What makes me tick?

Hi,

My name is Martin and I’m a management trainer, coach and facilitator. I thought it would be useful for me to introduce myself properly and to explain a little about ‘what makes me tick?’ and why I love doing what I do, so here goes…

 

Martin Smith Learning and Development LtdI’ve been in Learning and Development for over 25 years now, but if you said that that’s where I would be now when I started my working life as an apprentice service engineer with British Gas I would have laughed. Over the years, I ’ve worked in three very diverse industries, utilities, automotive and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and with many different sectors within them such as, customer service, finance, purchasing, credit control, marketing etc. Having that experience and knowledge has enabled me to create a new chapter in my life, solely dedicated to my passion of helping people to develop and achieve their goals.

 

“I love helping people to make change in their life”

 

Basically, what I’ve discovered throughout my career, is that I love helping people to make changes to their life, helping them to achieve their goal(s), (performance) objectives, to get better results, whether that’s in life or business, it doesn’t matter! Asking the hard questions and helping them to drive forward and holding them to account for their goals and actions is what I do. Good, clear, honest and open communication is crucial to making this happen. Whether that’s being able to express your goal to yourself or to get others to buy into the goal. Everyone needs to understand if they are doing a good job, whether they know it or not, we all have a desire to receive feedback. Part of good communication is the ability to give and receive feedback so that you can make choices about how you use it to improve your particular situation.

 

I realised many years ago that it’s people that make up any business. That’s people within the business and people outside the business, your customers, your investors, the public. The ability to build trust, quickly and effectively is crucial to anyone or any business. It is for this reason that it does not matters to me what your business does. Sure, I can have a basic understanding but that’s your area of expertise. My expertise is finding out what you want from relationships (Staff, customers, colleagues, peers etc) and helping you to achieve that quickly and effectively.

 

Fundamentally my job is helping people to create trust, both, in themselves (self-confidence) and in others. When people trust us, they are likely to want to help us, follow us, or simply be with or around us.

 

“It’s people that make up relationships. Its people that create, form, enable

business to grow and thrive!”

 

My purpose is to help you understand yourself and the people around you and to help you then use that understanding to get better results, eitherTraining is always an interactive process for you personally or your business. It really is all about how we engage with people. It’s a key element of how I work with an audience (a person or group), engaging quickly with them, helping them to relax and start to contribute from the start. Listening and simply paying attention plays a big part in how we get someone to engage with us. Listening in particular is so crucial to working with people and yet it is one of those skills that many businesses see as a “soft skill”. Its not soft! Its actually really hard work to listen well, either to an individual or even more so a group! Yet often, we don’t get any training in listening skills. (I can help here!). Simply ‘being there’ when someone is talking to you is another great key. Recognise when your attention is waning or being distracted and bring yourself back to focus on the person in front of you. You’ll get much better results – try it!

 

My delegates all bring something to my workshops. Everyone comes with thoughts, opinions, experiences and ideas. I’m therefore open to work with anyone, regardless of background. As long as you have an open, inquisitive mind that’s fine by me. I’ve never stood at the front of a room and said, “I know everything there is to know about this subject”. I can learn as much from my delegates as they can hopefully learn from me. Between us, we collectively bring more!

 

I get better at what I do, by practice and self-learning, keeping up to date with the latest ideas and thinking and understanding what’s happening in my customers ‘world’ as well. Constantly looking at life situations/circumstances to apply to my own and others learning and improvement.

 

I love what I do and make sure that I have fun doing it too. It’s rare that you’ll see me without a smile and laughing and having fun, whilst I’m working, which Train the Trainerhelps my delegates to relax and enjoy the event as well. My experience has shown me that when I’m having fun, learning something it becomes more memorable and easier to recall. It is for this reason that I like to inject these elements into my work.

 

My ultimate goal is to end up having improved some people’s lives, businesses and relationships. I want to help people, teams and businesses to look at life and to THINK, FEEL and DO things differently and to be able to improve their situation or performance.

 

Several people and events have shaped me over recent years, helping me to understand that “we only get one life” and therefore we need to make the most it! I think my greatest achievement since going ‘out on my own’ has been adapting to a different way of life. Learning to live and enjoy life more, not just solely focus on work, but what I want to achieve in my life, be that riding my motorcycle, going on holiday, or simply spending time with people that I love to be around.

 

Let me help you make the most of yours!

Photo Credit: Maria Scard Photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please do get in touch for a no obligations conversation about I can help you or your business to develop the communication and management skills to build effective working relationships with the people you interact with. Call : +44  (0) 1273 358863 or email me at [email protected]