Leadership & Executive Coaching & Development

LEADERSHIP & EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT & COACHING TESTIMONIALS

Here is a selection of the many testimonials we have received:

“Listened, identified my strengths early and encouraged me to build upon them.  Was objective, professional and highly intelligent/skilled in the area of coaching, easy to respect and learn from. Kept me focussed. Positive and objective, very professional and knowledgeable. Respectful of me as an Aboriginal woman.
Developed a reporting and monitoring framework for monthly monitoring/guidance.  Keeping myself and the team focussed and on track.
Supporting evaluation of our strategy. Very appropriate, supportive, and objective. Precise, direct and clear, I enjoyed the communication style – able to spend more time on development/growth rather then waffling on about “stuff”. Very relevant/specific for my development needs.  Flexible, and responsive to what I identified as needing.”

Laurinne Campbell, Senior Manager NSW Housing Dubbo.

“A good coach should be more adept at listening than talking. Similarly, they should be capable of seeing both the obvious and the obtuse. One thing a coach should never do however, is tell or preach.

Simon has some unique life experience gained through a variety of different vocations and situations that has given him great clarity of thought and the rare talent of perception. He has a fantastic ability to listen and lead you to finding the solutions to your own questions. After spending one just hour with Simon he was able to listen to me present my challenges of the time and then guide me to solve them by myself. This allowed a practical solution to improving my role as a leader within this business as well as instilling in me a greater confidence to solve future challenges as they arise. Any time I have spent with Simon has without fail been an extremely beneficial investment of time.”

Mark Stanley, General Manager, Quest Apartments, Manly.

“It was a life changing experience for me – I feel more calm and more in control, I feel positive and excited about the future, I feel as if a burden has been lifted. It has been a bit of an epiphany – I have gained so much from the experience.

It gave me the skills and strategies to deal with my career and personal life. Skills to reflect on my behaviour, attitude and thoughts in order to help me apply workable solutions to problems before they arise. The coaching helped me let go of a lot of baggage and for the first time in my life I feel I can be kinder to myself. I can see a change in how I interact with others, I am not so excitable, I am calmer and feel more peaceful. I have become the master of the “helm” and regained control of my destiny!

The coaching kept me on track and honed my tendency to talk about the negatives in my life. It gave me skills to listen, think, change and do.”

Caroline, Manager, large insurance company

“When I first came to Southern Cross Coaching & Development, I was obsessed with work. I had worked 8 weekends straight and regularly worked until midnight, 4am, 2am. If I didn’t work late, I would get up at 3am to prepare for my day. I thought that to be good at my job, I had to do everything and that saying no to someone was career suicide. I allowed myself to be bullied into saying yes to every request and worried about how I would meet the deadline later.

I was very good at my job, but was suffering from poor EQ skills. I was becoming cranky at work, my house was a mess, my health deteriorating and I even found myself over promising & under delivering, which was beginning to show with missed deadlines & non-completion of tasks – something I prided myself on never doing.

On top of this I found myself not being able to influence the right people and found people who were less experienced getting ahead faster than I was. I was also grappling with a workplace bully that was beginning to really drain my capacity and my emotional health. I needed help!

With the added incentive of poor 360 feedback from colleagues at half year’s review, I decided things had to change and enrolled Simon as my coach. He had experienced a high-powered work environment and had practical skills that could help me deal with bullies, regain my personal power and sort out my work/life balance.

I found the support and guidance Southern Cross Coaching & Development provided invaluable. The difference the coaching has made is amazing!

I haven’t worked a weekend in 7 months. I don’t work later than 7:30pm, and only then when I really want to. I see the value in being happy at home as well as work and understand that a positive and fruitful home life makes a happier and more successful work life.

My NSW team have subsequently nominated me as a winner of an incentive program trip to South Africa for my contribution to the team.

I have learnt to control my energy and think through my responses to ensure I don’t aggravate bullies in my world. I have increased my personal power and understand that I do have control over the outcomes. I can say no – the world can survive without me doing everything, and sometimes might be better off!

