Business Coaching

By Skillkick | Published: December 8, 2011

Business Coaching – Inspire, motivate and develop individual performance

Business Coaching – Skillkick can join you in your day-to-day business and work alongside Supervisors, Managers and your team to demonstrate business coaching behaviours and tasks and use feedback to guide your employees in new practices of behaviour and tasks.

If a manager can add value to another’s performance through coaching; the scope for what the whole team can achieve is greatly enhanced.

Our Consultants provide guidance, feedback and direction to ensure successful performance; giving encouragement and advice.

You can be supported in developing a business coaching culture where:

  • People welcome constructive and positive feedback and seek out development opportunities
  • Coaching skills and effective coaching models are embraced and developed in all staff
  • Business coaching is seen positively and adds value, rather than negatively and a cost
  • Coaching is seen as the join responsibility of Managers and their team
  • Staff have knowledge to set goals that help to develop people
  • Managers have the ability to handle one-to-one discussions more effectively
  • Team ability to find more creative ways to solve problems
  • Managers have an understanding of how to motivate individuals and groups
  • Managers have the confidence to provide effective feedback

Skillkick can support you in acquiring the tools you need in your organisation to develop individual performance and provide you and your team with business coaching techniques to enable you to inspire, motivate and develop people. We will provide your team with self-confidence and create accountability to achieve goals.

Skillkick offers one-to-one and group business coaching. We hold group telephone conferences and face-to-face sessions in locations around the UK.

We focus on all areas of an individual’s life or an organisation’s business. An analysis is undertaken, reviews are discussed, suggestions in improvements and an action plan implemented. Whilst viewing the current strategy, aspects of the change are evaluated to assess the overall impact.

CIPD (The Chartered Institute of Personal Development) research has found that a large percentage of organisations believe that coaching can deliver tangible benefits to both individuals and organisations (99%) and importantly that when coaching is managed effectively, it can have a positive impact on an organisation’s bottom line (92%).

Business Coaching is ideal whatever your situation. With the current economic climate, many people are thinking about a change of career. There are many books available on business coaching, career development and guidance, along with local sources of help, such as career advice centres and Local Authority Career Guidance provision for adults through Local Education Authorities. Many include various computer programmes designed to focus in on your particular preferences.

 

The following five questions are thought provoking and powerful and are drawn from Max Eggert’s little gem of a book “The Book of Career Questions 200+ Questions which will change the whole of your working life’ Arrow Books (1996) ISBN 0 09 964871 1   and are ideal for personal coaching.
1. What work would you do if you only had twelve months to live?
(Assume you must work and you enjoy good health until the moment of your death)
2. What work would you do for the next ten years if you won millions on the lottery?
(Assume that you must continue to work)
3. What one job would you do if you knew you could not fail?
(The job has to be something you enjoy doing not just what you are good at doing.)
4. In the world of work, who do you most admire and would like to emulate?
5. Looking back over the whole of your career to date, when have you been really happy and contented?
Additional questions our Skillkick Trainers provided:
6. What do you enjoy doing most in your present job?
7. What hobbies and interests do you enjoy most?
8. Are there any ways in which you could combine these activities in a new career?
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Time Management Training

By Skillkick | Published: June 15, 2011

Time Management Training by SkillKick

Time Management Training – accomplish more in less time, addressing key results areas.

time management training

Skillkick carried out some time management training today for a group of students at a college.

As part of the session, the students made time management to-do wrist bands, prioritising their immediate tasks.
time management training

Is there anyone who does not need to improve their time management?

A one-day workshop designed to enable delegates to differentiate between what is urgent and important, to prioritise tasks and spend more time addressing the Key Result Areas for their jobs. Through eliminating “time-stealers” and focusing on high-payoff activities, they can learn to manage pressure better and accomplish more in less time.

