self-motivated characters will mainly help themselves, for example on-target sales people earning a hearty commission are usually good self-motivators, other employees may need reassurance and some recognition that their effects are both on track and are appreciated. The rewards for managers successfully re-motivating themselves and their teams are huge and the business costs for causing this change are small by comparison.
At Link Fortune, we are experts in helping individuals and teams motivate themselves to achieve peak performance. To find out how we can help you, please call Anne Calleja on 01865 339372 or email us at: anne@link-fortune.co.uk.
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| Quickie: Client Success Story |
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In the corporate world, it's often difficult accurately to measure the increased performance from one to one coaching initiatives. However, in the sporting world, improvement can be seen in successful results.
Jerseyman James Walker is a young British racing driver currently competing in the World Series by Renault.
James has had a fantastic season in World Series, including winning in Spa, coming second at Silverstone, and third in Monaco, and has been approached by a Formula One team for next season...
Anne works very closely with James, as top athletes need to train both their muscles and their mind. Anne helps James to prepare for the mental challenges of motor racing so he can deliver at "peak performance" throughout the race.
With our partners at Formula Fitness, we have also worked with Jenson Button, who has just won the Grand Prix World Championship!
Anne can also achieve similar results when helping Senior Teams in commercial companies. To find out how we can help create your winning team, call Anne Calleja on 01865 339372 or email us at: anne@link-fortune.co.uk.
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| Case Study: Transformation and Change at Central Office of Information |
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The Central Office of Information (COI) is the Government's centre of excellence for marketing and communications. As a non ministerial department reporting in to the Cabinet Office, COI works with government departments and the public sector to communicate issues that affect the lives of every citizen - from health and education to benefits, rights and welfare.
Link Fortune International worked directly with Fiona Wood, COI's Director of Research, and her management team over a three year period. The challenge for the team was to become able to respond more quickly to the fast changing environment in which they operated, and to develop a much stronger team ethos to enable them to work more effectively together. Link Fortune International devised a number of initiatives to help the team transform themselves and the wider unit. This included developing their leadership skills and learning how to step out of their comfort zones.
Another key strategic objective was to enhance the internal and external perception of working within the Research Unit at COI, thereby increasing key employee retention and attracting new talent to the organisation. Anne worked directly with Fiona and her senior team, firstly to help them work better together and, secondly, to help them lead their own teams more effectively. Anne coached the Team Heads about leading their own Team Away Days, which also proved a great success.
"Anne was a delight to work with", says Fiona Wood, "She clearly understood the value of team relationships in the context of our organisation and she was not afraid to challenge both our preconceptions and also the status quo in order to improve the processes that we had in place."
We are delighted to report that the COI won the "Best Place to Work in the Research Industry Award" in 2008.
At Link Fortune, we are experts in getting the best of out your team dynamic. To find out how we can help you, call Anne Calleja on 01865 339372 or email us at: anne@link-fortune.co.uk.
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| Quickie: On-Site Clinic Offer |
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Did you know that one of the most popular products we currently offer is an "On-site One to One Coaching Clinic" to help your team explore any issues with an independent external consultant? These sessions are often a combination of coaching and counselling on subjects as diverse as stress, personal health, coping with difficulties, self-confidence, and motivation etc. Using a series of one hour appointments, we will discuss any personal issues that each of the individuals in your team may want to raise, both in-house and in confidence.
An additional benefit to the organisation is that any trends or themes that arise can be flagged up for future inclusion in your development plans, for example.
We had a major success with this approach at Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), the international advertising agency. Our original project proved so popular that it was expanded to one day per week over 3 months.
Julia McHardy-Young at BBH commented: "We work in a very high pressure environment and it is imperative to remind our teams that the organisation cares about their personal welfare and individual challenges. The support that we showed helped our employees feel more confident and Anne's sessions clearly had a very positive effect. Additionally, BBH was listed again this year in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies To Work For."
Introductory Offer
During January 2010, we will offer your organisation one day of our time to run a One to One Coaching Clinic at your premises - Free of Charge. This will help your employees overcome the trials and tribulations of Christmas deadlines and holidays and then become quickly focussed and fit for the new year ahead.
N.B. This will be on a first-come first-served basis as we only have a few days available for this offer, so Call Anne Calleja on 01865 339372 or email us at: anne@link-fortune.co.uk as soon as possible.
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