Learning from your experiences
As associate coach and trainers we have worked within and for a variety of organisations. Key to our success is what our customers experience, value and implement in work and play. There’s nothing better than actually understanding what other people have experienced. Detailed below are some testimonials about previous work we have done.
Arcadia Group (Topshop & Topman) . AstraZeneca . Bedford College . BBC . Centre for Enterprise . Cheadle & Marple College . Croydon College . DS Smith Packaging . GS Hall . Halesowen College . Harrington|Young . HBOS (Intelligent Finance) . House of Fraser . ITV . Jenners . Kuehne + Nagel . Leicester University . Leicester City Council . Leyland Daf . Loughborough Business School . Lighthouse Leaders . Marathon Oil UK Ltd . NHS . Northern Rock . Organisational & People Development Consultancy . RedInc General Store . Upshot Coaching . Sair & Co . SCA . WhereToBe . Wigan and Leigh College .
Arcadia Group Topshop & Topman
Executive Development Training “Rachel has a professional and confident training style. She uses a high degree of energy and enthusiasm in her approach. She hands on, participative and fun exercises to ensure delegates are engaged in the learning, and looks for creative ways to ensure learning is proactively implemented.”
AstraZeneca - Business Relationship Partner
PD Coaching & Training - “Rachel is a consummate professional and did a great job in looking after the L&D analysis of my team - even for those who normally were shy and distrusting of these kinds of things! She also organised a great learning event for me, with people who were adversial at the outset, but came out like buddies ready to change the world together!”
AstraZeneca - IS Project Manager
PD Coaching - “I approached Rachel for help in creating a Development Plan. Through clever questioning Rachel drew out from me what I really wanted from my job - that made me realise that this Development Plan was as much for me as it was to satisfy my employer. Through the process Rachel really boosted my confidence - she encouraged me to believe in myself, to know my own strengths and to understand what drives me. The end result is a plan that works for me as well as my boss and a happier more confident me. Thanks Rachel!”
Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College - Head of CPD
Training - “Rachel designed and delivered Managing Difficult Situations to our key ‘front line’ staff. All aspects of the service we received were excellent, highly professional, responsive and
customer focused. Considerable time was taken discussing our detailed needs and the profile of delegates. Rachel’s preparation was thorough, confidence inspiring and again highly
professional. Every attempt was made to match the detailed format of the training to perceived need - a facet of the service not always replicated, in my experience, by other training
companies we have used. Prior to training delegates completed an effective questionnaire to inform the detail and contact of the day. This ‘background intelligence’ provided very effective. Feedback from the training was very positive. All delegates spoke in very positive terms about Rachel’s grasp of key issues and ability to enthuse and inspire. I can confirm that our experience was unremittingly positive.”
DS Smith Packaging - Chief Executive
PD Coaching & Training - “Amanda listens and hears what it is that you really need, even if it is still in your subconscious and has not been given time to emerge…The development of culture and values, which has its roots in the aspirations, and expectations of the whole workforce, linked to the strategy and performance of the business, is the best way to get an aligned
organisation. Amanda helps you make that happen.”
HarringtonYoung - Director
PD Coaching - “I find Rachel a very flexible, light and enabling coach. She has a wonderful mix of warmth and informality alongside a rigorous delivery against contract. This means that I always know, as her client, that I will reach my goal for each session, that the journey there will be an interesting one and that I will have learnt more about how I can better problem solve along the way.”
HBOS Intelligent Finance - Operational Risk Manager
Training - “Rachel’s professional and supportive approach to delivery guarantees an energetic, challenging and hugely valuable learning experience”
House of Fraser - Learning Manager
Training - “Rachel is an experienced and confident trainer who challenges her delegates one on one and in a group to go that step further in developing themselves, their impact on others and the business. Rachel works closely with her clients, flexing her style to the needs of the
individual to help them identify areas to work on that will ultimately add value.”
Khuene + Nagel - HR Director, NW Europe
Coach Training Programme - “Rachel and her colleague Amanda provided an outstanding coaching programme, followed by a trainers programme. The detail and quality of the programme was outstanding, well above that I have experienced from very larger providers. The approach from taking the brief through delivery was attentive, focused on me as a customer and delivered on time. The relationship to our people was very good and the enthusiasm which was transmitted for coaching certainly passed over to our people. Top qualities Great Results,
Personable, Expert.”
Leicester City Council - Learning & Development
Coach Training Workshops - “Our managers and City Learning itself benefited from and enjoyed greatly the training delivered by Rachel over the past quarter.”
“Rachel was excellent, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable - I thoroughly enjoyed the day!
