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Assessment and Development Centres |
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| “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison |
We see many opportunities to bring a new mind set to Assessment & Development Centres Fresh, simple and creative Yet powerfully predictive and reliable.
Take just one of our mind sets:
Clearing the Pathway
People Development Specialists clear the pathway for the business to use every opportunity. For example:
- Making better use of the information gained for development planning
- Selecting internal managers as assessors to further develop their skills
- Using an existing framework for a different audience, for example talent or succession planning
We are wholly proactive and highly motivated in looking for simple effortless changes that give you better results.
Here’s another:
Treating candidates as Customers
Having all centre staff (yours and ours) highly focused in delivering customer service and rapport building, so that the experience, right from the first communication, encourages and supports participants through the centre and the opportunities afterwards.
This ensures that all candidates are shown exceptional customer care which in turn helps makes their experience of the centre more rewarding as well as maximising great PR for the business.
And a third
Unlocking Natural performance
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It’s all about getting people to perform naturally right from the start; setting their expectations, building rapport, using icebreakers and themes to move between
exercises seamlessly, and keeping them relaxed.
Our highly skilled assessors can then take candidates “off piste” away from the answers they think we want to hear….
to see how they really think and behave – and so uncover the real person.
This depth of assessing gives the business more accurate, reliable and predictive information.
A final example:
Development Centres with a difference
In some development centres we powerfully combine assessment with active learning.
The assessments and observations become resource for the participant to fuel their own development – and take responsibility for it!
Our highly skilled facilitators give stretching feedback and stimulate self-analysis and peer feedback.
Input sessions and experiential learning develop awareness and knowledge. Reflection time and 1:1 coaching are used to embed learning.
This warm professionalism typifies our approach and attention to detail.
People Development Specialists work in the following areas:
- Tailored design of Assessment and Development Centres
- Design of bespoke exercises
- Tailored Reports and Personal Development Plans
- Mentoring and Coaching
- Design and delivery of programmes of development
following centres
- Interview and Assessor training
- Assessors to support internally run centres
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Leadership |
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| When Thomas Aquinas was training potential missionaries, his advice was simple - “Go preach the word of God. If necessary, use words” |
You know when you meet a leader. Whether the encounter takes place in the boardroom, in the call centre, or on the factory floor. Meeting a leader we respect has impact on us, partly because it doesn’t happen that often. Demand comprehensively outstrips supply.
But successful businesses need more than the few exceptional “golden eggs”
Our Consultants and our approach help you identify and develop your outstanding leaders and managers. |
And People Development Specialists can work with you to significantly improve leading and managing skills across the business.
Our approach is based on the simple insight that when someone’s deciding if they will follow you (or just obey you) as a leader, she looks at what you do – because this tells her who you are.
This demands a practical and pragmatic style of training where we use experiential learning to reveal and embed skills that improve work performance.
Focusing first on Personal transformation to provide the energy, direction and skill to then transform others and ultimately the business.
What we do
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Identify Leadership and Management Talent
Using our expertise in Assessment and Development Centres we can help in recruitment,talent & succession planning and movement decisions (promotion / changes in job) at all levels
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Nurture Talent
Actively developing the skills the business needs in the future with bespoke development packages
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Here and Now Leadership & Management Development
For current managers at all levels, to make significant impact on the business now
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Develop Wisdom
Working with senior managers to develop wisdom. (Vision, inspiration. Sound judgment, strategic thinking) – to choose the best means to attain the best ends to transform the business. |
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Teamwork |
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| Teams are living energies! They are groups of people who fluctuate in their interest, who both help and hinder, and who have the passion to create and destroy. |
Take for example a group of people of different ages and experience levels. Mix in different values, goals and attitudes to work. Add the usual workplace distractions of internal competition, personality clashes, and stress. Place in the pressure cooker of delivering objectives. No wonder it’s hard to get the job done.
The intriguing thing is that there is no shortage of energy in most teams - it’s just that sometimes it gets locked up or frittered away. Dealing with this requires an ability to harness and focus energy, in a thoroughly human way.
