Sparrow Management Consultancy

Executive Career Club

Andrew — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:37:08 +0000

An Executive Career Club is starting in the Bishops Stortford area in the new year at the Stansted Manor Hotel aiming to help redundant Executives find work, network and reassess their careers.

The programme of twelve weeks will include a formal presentation each week relevant to Job Search and Career Development, together with the opportunity to exchange information informally and receive professional guidance. The length of programme relates to the realistic time it is known that it takes to find new employment and make decisions concerning ones best work options for the future.

Sylvia Anderson , a Job Search Consultant ran a similar programme in the 90s for five years for Executives in the area, when many were being made redundant or encouraged to take early retirement. The average age of the club members was in the 40-50 age bracket. It is expected that this club will have many more applicants from the 30-40 age range.
Sylvia Anderson will chair most sessions and present some but other professionals will be engaged to give information on different aspects of work . Andrew Sparrow from SMC Ltd will be a guest speaker during this programme.

Job seeking Executives are invited to join and turn their out of work experience into a positive outcome.

Starting 6 January at STANSTED MANOR HOTEL

FREE OPEN MORINING
Tuesday December 2 10-12noon

Enquires to Sylvia Anderson Executive Career Clubs Tel. 01638 515741
OR follow the link to the contact page.

First Break All the Rules, Buckingham & Coffman

Andrew — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:21:38 +0000

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman tackle how good managers create and sustain employee satisfaction in First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. The book is a result of observations based on 80,000 interviews with managers as conducted by the Gallup Organization in the last 25 years.
The book provides a great range of information on what great managers do to create an environment where their teams are motivated to perform.

The key areas the book focuses on that have a particular relevance for recruiting managers including:

How to attract talent and hone that talent into outstanding performance.
How to build an environment where staff loyalty is high and employee turn-over is not an issue.
Understand that people leave their immediate managers, not the companies they work for; and therefore what roles they must personal play in the selection and retention of talent.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey

Andrew — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:36:59 +0000

Old sales adage ’sell first your company then your product then you’.

Stephen Covey’s best-selling book presents a framework to improve you and your personal effectiveness. Simply scanning the pages and stripping out some of the key phrases from the text;

Pro-activity
Thinking win-win
Seeking first to understand and then to be understood
Synergise; seeking a solution based on mutual trust and understanding
Principle centred personality
Continuous self-improvement

provides you with a starting point for a customer satisfaction survey on you and your performance. Not surprisingly then, the book provides a wealth of guidance on improving your self awareness and personal effectiveness.

The book combines a mix of philosophy, management research and anecdotes in a distinctly American can-do format to provide an easy to follow stepwise approach to self-improvement.

Reward and Recognition Prize Draw First Winner

Andrew — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:55:39 +0000

SMC are proud to announce that ‘Dave’ is the first winner of our Reward and Recognition Prize Draw.

The R&R Prize Draw was introduced to thank those of you who have recommended our e-learning courses to your friends and colleagues.

The next prize draw will be conducted in December 2008. The winner will receive a Nikon compact digital camera.

Entering the Reward and Recognition Prize Draw couldn’t be simpler:

e-mail us a list of the people you have recommended. No need to send contact details, a list of first and last names will be sufficient.
Should any of the people you have recommended purchase one of our courses your name will automatically be included in the prize draw.
The Reward and Recognition Prize Draw will be conducted at the end of November. If your name comes out of the hat, we will be in contact with you to find out how to send you your prize.

Don’t worry if you miss out on this prize draw, it will be run regularly to recognize and reward you for your support of SMC.

Effective Recruitment Course Referral Agents Scheme

Andrew — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:55:37 +0000

Are you a specialist recruiter active in the technical business to business sales environment?
Would you like to make sure your clients are better prepared for the recruitment process and so allow you to place the right candidate sooner and also earn extra commission to boot?

Well you can by extending your current service to offer to your clients access to SMC’s Effective Recruitment e-learning course? For each person you refer to us that signs up for the course will earn you extra commission.

Contact us via the contacts page for details of the operation of our Referral Agents Scheme and details commission rates.

Effective Recruitment Course Introductory Price

Andrew — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:49:52 +0000

SMC’s first e-learning course was launched in May; to mark this significant event this course is being offered at an introductory cost of £ 45.00.