Course Outline:

  • Identifying and eliminating personal and company time wasters
  • The Time Management Matrix. How to prioritise by distinguishing between urgency and importance
  • Time savers – Delegation, standby tasking, synergising
  • Discover and use your Prime Time
  • Psychological Factors
  • Pick-list of Time Management Best Practices
  • Personal Action Planning

Delegates are invited to bring their diaries, ‘to do’ lists and even ‘in-trays’ to maximise the workplace benefit of the programme

Who should attend?

No matter whether you’re a PA who’s feeling under pressure or a company chairman trying to balance the demands of the boardroom with your home life, Essential Time Management will help you see time as your ally not your enemy.

 

If you are interested in improving your memory. We recommend this book which includes 25 tips for memory improvement, 13 tips for attaining your memory goals and an innovative memory exercise. Authored by Katharine Jewitt.

We have a specialist team of experienced and qualified trainers from research establishments; higher education; business and industry throughout the UK who can talk through your exact requirements with you.

We are committed to raising the skills levels of our learners through our range of training programmes which are all delivered in a range of formats to suit all accessibility needs.

Whether you are at the start of your skills journey or looking for further skills Contact Skillkick.

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SWOT

By Skillkick | Published: May 15, 2011

SWOT

SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

SWOT Analysis

SWOT is a quick and general analysis of the current position of your company / yourself. It is a good idea to carry out a SWOT on a regular basis.
It takes in to account both internal and external factors
It is an effective way of gathering and categorising information
It can provide a basis for designing a future strategy
SWOT
S.W.O.T

Strengths: What we do well
Weaknesses: What we need to improve
Opportunities: What we can take advantage of
Threats: Who we need to look out for

 

Strengths (Internal) Used to identify what you / the business and its staff do which:
They are effective at Are well known for Make money Generate the business and reputation Cause customers to come back Cause other businesses to try and learn from them

 

Weaknesses (Internal) Identifies aspects that:
Cause the company to loose money Cause the company to do badly Cause the company to have a poor reputation Cause grievances, and complaints for the business

 

Opportunities (External) Directions a business could profitably take in the future Is there a new demographic online you could target? Can your brand grow? Can you branch out with new products?

 

Threats (External) Did you fail to take advantage of an opportunity? What is your competition doing? Are the competition taking your business? Are the competition offering something you’re not? Try completing a SWOT analysis and let me know how you get on.

 

Skillkick delivers training programmes ranging from half day to five days in length. All our courses include good practical exercises and plenty of interaction.

Courses are available per person, discounts are available for group bookings. The cost includes lunch, refreshments and comprehensive course notes.

Please Contact Us to find out how Skillkick can help you achieve your personal and business ambitions.

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Blog Guide

By Skillkick | Published: April 11, 2011

Blog Guide

Blog Guide -  for those who haven’t yet taken the plunge!
Blog Guide
The word ‘blog’ is an abbreviation of web log, which is usually written ‘weblog’.
Firstly watch this short blog guide clip by Commoncraft. It explains blogs brilliantly!
The BBC also provides a short introductory blog guide.
Blogs differ greatly in tone and quality. What the good ones do tend to have in common, however, is that they can help to create communities of like-minded people. Readers might be regular visitors drawn from similar professions, or with similar interests, or might be just passing by in search of a useful nugget of information on a particular topic.
Given that blogs offer instant publishing opportunities, you potentially have access to a wealth of knowledge from commentators and experts (if they blog) in a wide range of fields.
Most internet searches will turn up results from blogs, but there are some blog-specific search engines such as: Blogdigger Blogsearch Technorati
You will see that some of the blogs you find offer RSS feeds, so you can add them to your feedreader to keep abreast of the latest postings.
Why not start your own blog. Its so quick and easy. You can have your own blog up and running in 3 easy steps from this website – Blogger.
One thing to bear in mind is that the content of blogs is likely to be as diverse and varied as the people who posted it. It’s therefore practical to apply the PROMPT (presentation, relevance, objectivity, method, provenance and timeliness) criteria if you intend to in any way rely on the information you find on blogs – in particular look for timeliness (How often is the blog updated?); provenance and objectivity (What is the blog for? Who put it there and why?).
In addition blogs have another benefit – given the time lag between writing and publishing a travel guidebook, for example; it might be better to search for a blog, to get the very latest hints and tips on where to go and what to see.
I look forward to receiving your blog links for those who give this a try and also learning about your findings on blog searches from the recommended links.
Happy Blogging!
All posts in this ‘Keeping Up-to-Date’ series:
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News Alerts