“ Training was a realistic learning experience”
“I enjoyed the day and I deeply appreciate Rachel’s efforts to make it easy for me to participate fully despite my poor vision issues. Thank you.”
“Very motivational and didn't feel disengaged once!”
Lighthouse Leaders - Director
PD Coaching - “Being coached by Rachel is an energising experience. She listens intently,
challenges appropriately and helps you believe that anything is possible. During the sessions she offered insights that increased my awareness about the issue on which I was being coached. She is relentlessly positive and helped me regain optimism and momentum for
reaching my goals. I would recommend working with her.”
Loughborough Business School - Professor
PD Coaching & Training - “Amanda has a stunning ability to get alongside people. She also has a wide range of vision and a remarkable clear-headedness in getting to the heart of a problem without over-simplifying it. She is, in my experience, a highly effective consultant and colleague across a wide range of projects. I value hugely the contribution she has made to my professional development.”
Marathon Oil UK Ltd - Occupational Health Adviser
PD Training – "Hazel delivered a Stress Awareness and Management programme for our offshore medics. The content of the programme exactly matched our requirements, and provided the medics with knowledge and skills to enable them to manage the stress issues they were confronted with more effectively. They were also able to make a positive contribution to the development of the Company Stress Management Policy.
Hazel had clearly shown insight into the training needs of this very discrete group, which can be difficult due to the remote location of their workplace, the nature of their work, and their client base.
The medics gave extremely favourable feedback following the 2 day course, and highlighted the quality of the course content, the presentation skills of Hazel, and the material prepared for them. In summary, the preparation, implementation and delivery of the course was excellent. I have no hesitation in recommending Hazel as a trainer/presenter/coach."
Northern Rock - Head of Third Party Relations
Training & Personal Development - "Kelly has in depth knowledge of the Retail Banking sector and has years of training experience in multi channel sales including branch, contact centre and intermediary. She is a true training professional committed to delivering results based creative solutions with a great mix of skills including major project management of L&D work streams, delivery of high quality materials coupled with a relaxed professional style to get the best out of people. I have worked with Kelly on several projects and would recommend her."
Organisational & People Development Consultancy - Director
PD Coaching & Training - “Amanda's contributions to this programme covered all aspects from co-designing the content, to delivering workshops and facilitating 1:1 coaching sessions. Her approach-as ever- was rigorous, disciplined and extremely professional, resulting in a focused and carefully customised initiative which addressed the identified development needs in the organisation”
PD Coaching Client
“It's easy for coaches to lead and for clients to be directed. Rachel never shirks from the more difficult task of enabling the client to be self-sufficient, and generate drive and direction from their true source ...and she's fun to work with. Top qualities: Personable, Expert, Good Value”
PD Coaching Client
“Working with Rachel over the past 6 months has changed my perception of myself as a
salesperson and as a result, I am now more efficient, competent and confident in daily working practices as well as my revenue stream tripling at best case and doubling in worst case on a monthly basis. I now take leadership in my engagements with colleagues and clients more proactively developing stronger working relationships, again this is proven to me in revenue
generated (especially in last years climate).
Meeting Rachel in a networking situation was by far the best contact I made last year, having just a few one to one sessions, personally highlighting my strengths and weaknesses and Rachel constructing not only real time scenarios but aids for every juncture I came across in working and personal life.
Rachel has so much knowledge and offers a great deal of insight and yet somehow in working with her the answers have all been my own. Consequently, I have found by having an awareness of what creates results for myself has made me realise the importance of finding this out for people working with me in terms of getting an improved performance. Knowing what my own values and motivations are has given me more confidence in deciding what personnel and work choices to make.”
PD Coaching Client
"Caroline has the gift to make people believe in themselves again. After redundancy I hit a wall and lost all faith in myself and my capabilities. I started to believe there was no future. Then I met Caroline. Her assiduous efforts in helping me re-invent myself through her excellent personable, coaching and mentoring skills unequivocally built up my confidence again. She assisted me in raising my profile by modifying my CV and fundamentally help me get my "mojo back"! Her advice and creativeness allied to her soft and warming approach undoubtedly played a part in my new career as a Distribution Manager. I truly would not recommend anyone more highly! Top qualities - great results, good value, creative."
"Caroline is an excellent results-focused personal coach who has been a great help to me in my work and is also a great person to know! I was one of those people who thought "I don't need a coach" but when I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work with Caroline I soon changed my mind. I continue to work with Caroline from time to time and would recommend her to anyone looking for some inspiration2action! Top qualities - great results, expert, high integrity."
