What is missing or holding you back from leading a truly wonderful life? I work with people to help them make sense of the world, explore who they are and to enhance their self confidence and self esteem. For many people there seems to be a trade-off between being successful and being yourself. Find a new way of looking at things that feels relaxed and easy. For a practical approach to greater achievement, building self confidence and self esteem, peace of mind, less stress and a more balanced and fulfilling life, coaching could be for you.

I coach people for personal and professional development using NLP, hypnosis, common sense and humour.

• Would you like to feel more confident?
• Do you find it hard to relax?
• Do you want to enjoy life more?
• Do you feel 'blocked' or 'stuck' in any way?
• Are there some people you just can't seem to get on with?

If you answered 'Yes' to any of these you may wish to have Personal or Executive Coaching Contact me for a free telephone consultation.

Life Coaching

This type of personal development coaching has become popular in the last few years. I find it often works like this:

1) My client contacts me with an issue he or she wants to deal with.
2) We agree on specific goals and work together to create the desired changes. Depending on the nature of the changes required people tend to see me for between 3-6 sessions (some issues get resolved in one session).
3) My client enjoys the benefits of the changes. Then, later on, another challenge crops up.
4) We build on his or her skills and learning to deal with the new situation.
5) My client always knows that I'm ready to help and support them at any future time.

What do you want? Sometimes it's hard to know. Try this free online questionnaire.

Helpful Articles:

Stress Management The Happiness Habit
Why do we find it so hard to Relax? Active Relaxing

Personal Coaching

"The effects of my meetings with you have been both subtle and startling. I am calmer, less stressed, more focused and generally one hell of a lot happier. Embarrassingly, my children think it's done me good too! A great experience, thanks Graham." BW

"There have been many additional benefits to our sessions: I can communicate far more effectively with others and get results, my personal and business relationships are stronger, I have been able to give up smoking, I have set goals for my life and, most difficult of all for me, I can make the difficult decisions necessary in business and life and follow them through." BE

"The transformation in me as a person has been quite dramatic: I seldom lose my temper, I seldom suffer from insomnia, and the stresses and strains of everyday life are now just ripples on a pond!" TD

"He checked what our desired outcomes were and that they had been met. He checked where we were in terms of understanding, gave examples, gave time for learning by experience and was great about repeating things if and when necessary. A big thank you." HP

"I had no idea of the sort of resources that I was able to access until I was introduced to Graham Smith's coaching. I am now 3 stones lighter, in full control of my eating and exercise habits and am much happier all round - both at work and at home. I would recommend life coaching with Graham to anyone who felt that they wanted to achieve something (no matter how big or small) but didn't know where to start."  - MW

Executive Coaching

Benefits of a Coaching Culture

Have you ever got back to work after a training and wondered what happened to the things you learnt? Olivero, Bane and Kopelman (1997) found that training followed by executive coaching increased public sector employee productivity by 88% after 8 weeks one-to-one coaching, compared to an increase of 22% by training alone.

The study, published in 'Public Personnel Management' Winter Edition, 1997:'Executive Coaching as a Tool', showed impressive results when comparing the effects of conventional managerial training alone vs. the same training followed by one-on-one executive coaching. The results clearly indicated increased improvement in all areas of management skills and responsibilities.

• Fosters sharing of information, increasing knowledge retention within the organisation
• Improves communication skills
• Improves relationships within teams
• Energises staff - increases ownership and enthusiasm
• Can be encouraged to spread culturally from one department
• Coaching is an essential skill set at the heart of modern, facilitative management and leadership

Quotes

'The Coaching and Mentoring course provides a positive, structured approach to problem solving. A very good course.'
'Thank you again, it was arranged in an excellent way and fully met my expectations.'
'The course puts structure and strategy to all aspects of coaching, seeing coaching possibilities in everyday work'
'It will improve your management skills and your staff's potential and you come away from the course with a set of methods/tools for coaching and mentoring' All comments from participants in the Coaching and Mentoring programme for the Environment Agency's new Evidence Directorate (Smith and Friends is working in partnership to introduce a coaching culture).

'The course was called NLP for Caring Professionals. It was a fascinating, enlightening and enjoyable experience. Since completing the course I have used two of the techniques with my clients already. Enjoyable, informative - from theory into practical usage - experiential to give a deeper understanding of the concepts. Really enjoyed the course, one of the most productive weekends, in terms of my own personal development and potential benefit to my clients, that I have spent in a while.' AZ

'The feedback from delegates has been extremely positive. Delegates have said that Graham is a highly skilled and empathetic trainer who is able to adapt to their needs. In particular, feedback has been extremely positive from the delegates who have received one-to-one coaching and mentoring from Graham.' T.S., Training Manager, East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority.

'If you want someone to develop communication style with your team, who will facilitate permanent growth, and exceed your expectations - then you want Graham Smith to lead a management development programme. He has a dry sense of humour and a light touch that people go for in a big way. When Graham leads a programme people don't just learn for the day - they learn for ever. Graham is one of the few trainers who asks delegates what they want out of a programme and then proceeds to give it to them - checking throughout the workshop that they are satisfied.

His programmes are "customer led", focused and to the point. Graham is an excellent teacher. He makes it easy for delegates to understand that if they want to change the impact they have on others, whether in motivating, coaching, influencing or in self-presentation they must first change their own approach. His by-word is "flexibility". He acts as a role-model for those he teaches. His teaching style and communication style are exemplars of flexibility. It is easy to learn from a teacher who implies "Do as I do as well as what I say."
Dr. Gina Sanders - psychologist, NLP Trainer

'Really outstanding' 'Excellent, isn't he?' 'He created excellent rapport with the group' (Delegates on a presentation skills course - from one of the world's premier management consultancies)

"I thoroughly enjoyed this course and feel enriched and empowered by all that I've learnt.......I want more!" AL