By Skillkick | Published: March 15, 2011

News Alerts

News alerts and desk top news are offered by most news sites, often for free. You install a piece of software to have new news alerts and news items produced by these sites delivered to your desktop. An icon will ‘pop up’ when there’s news alerts to report. These services usually refresh themselves on an hourly basis, although you have to be connected to the internet – as with desktop feedreaders, it’s perhaps best for if you have an internet connection that is always ‘on’, e.g. if you have broadband.

news alerts

Some examples of news alerts are: the Guardian’s free desktop news alerts service and  the BBC also offer news alerts.
Personalisation
Personalisation is a key factor in getting people to come back to a search engine, by changing the look and feel of the interface beyond the search box. For example, you can customise the interfaces of the major search engines to provide you with additional information, tools, news alerts and services. If, as I do, you use a search engine often during the day, setting your personalised page to be your home page means that you get the added bonus of snippets of information from other websites and keep up to date with your news alerts.
iGoogle includes things like a wikipedia search box, a to-do list, BBC News (provided via RSS), games and the weather.
Try this out for yourself:
Go to one of the major search engines (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft), or a tool such as Pageflakes or Netvibes, and customise the opening screen. Experiment to find the modules that will enable you to keep up to date. You will have to register – look for links to MyYahoo, MyMSN, and so on.

If you are keen to improve your time management and get more organised then you may also find these posts useful on: RSS Feeds and Feedreaders and Social Bookmarking

Add a comment and let us know how you find these time management /  news / social networking tools.

All posts in this ‘Keeping Up-to-Date’ series:
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Social Bookmarking

By Skillkick | Published: February 2, 2011

Social Bookmarking A Beginner’s Guide

Social Bookmarking is a great way to keep up to date and is a useful follow on from our activity last week on RSS Feeds and Feed readers. How did you get on with this activity last month?

If social bookmarking is new to you or even if it’s not I’m sure you’ll find handy tips and ideas if you read on… and find out how to get the best benefits out of socialbookmarking.
Please watch this short clip from commoncraft. Its excellent in providing a short but perfect explanation on this subject. I know watching video clips can be a pain, but this one is worth watching. Please make sure you have the sound on.
One of the problems I have encountered when searching for information is when I try to do a subject search; in my head I have a series of words I have thought of that relate to what I’m trying to find out about. But sometimes, when I search a database I don’t find many results. This doesn’t mean that there’s nothing there, but rather I’m not using the same controlled terms the database is. With formally organised information it helps to have the mind of a librarian or indexer to be able to get the results you’re looking for.
There is a growth of informal systems such as social bookmarking or tagging. This is where people add their own metadata to internet sites using tools such as delicious and Blinklist
 Social bookmarks are stored publicly on a website, whereas bookmarks are stored on your PC. Social bookmarks have tags, that help you identify what the site is about, whereas favorites just have a title and are stored in a folder structure. Social bookmarks are shared whereas favorites tend to be personal.
 You can access your social bookmarks from anywhere. You can see other people’s social bookmarks on the same topic, so you might find new information or see things you hadn’t thought about before. You can find people who are interested in the same things as you.
 The drawback is that there may be some dodgy tagging, so people don’t use the tags in the same way as you, or may use the tag in a derogatory manner. You may find you get items that bear no resemblance to what you’re looking for because of the different way people use tags.
 Tagging is done by amateurs, there is no formally controlled vocabulary or taxonomy, and it can be of poor quality. Tags change to reflect current trends. The formal metadata done by professionals has a structure and vocabulary that doesn’t always reflect terminology you would use.
For this activity, choose one of the tools and do the following.
1. Upload your bookmarks (favorites) by using the tool.
2. Search for a topic using the tool.
3. Please bookmark Skillkick!
One of the key benefits of social bookmarking is the social aspect. By using one of these schemes you become part of a greater community, and so can use the social bookmarks to find like-minded individuals.
If I follow a link, I can see who else has bookmarked it and what tags they have used. I can follow these links to see if these people share my interests, or find alternative tags to find similar sites. If a particular person has a lot of sites in the same area as me, I might add them to my network, or I may like to subscribe to tags on a particular theme. By sharing your bookmarks on sites like del.icio.us you are adding to the body of knowledge, and will benefit from the work of other members.
Social bookmarking tools are good for:
 exploring current trends and technologies
 small, close-knit communities with agreed tagging conventions
 helping to remember terms that are meaningful to you
 access from anywhere – unlike favorites which are PC-specific
We look forward to reading your findings on social bookmarking.
All posts in this ‘Keeping Up-to-Date’ series:
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RSS Feeds and Feed Readers