To find out more about this course click on the following link:

www.training.sparrowmc.co.uk/courses/effective_recruitment/

Impact Open Enrolment Programmes

Andrew — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:59:35 +0000

If you ask most people to describe their ideal career path, they will have mapped out an upward climb through a series of stages; the transition from new graduate to team leader, team leader to junior manager, and junior to senior management and so on. Each of these stages will be accompanied by a requirement to master, what at times will seem like a bewildering array of management skills, knowledge and behavioural insight. The volumes of business books on the subject of management and leadership style only serves to illustrate that there is no one best way. An individual’s journey through the levels of management needs to be tailored to the individual and their business context.

Impact brings inspiration and magic, adventure and imagination to the process of developing people and organisations. Impact International is a global learning and development business operating worldwide from offices in the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific and the USA. Since 1980 Impact have been creating outstanding experiential programmes that inspire and challenge people to reflect, learn and engage in new ways, to drive personal and business performance.

Impact’s suite of open enrolment programmes are designed for organisations with one or two employees they would like Impact to work with, but don’t need our tailor-made solutions. They are ideal as they run throughout the year, bring together employees from different organisations and offer excellent value for money. Impact work with you to determine the development needs of the individual and the wider organisational context. In consultation with all parties involved, we then suggest the most suitable programme from our portfolio.

All of the Open Enrolment Programmes provide:

Opportunities to increase self awareness and awareness of others.
Personal feedback by peer review and expert input on leadership strengths and development areas.
Practical tools and insight into leading-edge leadership thinking, practice and strategies.
The opportunity to network and share experience with peers from a variety of backgrounds.

The programmes consist of modular residential courses combined with one-to-one coaching and web-based support.

The best way for people to access information on Impact’s our open programmes and find the right course is at:

www.impactinternational.com/open-enrolment-programmes.html

Karrass Effective Negotiating Skills Seminar

Andrew — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:53:52 +0000

All sales will eventually end with the process of negotiation between the supplier and customer. It is easy to see how this process can shape their ongoing relationship. Handled badly and one-party will feel cheated. The supplier may feel they are offering the earth and are being paid peanuts in return. The customer may feel the supplier has used a period of uncertainty to gain the upper-hand and make them pay through the nose. Good negotiation skills will allow both parties to win and ensure that the agreement helps build a mutually beneficial relationship.

Karrass provide two-day seminar style courses to allow you to learn, refine and practise your negotiating skills. The courses are based on extensive research into this area and are based on a ‘ win-win’ concept and the need to build lasting agreement between customer and supplier.

Links

Karrass home page: http://www.karrass.com/

Global Challenge : Leadership Lessons from the World’s Toughest Yacht Race

Andrew — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:28:03 +0000

On 29th September 1996, 14 identical yachts left Southampton to participate in ‘The worlds Toughest Yacht Race’ - the BT Global Challenge - a 30,000 mile journey round the world the ‘wrong way’. Each yacht was led by professional skippers but was crewed by teams of volunteers. Many of these had limited sailing experience prior to joining the Global Challenge. This book provides a case study on leadership and team dynamics in the face of an extreme, complex and dynamic environment.

The book charts the team selection process, the extensive training and the progress the teams make as they race against prevailing winds, currents, violent weather whilst coping with equipment failure, cramped conditions and extreme danger. See the attached video clip to get a taste of the challenges.

The BT Global Challenge Yacht Race was run by Sir Chay Blyth’s Challenge business. The Challenge business used analysis and profiling techniques to develop and monitor the leaders’ and their teams’ performances. So, the book not only provides a compelling story describing the extreme conditions that the yachts and teams faced, but also identifies the critical lessons learned on leadership and teamwork. The study goes on to compare the Challenge’s findings with extensive research conducted at Princeton University and the London Business School, to determine the behaviours necessary to produce outstanding performance when faced with a complex and dynamic environment.

Douglas Westwood

Andrew — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:14:40 +0000

Douglas-Westwood specialises in both business and market strategy development, working on a confidential basis for commercial, industrial and government organisations. The geographic scope of our work is worldwide, with associates established in many of the relevant countries. They undertake assignments within a number of key sectors in the energy industry, namely Oil & Gas, Renewables and Marine. Recent work in other industries include studies into power generation and commissioned work for defence agencies worldwide.

They assist clients with strategic research, the gathering and analysis of market data, measuring competitive positions and developing strategies for the market entry of new products and services; they have been responsible for a number of organisations’ business plans. They have assisted several major organisations on diversification into new markets.

Home page: http://www.dw-1.com/

Products: http://www.dw-1.com/products/

Services: http://www.dw-1.com/services/