And that’s exactly what we do! PDS are specialists at identifying where and how the teams energy is being used up - both the positive and negative - and this awareness provides the key to unlocking improved performance.
And we don’t keep this ability to ourselves!
We believe in transferring the knowledge, grounded strategies and the techniques, as well as the ability to diagnose and focus energy.
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We work with teams in 3 ways:
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With Individuals – to be effective in ANY team
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With Actual Teams – to diagnose, plan and action their development
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With the Business – to improve teamwork strategically across the organisation
Here’s what YOU can expect from us
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Equal measures of pragmatism, warmth and delivery
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A sharp understanding of your situation and desired outcomes
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A real connection between us and your people
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An atmosphere that encourages your people to be themselves
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A framework that supports change, and provokes it |
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Coaching |
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| It’s no accident that the organisations consistently identified as winners in their chosen fields also happen to be some of the best places on earth to work. |
As the FedEx CEO says “Motivated people move faster” and the people at Carnation Milk say their milk comes “from contented Cows!”
Taking a closer look shows that these “Contented Cow” companies, these “great places to work” were in almost every case, led throughout by people who communicate more like coaches and facilitators and less like managers and bosses.
Coaching to us is an everyday skill which, focussed sharply, gives purpose and learning from even simple conversations. Its effect is to release individuals to do their best work, to think for themselves, take risks, grow and encourage others to do the same. |
Coaching helps your people to become self-managing, freeing up your managers to lead!
Take it a step further and targeted coaching can powerfully embed learning from training initiatives, support change or leap frog personal development.
A wise man once said that it is answers that are the easy part... asking the RIGHT questions is the KEY
Through Coaching People Development Specialists work with your people in two key ways:
But it’s more than that...its the way our people work with yours.
Our coaches are highly skilled business and coaching professionals who work in a hands-on way. They create solid, supportive and challenging relationships, leaving people feeling refreshed and newly armed to take action and get outstanding results.
Investing in Coaching yields a SIX fold return. More than that, a coaching climate attracts and retains the gems of your industry.It can help create one of the best, most profitable and greatest places on earth to work. |
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Performance Management |
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| Even with the best systems, linking strategy, talent, succession, development and recognition, continued success in business depends on people having...Simple Honest Conversations. |
Young and old, the CEO and the new manager are not immune. Avoidance is real! Simple honest conversations are not easy!
Many feel constrained by the system, or are caught up in workload and pressure, and many feel uncomfortable saying it as they see it.
To us breathing life into performance management means freeing people up to really do their job!
This might mean changing the system, but nearly always it means helping people develop relationships that work. Developing courage, conviction and ABILITY.
People Development Specialists are experts at breathing life into performance management by: |
Right Here Right Now
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Helping to make it part of the day to day job not an annual obligation
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Growing skill and confidence to deal with things in real time, have simple honest conversations to improve work performance
Keeping it Simple
Be a part of it
Making it happen
Learning is about more than simply acquiring new knowledge and insights; it is also crucial to unlearn old knowledge that has out lived its relevance. So in order to learn we need to forget! |
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Interpersonal Skills |
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| Sustaining success in any organisation is a vital premeditated element of the business strategy and the companies that do it best achieve through their people. |
A company's business is dependent not only on the excellence of its products or services but also on the ability of its employees to work in harmony – The ability to develop effective working relationships.
People do buy people! And it's vital, particularly in business that people communicate as effectively as possible.
It’s often the very simple things that make the difference – learning how to really listen, desiring to understand and ask good questions...choosing your responses and impact...and its here that our passion starts to show because we believe that its often these simple things that people find so hard to do…
At every level, taking the time to develop these real foundation skills can release amazing amounts of energy for personal and business life. |
So whether it’s to influence customers or the people you work with every day, People Development Specialists design and run programmes focused on the key foundation skills:
In addition, we also develop training packages for specific areas where these skills need to be highly developed, such as:
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Influencing
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Customer Service
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Presenting
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Negotiating
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Chairing & Facilitating
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Handling Conflict |
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