I would recommend Southern Cross Coaching & Development and their coaching skills to anyone. I have learnt invaluable skills. I recommend you set yourself a goal and then ask yourself what’s stopping you from living it. The answer is almost always…you! So do something about it!”

Jodie Hanson, AMP Financial Planning, Senior Sales & Marketing Specialist

“Thank you actually, Simon!

As I said on the phone to you, I doubt I’d have had the nerve to cut back to 3 days a week without your encouragement and goal setting, and constant reminder that I had a 3-day work week goal, as after initially embracing that goal, within a few weeks my fear got the better of me, and I had an about-face.  I have now cut back my hours to 3 days a week, am so much happier, and have the time now to explore finding out what I really want to do with my life.  I’m much more relaxed and happy – my kids keep on commenting on it!

You constantly reminded me what my goals were and reconfirmed them every time we met (whether in person or on the phone), so even though my ‘headspace’ shifted, I knew what direction I was headed in.  When I became scared of change and retreated into my old patterns, you helped me remember the priorities and goals I had set.  Your gentle nudging empowered me to make the changes I wanted/ needed to make.

You refocused me when I became scared and retreated into my old habits, especially when my workload reduced/ had a lull, and I was lured into thinking: ‘it’s not that bad…’. You constantly reminded me what my goals were, and reconfirmed that they were still my goals, so even though my headspace shifted, I knew where I was heading. When I made the change happen, I was surprised that I had done it, and you reminded me that I had.  Seems silly, but it was good to be reminded/ patted on the back for achieved my goal, instead of moving forward and not acknowledging it, which is what I usually do.  You reminded me what I had achieved!”

Gillian, Account Director.

“I felt that the process was robust and easy to engage with, well managed by my Southern Cross Coaching & Development coach and placed me really well to look critically at a number of areas to work out exactly what I needed to do to achieve what I wanted, which led logically towards planning for action.

My coach was very easy to work with and managed the sessions in a way that achieved maximum benefit for me.

I found that the process was centred more around drawing me towards my own conclusions than an advisory role for my coach, but where it was appropriate to give advice, my coach offered clear and considered thinking that I found really useful. I feel that the experience has developed some good skills in analysing my own requirements and problem-solving options to come to good decisions.

I found the process very engaging and rewarding, and the experience was really positive all round.”

Ben Spence, NSW Housing

“I found the proactive, hands-on approach involving at “your desk” training brought a different dimension to the usual training programs I have attended, reinforcing key concepts and habits to be truly effective.

At the time, I was faced with the challenge of constant interruptions and the way the team operated made it difficult to find time to focus on the strategic issues key to the success of the business.

Having completed the program, I now have a greater focus and time is now being spent by the team on key strategic objectives.  The team is also working far more effectively and efficiently amongst themselves to ensure delivery of personnel and team objectives.

I found the most valuable part of the training was the one-on-one format and that the learning is spread over several weeks, this helps to implement new and break the old habits.

I found the whole experience to be very worthwhile and the approach suited the needs of our team.

Well done and much appreciated.”

Richard Stacker, General Manager Macquarie Direct Property, Macquarie Bank

“I approached Southern Cross Coaching & Development for Career/Executive Coaching at a time in life when I was extremely lost, confused and needing direction. I was sceptical as to whether coaching would assist in finding a solution, but was intrigued nonetheless. From my first session, I moved forward in leaps and bounds, and have now achieved all of my goals. The coach at Southern Cross Coaching & Development exceeded my expectations by far. With the lessons I have learnt during my coaching, I have grasped a more positive outlook on life and understand what it is that I want to do. I highly recommend Southern Cross Coaching & Development for anybody looking to achieve the biggest or smallest of goals.”

Stef Mueller, Accountant

Some comments on Simon Smith’s training:

• Much more practical than I was expecting and I think that even I can make some progress.
• If this won’t create tangible improvements nothing will!
• Very engaging.  Found the content & prac activity mix to be very well integrated & related