Monthly Archives: April 2020

We all know we need to prepare for training.  The obvious essentials to all trainers would include that you should know your audience, knowing your subject and knowing where you are delivering.  We have all experienced trainers turning up with the wrong leads or IT that isn’t compatible.  Of course, this type of preparation is essential.  InfactI would go as far to say that anyone who doesn’t prepare like this is incompetent.  However, I want us to focus on some other areas of real preparation many a trainer fails to do.  

Mental Readiness – How ready are you for the training regarding mental awareness.  Complacency can quickly take over especially if we have delivered the subject a few times.  I always spend some time relaxed and calm using powerful visualisations of me providing a great session and individuals getting involved and taking something positive from the training I am delivering.  When we visualise, we are practising, and this skill is essential if we want

I am a very keen sportsman in my spare time, and I love to bring sporting analogies into my training sessions because we can learn an awful lot from sport.  Let me share one with you that relates to why practise is so important:

As a little boy, I was always told by my Mum ‘Practise makes perfect’ and I remember getting quite annoyed when it was repeated to me.  ‘Yeah, yeah’ I’d say thinking in my head ‘I’ve heard it all before what a load of rubbish, I’ll never be perfect at anything’ but as I became an adult, I started to realise that actually, there was something in it.  As I was growing up, I used to like playing tennis with my friends, and nearly every day I’d hit a tennis ball against a wall over and over again, back-hand, fore-hand until a friend could come and play.  Fast forward to about five years ago, I decided to join a tennis club after a long break of not playing, and I couldn’t hit a tennis ball at all resulting in me nearly giving up but then I had a plan related

Well many of us have been in lockdown for some weeks now, and there is no doubt it has affected us in very different ways. Many people have struggled, and some people are (believe it or not) enjoying it! A recent survey by YouGov poll suggests many people see positives amid the crisis.

One thing that is apparent now more than ever is you have to communicate. If you are working or managing remotely, you have to communicate. If you are in isolation and you need to talk to someone you have to communicate. Not communicating isn't healthy; it can cause many issues, including depression and negative thinking. The good thing about communicating is that we can let it all out; it is healthy to let it out.

Recently I spoke to a friend who I hadn't spoken to for ages, he just phoned me up out of the blue, and we had a great chat. That sort of spontaneous communication is excellent, and after our conversation, I had a very positive feeling. This encouraged me to ring someone up who I had not spoken

As we enter another week of lockdown, I wanted to ask you a simple question. What have you done so far?

Of course, many of you will be in the front line. You will be working either as a hero in the NHS or looking after vulnerable people in a care setting. Or possibly you could be working in retail, ensuring our shelves are stocked. You know how we feel about you and all the fantastic work you do. You are probably working more hours now than ever, and your spare time may be limited.

I am talking to people with more time on their hands than they ever expected. Now is the time more than ever to reflect on what you have done with your time and look at where you develop next for your future.

Reflection and action are so critical in these times. Personally, Claire and I have to keep busy, it is part of our nature, and although I am making the most of being able to walk every day when we are home we are working. Although our regular business has effectively stopped and no training courses are

Both Ralph and I both have benefitted from writing journals and know they work and how they work. We advertise journaling on all our courses, training, coaching and management courses encouraging everyone to work on something personal to them. Life is all about continuous change and growing yourself to be the best you can be.

Due to the COVID-19 weeks in isolation, we had to think differently, quickly, and we thought. Let’s create our own journals! Why not? That was the ignition to get to work, and we have just launched three personal development journals, many more planned to follow. We have a new publishing arm JCRM Journals. We are taking decisive action from a very negative situation.

Throughout my coaching and supervision, it has become apparent that individuals’ levels of confidence, self-esteem and lack of positivity play a hindrance in their lives. People want to change, but I hear lots of words like “I try”, “If possible”, “I would like to”, which are all words; but they are words

If, like me, you’ve mainly delivered training in groups, face to face, or 1:1, a change all of a sudden to deliver online sessions may be quite daunting!  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been involved in plenty of meetings, and 1:1’s online and never had any real problems but delivering training online?  I much prefer face to face, but recent times have changed everything…

My business world has changed in such a short amount of time, but one thing I’m determined to do is to turn this into a positive opportunity, time to learn and expand my horizons. During my learning curve going online, I’ve quickly learned the cross over and best practice which I’d like to share with you as five my top tips:

Preparation – You’ve still got to organise; you’ll still need to plan your session with a structure and the resources everyone will need.  Are you going to send these out in advance or during the session through your chat?  Don’t fall into the trap that because you can click a few times and get something

I think this is such a vast area that seems to be kept hidden in people’s closets. Lots of people struggle with low self-esteem; it is a hindrance to many. So, what is it?

It is a subjective evaluation of your own worth. It creates self-beliefs that hold you back. Low self-esteem affects so many people and creates problems for so many individuals. It affects your performance, creates anxiety and creates negative thoughts. It really is huge.

Lots of beliefs are created in your mind when you carry low self-esteem, things like; I am not good enough, I am going to fail, they think I am not good enough, really self-destroying and very destructive for some people. This feeds that wonderful inner critic, the voice that so many of us know about these days, the voice that holds you back. But the good news is you can change this, yes you can.

I think it’s such a good question to ask yourself where your self-esteem lies. High or Low, how high and how low? How do you rate yourself and value yourself?

As the world continues on the most significant economic and most destructive health crisis, our generation has known. Our Queen came out with a powerful message yesterday; she reinforced a key message about not giving up about being positive about the future.

Our Queen, of course, comes from a different time; she experienced real horror. The Queen lived through the second world war when the Nazis were bombing London night after night. My Mum and Dad, who also lived through the war, used to tell me about the attitude they had during the war. About just getting on with things and importantly never, ever, ever giving up.

Although we have lost many people from that generation, they installed that attitude deep into our subconscious. We will never give up, and we will succeed.

I believe we will come out of this with many positives. We will all be more robust, more adaptable, and we will all have learnt new ways of working. Our medical experts will have learnt significant amounts on how to deal

Saying thank you is something many of us are conditioned to do from a very young age. "Say thank you", I remember saying to my son when he was very young when someone gave him something or did something for him. We condition our children to do it from a very young age.

It doesn't matter what role you do at work; we should always thank people. Indeed, I have taught managers when dealing with difficult or challenging people to look for opportunities to thank them. It is incredible the difference it can make.

Of course, we are in a situation where individuals are doing extraordinary things. People are in effect, putting their neck on the line. From shop workers, cleaners, nurses and doctors all placing their safety on the line, looking after us or helping us.

Yesterday I had to go to the chemist followed by a visit to the shops. I thanked every person who helped me. I could see when I said thank you they were touched, their body language told me they appreciated my heartfelt thanks. Unfortunately,