Some Testimonials from our clients;
Thank you so much for yesterday. The feedback I have been hearing from everyone has been superb and everyone has really taken it all on board. There has been a lot of “stop robbing my time!” jokes too – love it!
Madeleine Cook – Operations Manager – Journeys by Design
(Working Smarter for Better Productivity Workshop – November 2016)
“After knowing Martin for the past five years I chose to try his services as it became apparent to me that I needed to look at how I ran my business and that there was a change of focus required. Since working with martin and viewing the day to day running of my business in a different light I must say that the unique bespoke approach he offers is second to none. I will continue working with Martin in the future as the difference this has made has been superb and should any one ask about his service I would recommend they try him. Thank you.”
Darren Crabb – Darren Crabb Wealth Management
“I have worked with Martin over a number of years and on many different projects. He is a dedicated, focused professional that is considerate to both team and individual and makes work fun. He has an eye for detail that I envy and can always be relied upon to deliver quality within the parameters set for him. Martin’s skills as both individual coach and group facilitator are transformational and he has a long record of success in conflict resolution between individuals and within teams. Comfortable working with everyone from MD to Receptionist, Martin’s natural ability to read individuals and pre-empt issues before they arise make him an ideal working partner, particularly in times of change.”
Tony Butler – HR Manager, Kimberly-Clark Europe
“I can’t say anything but good about Martin – His enthusiasm for any subject is to be admired and his grasp of subject matters with even the smallest bit of input from others always amazed me. I used Martin a lot to sort out various team issues and would do again if i had the opportunity as he always had ideas on how to tackle or solve the issue which I very much appreciated.”
Christophe Damouni – Supervisor Southern Europe, Kimberly-Clark
“Martin has an excellent skill of listening; he has helped me to prioritise my career ambitions by working with me on simple methodology that was easy and comfortable for me to work with.”
Paul Parry – SAP BI Consultant, Kimberly-Clark European Services Ltd
“I’ve worked with Martin over a number of years and always found him to be professional and committed to the success of projects. He works with the best interests of his learners at heart to ensure the long term success of any intervention. He’s also a great guy to work alongside, bringing positivity and humour to the team.”
Claudine McClean – Customer Business Director, Structured Training
“Martin was always a pleasure to work with. Clear about what he wanted from us, organised and dedicated to all the training programmes we ran – always attending in person to represent to company view and build relationships with staff. He was always very supportive of our interventions yet quite capable of keeping us on our toes. Martin is a very personable chap with an enjoyable sense of humour. I would very much like to work with him again in the future.”
Chris Cianchi – Senior Training Consultant, Impact Development Training Group
“Martin Smith is an outstanding training professional who worked with me as a part of the team to launch Kimberly-Clark’s award winning performance management process across 14 European countries. Together we attended several global meetings in Atlanta (USA) to receive briefings on the new process and he then worked alongside me to deliver that training across the European geographies. This work – together with some training Martin led in South Africa – attracted very positive comments and was very well received. In summary, Martin is a great trainer, an experienced coach and a natural collaborator who has earned much personal respect, and always demonstrated a ‘can-do’ attitude.”
Rick Woodward – European Learning and Development Director, Kimberly-Clark
We have worked with Martin at the Kimberly-Clark European Shared Service Centre, based in Brighton since 2001. We have worked together to develop a modular Leadership Development programme which is custom built to his companies requirements. Martin has been brilliant to work with. He is flexible, friendly and professional which has resulted in a close working relationship. My collaboration with Martin is on an regular basis. A stimulating experience. Energetic, resourceful, demanding and fair, Martin is the very person you want to work alongside. The ideal working partner that will move hell and earth to get what is needed to make learning and development initiatives interactive, sustainable and value adding. He listens, understands, collaborates and appreciates his peers, team and work partners.”
Alex Sherman – Partner, Leornian Consulting
I have no hesitation in recommending Martin, he is a pleasure to work with; he is a great collaborator, has outstanding energy and enthusiasm which is infectious. Martin is an outstanding learning and development professional –he is an excellent facilitator, trainer and coach and has a genuine interest in individual, team and leadership development. He has a proactive, can do attitude and is very well respected by colleagues and customers. He has contributed to the success of the European Shared Service Centre significantly through supporting the roll out of Kimberly-Clark’s Performance Management process, supporting specific organisational change initiatives, the development of leadership programmes, team development sessions, facilitating organisation re-design workshops and individual executive coaching, to name but a few! I would be more than happy to provide further reference information on request.”
Lucy Gough – HR Manager, Kimberly-Clark European Services Ltd.
“I worked with Martin for four years at Daewoo and he was a dynamic member of our team. His training and coaching skills were of the highest quality and his commitment was outstanding. He is a true developer of people, and – importantly – has a real understanding of the wider commercial issues, enabling him to deliver effective results. His ability to inspire and challenge won respect and credibility at all levels of the organisation.”
Fiona Macpherson – Head of HR, Daewoo Motor Company Ltd
“Martin has provided our business with a series of excellent training and development workshops that have been both effective and fun, something that in my experience does not always happen at the same time in business training sessions.
In our case he used his experience and expertise to introduce and develop appraisal and performance review skills and presentation skils. Both of these sessions were well received by all concerned and the combination of being spoken to and then underatking some ‘learning by doing’ resulted in lasting changes in behaviour and ability.
Ian Dennis – Business Systems Manager at DS Smith Paper Limited
Career Coaching Client
I said that I would give feedback so will drop you a note tomorrow – but I would just like to say that the coaching has been pretty fabulous from my point of view and has done a lot to help me dig out my positivity and find a way forward that I am really excited about. So it really is a huge ‘thank you’ from me!