"Caroline is tenacious, enterprising and a real expert at taking a helicopter view to ensure that the creative solutions she devises support all stakeholders. She is fun and she feels passionately about delivering in a consistent and fair way. Caroline thrives on helping people achieve their full potential and her career provides her with a wide range of consultancy expertise".
PD Training Client
"I found the hypnotherapy course invaluable in my personal development. The course content was excellent and more comprehensive than I had imagined. All course work is presented in a very user-friendly yet effective manner however the real strength of the course lies in the presentation and communication skills of Hazel. Her engaging style and great enthusiasm helped me to really understand to topics and gave me the confidence to carry what I have learned through into my professional practice. To summarise this course equipped me to enhance my business not to mention my earnings. In fact I now do more work in this area than any other."
Peacocks - Group Estates Maintenance Manager
Training - “Since Tracy's Communication Skills workshop I have seen a noticeable improvement. We have moved some staff on to looking at working styles and effective relationships - the team are now more receptive to feedback.”
Preston College - Management & Teaching Staff
Manager Appraisal Training - “Very informative, open training with useful information on how ideas for carrying out appraisals”
“Thoroughly enjoyable and informative - thank you”
“This training should be made available to all - thank you Rachel”
“It was very useful - excellent presenter/trainer”
Redinc. General Store - HR Manager and Denim Buyer
Training - “I have the highest regard for Rachel and her work. She has added value to our retail sales team in the following ways:
Based on my brief for what we need as a company for this new store – Rachel created a bespoke Customer Experience training program for us. With her confident personality, and experience in the field, the delivery of this program has been very effective.
We have clearly defined the process of sales, and definitely drilled it in the minds of the store management team. They in turn have become a lot more skilled and confident and this has impacted positively on the sales floor team.
Rachel completed the first part of our training in Spring Summer 2008 and the second part in Autumn Winter 2008 and we’ve come back to her to continue in Spring Summer 2010, which is proof in itself of Rachel’s good work. Given the budget opportunity I would agree to a monthly ongoing training contract.
In this third season the team is a lot clearer about what to expect, that we are serious about the team’s development, and we anticipate high team involvement and training effectiveness.I have no hesitation is saying that no matter which company I work with, I would utilise Rachel’s training and coaching techniques – whenever there is an opportunity for my team.I have no hesitation again in saying that Rachel’s approach and work has definitely positively contributed towards settling, enhancing and enabling this new and young team.”
Sair & Co - Owner
PD Coaching - “I found Rachel to be a powerful coach. Our sessions together were invaluable. Rachel challenged me to be the highest expression of myself by coaching me in an honest, curious and engaging way. She is committed both to her coachee’s development and to her development as coach. She championed me as an individual with my own identity, which boosted my confidence and enabled me to grow. She is very supportive and I would fully recommend her as a coach. Working with Rachel has helped me enormously personally and professionally.”
SCA - Training Manager
Training & PD Coaching - "Tracy is a capable and committed individual who is assisting SCA in achieving their goals.”
SCA - Technical Development Controller
PD Coaching - “Thank you Rachel for the sessions, they have been really helpful and have helped me reflect on some issues that I was otherwise finding difficult to manage. As we discussed the process of verbalising situations and issues to you and having them played back was very helpful, I also appreciated the odd prod! I think the key to these types of sessions working is a willingness on the participants side to be open, honest and consider the different perspectives that are being put forward by the coach in this case you good self… equally important is some form of mutual understanding between the participant and coach…I’m sure I’ll be in touch and would be happy to recommend you to any future clients.”
Sue Schoorman - Managing Director
PD Coaching - “As a coach, Tracy asks all those questions you simply don't think of or don't want to ask yourself. This enables you to think in one way - the successful way. She challenges what you say and gets you to think in ways that alone you would simply not have thought about.
Fantastic for personal development and stretching yourself beyond your "set" limits. I highly recommend Tracy as a personable and professional coach.”
Upshot Coaching - Director
PD Coaching - “When I had Rachel as my coach I was in a period of turmoil and change in my life. I was feeling confused and stuck about how to move forward. Rachel was incredibly intuitive in our work together and absolutely met my needs in our coaching conversations. She was
non-judgemental, respectful, supportive and challenging in helping me to make sense of things and get to the heart of what was really stopping me move forward. She responded to my style of thinking (I am very visual) in a way which meant I felt really understood and validated as a person. As a result of our coaching I became much clearer about what I really wanted to do and consequently made some big changes, for the better. I highly recommend Rachel as a coach.”
WhereToBe - Owner
PD Coaching - "For the past 4 months Nigel has been my coach. His ability to empower me as client to find my own solutions has been extremely valuable. It brings results that really work for me. I would have no hesitation in recommending Nigel.
