Abbie says:
"I work hard to get to know my clients creating an environment that feels calm and secure. I want people to enjoy the workshops I run, as well as learn something."
What do you do?
I’m passionate about providing coaching support for all levels of an organisation. Coaching is not only for executives, everyone can benefit, so I try to be accessible to all. As a trainer, I work with Sales teams on all kinds of development, and with managers who are learning to be great bosses.
How do you do it?
I use cognitive behavioural techniques and tools to help people unpick their thinking. I work hard to get to know my clients creating an environment that feels calm and secure, but also light hearted. I like to keep things moving and ensure that they remain focused on what they want to achieve. This approach is mirrored in the training I do. As a trainer I want people to enjoy the workshops I run, as well as learn something. Both approaches have served me well in the large change management projects on which I have worked.
What are your areas of specialism?
Who have you worked with?
My experience to date is with Media organsations, in Sales, Learning & Development and Change Management, but I am currently branching out independently into communications companies and the retail sector.
Why I love what I do
Mainly I love it because I get to delve into the nitty gritty of human behaviour which is my greatest interest, and I meet so many amazing people along the way who all seem to teach me something.
What do you do?
Andy is a skilled executive coach, consultant and facilitator who has enjoyed developing leaders & teams across a wide range of industry sectors since 1998.
He is inspired to help people to be the best they can be and to realise their personal and leadership potential in service of organisation performance.
He is passionate in helping people to develop a deep sense of purpose and to create alignment in the way they think & act.
How do you do it?
Andy always approaches his coaching relationships in a professional and conscientious manner with energy, rigour, warmth, enthusiasm and commitment, a style that complements his professional qualifications. Andy is straight talking, experienced and credible, and particularly appreciates working with clients at a deep level of personal awareness that helps them develop enabling beliefs that support their great performance.
What are your areas of specialism?
Andy’s qualifications include B.Sc. (Hons) in Applied Biological Sciences (Bristol), CMI Level 5 Coaching & Mentoring, Practitioner: Lumina Spark, MBTI®, Emotional Intelligence (Hay, JCA), Transactional Analysis (TA 101) & SDI.
Who have you worked with?
Andy has extensive experience in working with Senior Leaders in the UK, Europe, Asia and USA, and from a broad portfolio of market sectors that includes financial services, government, defence, academia, engineering, manufacturing, construction & media.
Client organisations include University of Cambridge, OSRAM, Barclays, UNFAO, Unilever; Highways England, Welsh Government, GCHQ, MOD, Johnson & Johnson Healthcare and Bauder.
Why you love what you do?
For me it’s all about making a difference whether it at an individual or organisation level. I love helping people to dig deep and find ways of being at their best, & helping clients link their own development & insights to organisation purpose & performance.
Lucy says:
"I work best when helping people to expand their capabilities, engage their passion and enjoy their work, and whilst exploring all of that, having fun!"
What do you do?
I enable people to transform personal, team and organisational performance. I coach individuals and teams, I facilitate groups to achieve exceptional influence to get the results they want and I train leadership and coaching skills. I supervise and train coaches and am the former Vice Chair for Association for Coaching, UK. In my spare time I write books!
How do you do it?
I am compulsively curious, fascinated by how people behave and exploring how they think. I love to foster this curiosity in my clients to help them gain new insights and develop more choices. I work best when helping people to expand their capabilities, engage their passion and enjoy their work, and whilst exploring all of that, having fun! I am practical and pragmatic and like to engage people in active and experiential, as well as reflective, learning. I delight in supporting others to make the sustainable changes they desire.
What are your areas of specialism?
Why I love what I do
I am fascinated by people: how we think – consciously and unconsciously – and how we act, react and interact. It’s a privilege to work with people to help them gain new perspectives, change thinking and behaviour to expand their capacity for growth, success and fulfilment. And it’s fun!
Emma says:
"Having worked within business and as an L&D professional, I understand first hand the day to day pressures, challenges and sometimes barriers in integrating new practices in our working lives."
How do you do it?
Through my work as an L&D practitioner, I build courses that meet the practical and developmental needs of organisations using a common sense, real world approach.
What are your areas of specialism?
Having worked within business and as as L&D professional, I understand first hand the day to day pressures, challenges and sometimes barriers in integrating new practices in our working lives. Having this understanding allows me to help find practical solutions for individuals to implement the learning.
Who have you worked with?
I’ve worked with a range of sectors largely in media, but spanning telecoms and sport sponsorship.
Why I love what I do
I love what I do, as I love to see people grow and develop not only their skills but their confidence to embrace new approaches. The energy from working with great people who want to gain new skills and behaviours is infectious.
Greg says:
"Put simply, it’s a buzz to see people improve their skills both inside and outside the training room."
What do you do?
Presentation training particularly with a storytelling element. I also deliver sales and negotiation training.
How do you do it?
My style of training relies primarily on a combination of interactive exercises and facilitated discussion. The aim is not just to help trainees perform in the training room, but to give them a deep understanding of the principles covered in order that they can use them in any situation.
What are your areas of specialism?
Storytelling particularly in pitch and credentials meetings using my knowledge from script writing.