Claire Milner, Customer Insights Team Leader, Kimberly-Clark
Career Coaching Client
The work we’re doing together is helping drive down barriers and making my decision making process for my own career path logical. Some of the things that are starting to benefit me are:
- Generating a clear structure of what’s important in work as well as in my private life
- Being able to prioritise the key things using simple pros and cons analysis
- Questioning and challenging some of the barriers that exist
- Generating an action plan to tackle some key barriers
- From a personal point of view these sessions are helping me identify the things I would normally hide away from and hopefully as we move forward I can break down these barriers too.
Paul Parry APO Project Manager
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Global Learning and Development Consultant – Interim Role
Martin worked as Global Learning and Development Consultant for Barloworld Handling, on an interim contract, for 11 months. During that time, he developed and launched a successful learning management system across 5 countries, and led several senior team interventions to build team effectiveness and create sustainable action plans to move forward. Martin’s work was characterised by warm team relationships, and very strong training design and delivery. (People were exceptionally complimentary about his presentation skills programme). He is an exceptional training professional and I will willingly re-employ him again, if the opportunity arises.
Rick Woodward Global HR Manager, Barloworld Handling Ltd
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Calibration Session Facilitation
A brief note to thank you for your facilitation yesterday.
In a long but surprisingly enjoyable session, your expert prompting and challenging ensured we stayed on track and were able to fully justify the relative ratings. In consequence I believe we have done justice to all those discussed and have agreed accurate performance measures for everyone.
All I have to do now is get the grid endorsed by Jean-Louis De Sanglier….!!
Andy Wood KCP Workstream Director
Coaching Feedback
Hi Martin,
As a coach I find that you make an individual feel at ease with discussing delicate or sensitive issues openly. You ask questions that make me think differently. You made me feel good about my contribution and made me feel valuable. I now doubt myself much less than before! You treat individuals with respect and want to help them whole heartedly get to where they need to get to.
Tina Warneford K-C Professional Supervisor, UK, Benelux & Nordic
Coaching Client Feedback
The reason that I requested your help was because I was seen in the organisation as someone who was difficult to work with, my comments were not being heard and my communication skills needed improving. Since starting to work with you I have had important improvements recorded in my annual review after years of a downward trend.
I found your openness and correctness to be one of the best elements of your style. You also used your business and organisational knowledge to good effect throughout our discussions and you also managed to help me make sense of my Insights colour wheel profile and helped me to identify actions that would help me move forward.
Most challenging to me were the personal actions that I agreed to undertake after our sessions and whilst they have challenged me they have helped me greatly – things such as the mandatory “chit-Chat” exercise prior to a meeting or discussion and not to be too technical and have a laugh now and then.
I wish you all the best for the future
Bart Van Den Eynde European Purchasing Manager, Belgium
Coaching Client feedback
“I was struggling to make a decision and to understand my future career direction and I was recommended to speak to you by a member of the K-C HR who suggested that some coaching sessions might help me.
You helped me to understand the detail of where I am now versus what I am looking for. This enabled me to make a valued and considered decision on my future. I found your approach to be both systematic and efficient, you never said ‘this is the best route for you’ however you always helped me to understand/see the pro’s and con’s to any potential solution. You were honest and this was key for me to benefit from your help as it’s the one strength that I look for in people.
Ultimately, I already knew the answers to my own questions but your questioning style enabled me to understand and put everything into perspective very quickly. You have a very calming demeanour especially when dealing with sensitive issues.
Many thanks for all your help, it is very difficult to put into words what it meant to me and I only hope that this goes someway to help you in recognition for the help you gave me.
SAP-EBI Domain Lead, Kimberly-Clark Europe.
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Team Leader Coaching feedback
I sought Martins help with a training session which I wanted to do with my team which I was supervising. I had been on a course and wanted to complete one of the training exercises we did with my team. I needed Martins help in structuring the exercise so it fitted within the scheduled time and to ensure that it was structured in a way that the team could relate the exercise to their daily work. I also wanted Martins help to be able to do my role in the exercise as a facilitator.
Martins coaching enabled me to achieve all of the above and it was done in a way which ensured that I came up the answers. He gave me the necessary tools in form of examples from his previous experience (in this case it was around the colour wheel) and pointed me in the right direction but he never told me what to do or what was the “right” way. Martin would ask questions, which ensure I stayed focussed on what I wanted the team to get out of the exercise and also what I wanted to achieve. This really helped me to feel confident enough to carry out the task.
Martin also offered to attend the session in the sense of having a representative from HR would validate the session. This was a real positive and at no point did I feel like he took over the session. After the exercise he provided good constructive feedback which I can use going forward. In addition to this Martin’s positive and open approach was really inspiring to me and is something I thrive to be in my current day to day work. He is very approachable which means that it was always easy to ask questions or seek clarification.
Mette Larsen Customer Service Team Leader
Career Coaching Feedback
Martin took on the challenge of career coaching me when I found I had reached the top of my Band at Kimberly Clark with an unclear vision on where I should go next.
Through 3 phone coaching sessions and 3 face to face meetings in a period of 7 months, we worked together to identify what is important to me and explored internal and external options that would align with my energies. As options became available, Martin helped me to face the realities of each and to finally make the decision to move. Once I had moved, we worked on First Impressions and creating a Vision of the Leader I want to be.
Martin used a perfect combination of tools, patience and fun to take us though some difficult and probing explorations. I always felt Martin worked with me because he cares for me as a person, cares for my success within the company but also sees adding value for the company as a key for a successful mix.
Satinder Madan NACP Personal Care P&TD (Reigate) – NACP Personal Care FORCE Process Lead