Who have you worked with?
Media and creative agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. Also leading media owners and publishing houses in the UK.
Why I love what I do?
Put simply, it’s a buzz to see people improve their skills both inside and outside the training room. Each session is different and it’s fun to work with intelligent and creative people with different ideas and learning styles.
“Greg used ice breaking activities really well to get us all working together before we started telling our stories. The material and frameworks were really good and very applicable to our jobs.”
- Storytelling attendee
Jo says:
"I specialise in helping individuals, teams and organisations to identify specific tools and techniques that they can use on a daily basis to rapidly accelerate the rate at which they achieve their goals."
What do you do?
I am an experienced trainer, facilitator and coach with over 20 years in the field of learning and development. I am passionate about coaching, learning to self-coach and I live the techniques that I share with my clients.
Any event facilitated by me will include an element of self-coaching. I have a degree in psychology and am qualified to use an array of psychometric tools.
How do you do it?
Working with me is high energy, high impact and good fun! I have enjoyed career success across a range of fields including retailing and manufacturing as well as public sector organisations. I am a real person with real scars who inspires my clients to think differently about how they approach everyday situations. I offer pragmatic tools that can be readily practiced and used when appropriate.
What are your areas of specialism?
I specialise in helping individuals, teams and organisations to identify specific tools and techniques that they can use on a daily basis to rapidly accelerate the rate at which they achieve their goals. I also have great experience in working with organisations to develop and embed their values and culture.
Who have you worked with?
Originally, working with senior leaders of food companies, I have worked across a range of organisations in different sectors. These include MPs, elite athletes, charities and public sector organisations as well as FTSE 500 clients.
Why I love what I do
I have fun and engage with people! I see my main aim with clients as motivating and supporting them in making changes in their behaviour that will improve their professional lives. It’s great when people choose to change the way that they do things to get better results for themselves and their organisation.
Jules says:
"I love challenging people to think differently and make a shift in their perception."
What do you do?
I’ve coached, trained and mentored over 10,000 employees helping them to achieve sustainable increases in their customer satisfaction and ultimately sales conversion results.
I have dedicated the last 12 years to the training and development of many large national and international organisations. My successful methodology is based on the relationship I build with clients and the effective and interactive design of coaching and training materials. I’m a qualified NLP and DISC Personality Profiling Practitioner
How do you do it?
I’m committed to power experiential learning and I strive to fully understand the culture, strategy and leadership challenges within the client organisation. Participants are challenged to reflect upon the choices they make and the behaviours and attitudes that often prevent them from getting optimal results.
I’ve coached, trained and mentored over 10,000 employees helping them to achieve sustainable increases in their customer satisfaction and ultimately sales conversion results.
I have dedicated the last 12 years to the training and development of many large national and international organisations. My successful methodology is based on the relationship I build with clients and the effective and interactive design of coaching and training materials. I’m a qualified NLP and DISC Personality Profiling Practitioner
I’m committed to power experiential learning and I strive to fully understand the culture, strategy and leadership challenges within the client organisation. Participants are challenged to reflect upon the choices they make and the behaviours and attitudes that often prevent them from getting optimal results.
Who have you worked with?
I have a vast range of industry experience and I have worked with many national and international organisations including:
Why I love what I do
I love to see those who are resistant to attend training, turn around with faces of delight and appreciation for being there! I love challenging people to think differently and make a shift in their perception. I love to climb into bed at night and know that I have made a difference.
Credentials:
20+ years as a people and learning expert
6 years as an in-the-learning room Trainer
10 years in-house at Board level as Head of HR/Talent/L&D
Chartered Fellow of the CIPD
BA (1st) Psychology, MA HR Management and Development, PDip Coaching and Mentoring
Accredited Strengthscope Practitioner
What do you do?
I am a trainer, coach and speaker with over 20 years of learning and development expertise. I am passionate about learning that is both inspiring and practical, meaning learners want to and can start working differently straight away.
How do you do it?
Using my background in Psychology I bring learning to life - not just what, works but why it works. People love to learn about a topic and also about themselves in relation to that topic. I distill lots of complex theory into easy-to-apply tools, that mean learners can immediately do something new or differently that has a high impact on their results.
What are your areas of specialism?
I couple my background in Psychology with 10 years experience at Board level in-house heading up learning and development; meaning I specialise in getting win-win from learning, for the individual learner and for their organisation. I especially enjoy training the areas of: management and leadership, recruiting and retaining people, collaboration and relationships, and also coaching people using profiling tools.
Who have you worked with?
I have worked with a huge range of clients, from FTSE 100 corporates to small start-up charities. I also enjoy working with the full scope of learners, from C-Suite leaders to those just kick-starting their early career.
Why I love what I do
Put simply, learning is my passion, both professionally and personally! I love igniting that same spark for learning in others - seeing someone learn something new, feel inspired by it, put it into action, and then transform their success as a result is brilliant.
Richard says:
"When I look at my career, the common thread that has always given me the most joy and motivation has been helping people reach their true potential."
What do you do?
As a 20+ year experienced media professional turned full-time training consultant and executive coach, I help clients and teams realise their full growth potential using a hands-on approach and real-world training techniques that deliver immediate impact on personal and business performance.
I’ve run some of the UK’s biggest media accounts and some of its smallest – each presenting their own challenges. I have also run scores of new business pitches and indirectly managed hundreds more, winning over $3bn in billings and millions of pounds/euros/dollars in revenues.
Whilst at Maxus (WPP) I trained and developed over 300 senior staff in pitch management, this training approach saw global pitch conversion rates improve by 40%. I have mentored new business leaders on a one-to-one basis to improve confidence and self-reliance. My pro-bono work includes helping train the team at Barnardo’s UK, to help improve their fund raising via corporate pitches.
How do you do it?
I bring all my experience and a coaching mind-set to training. My courses are heavily weighted towards real-life scenarios and practice to ensure really productive outcomes from the training sessions.
Where possible my preference is to adapt materials so they are particularly relevant to the client’s businesses sector and challenges. This can involve bringing in live briefs to discuss, so the work done in the training room can have immediate impact on the business. I often use role play scenarios as this helps the learning embed via practice.
What are your areas of specialism?
Who have you worked with?
I led global business development functions within agencies WPP, Publicis and IPG, leading and building client relationships at all levels and in UK, European and Global roles. I also have first-hand experienced of the sell side through time spent with Yahoo!
Why I love what I do?
When I look at my career, the common thread that has always given me the most joy and motivation has been helping people reach their true potential. I love the sense of team that the emotional roller-caster ride of the pitch creates, I love developing great ideas with groups of people and love that fact that the knowledge & skills practiced in the security of the training room can make a massive difference to an individual and the business very quickly, when taken into the real world. Yes, I love making a difference.
Zena says:
"I have the best job in the world: helping ambitious individuals fulfil their potential."
What do you do?
Executive Coaching and motivational speaking. I’m also author of Mind Flip: Reinvent Your Future and Crazy Busy: how to do more in a day than you do now in a week.
My expertise is in career management and productivity. I help people find a laser-focus on their career priorities and then make sure nothing gets in their way of achieving them – least of all themselves.
How do you do it?
A lifetime of studying what makes some people more successful than others.
I started and ran a great business that recruited recruiters (yes, really). After I sold it, fifteen years later, I studied an MSc in Organisational Psychology specialising in career management. Then I added on executive coaching qualifications, including cognitive-behavioural coaching and Nancy Kline’s Time to Think. I use all of this training and experience (and some Cranfield Business School and my own entrepreneurial background too) to support my clients.
In my Crazy Busy™ workshops we explore ways to be five times more effective and what can prevent this – personally and organisationally. For example, organisations create processes that create productivity-killing ‘drag’. Research shows we can waste 20% of our time on this.
What are your areas of specialism?
Who have you worked with?
I’m fortunate to have many thousands of hours of experience working with individuals across many functions and disciplines. I coach senior leaders to manage the challenges of their role and talk to their teams about how to manage with their senior leaders!
I’m also a Coach on the Executive MBA programme at Oxford University’s Said Business School, supporting senior individuals from all over the world.
Why I love what I do
I have the best job in the world: helping ambitious individuals fulfill their potential. It never feels like work so getting paid to do it is still a real thrill.
What do you do?
My career spans marketing and innovation roles at large corporates, agency and consulting client-service roles and leadership in early stage tech start-ups.
I use that breadth of experience to coach individuals and train teams to work smarter and consult more creatively.
How do you do it?
I have a background in (and passion for) theatre and improvisation. This ensures that all my courses are fun, interactive, memorable experiences (if I can possibly avoid PPT then I will!) Expect short, sticky memes and models that will stay with you throughout your career. (check out the #pinkpostit on Linkedin for a taster of these).
What are your specialities?
Who have you worked with?
Over the course of my 20+ year career I’ve been lucky enough to run brands like Lynx/Axe deo, Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s ice creams and consult for clients as varied as LEGO, Microsoft, Nestle, Mondelez, Orange, Danone, Unilever and more.
Why I love what I do
I love sharing my knowledge and experience and find that I always learn loads from those on my training courses too. I feel very lucky to be able to teach and learn for a living.
“BD have an array of workshops relevant to our sector, they are always so helpful and find the right solutions according to our need. Their workshops always receive such great feedback. Thank you!”
“Training and development is hugely important to us and we have been really pleased with the engagement we have had with BD. The service and delivery of training has been very professional, and the courses themselves have been informative, useful and enjoyable”
“I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend BD. The team feel like an extensive of my team- I love working with them!! Huge amounts of knowledge and expertise but also plenty of fun!“
“BD have been central to the growth and development of our people and our business this year. Their content is engaging, relevant, practical and delivered by inspiring trainers”.
“We love working with BD over the past years as they are really understanding and flexible in adapting their ways of working to work for our people and how to bring the best out of them”
Bec Development are one of our principle training providers. We always feel confident that delegates will finish feeling motivated and ready to apply a range of new skills and ideas to their roles. Our people specifically request Bec Development training as they value the quality of their sessions from past experience