By Skillkick | Published: January 14, 2011

RSS Feeds are great for time management

RSS Feeds are today’s focus at Skillkick. Read on for everything you need to know.

 

Firstly, watch this fantastic short 2-minute clip from commoncraft. We love their short films!

Skillkick often receive emails from people saying that they feel bombarded with information. This post focuses on an activity to help you explore tools available that can help you keep up to date with what is going on in your specialist areas of interest.
Firstly, make a list of how you find out about things. When our team did this, we were quite surprised by the amount of information that comes our way. We noticed that our use of information overlapped for professional and personal purposes and that we keep up to speed with more than we realised! Hardly surprising, then, that sometimes those ezines don’t get read for a while. In today’s electronic world, we can become flooded with new information and it is how to cope in terms of the quantity and quality of information coming in.
What does your list include and what are the ways in which you gain new information?

Our list included mailing lists we subscribe to; reading blogs and internet sites; emails; online newsfeeds; magazines; getting information from other people; newsletters and newspapers.
Tip: Whenever you use a new tool or sign up for something new, keep track of the site you register with and ensure you know how to unsubscribe. Keeping everything logged in a spread sheet is a good method to keep track.

RSS feeds supply headlines; links and article summaries from various websites. We can then decide whether we want to read further in more detail or just gain headline snippets. All information comes to you in one place by using RSS feeds. There is a feed for every aspect of your life! Just look for the orange button if the site offers RSS.
If you haven’t already, set up RSS feeds. Firstly, you need to choose a feedreader. We use Netvibes. Another examples include: Newsgator, XPrss for Blackberry, Flipboad for ipad, Google reader

There are a number of ways of getting feeds into your feedreader depending on which one you use. Right-clicking on the orange button might give you the option to add the link directly to your feedreader or there may be shortcut options built into your feedreader. Many have an easy subscription bookmarklet which appears in your bookmarks toolbar; whenever you come across a site you wish to receive updates from, you just click the button – easy!
You will also find that your feedreader will enable you to easily add feeds from their pre-selected content.

You can search for sites that offer RSS feeds at Syndic8

So to recap:-
Choose a feedreader
Add some pre-selected content
Set up a feed to the BBC or daily newspaper
Search for feeds at syndic8
Post a comment and let us know how you get on!

 

All posts in this ‘Keeping Up-to-Date’ series:
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Schools – Visit Our Schools First national Week Event

By Skillkick | Published: October 11, 2010

Schools

Visit Our Schools. The first national Visit Our Schools week is taking place from the 18th – 22nd October 2010 and provides an opportunity for leaders from both private and public sector organisations to hear first-hand from head teachers and young people about how they can help shape their skills, achievements and employability.
Hundreds of schools and colleges have registered to take part. Now it’s time for employers to sign up and get involved.
Big names from the world of business who have already signed up for visits include film-maker Lord David Puttnam; Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT; Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of global advertising agency WPP; Robert Peston, BBC Business Editor; Clare Chapman, Director-General, NHS Workforce and Sam Laidlaw, CEO of Centrica.
Hundreds of smaller companies from around the UK have also pledged their support.
Taking part in Visit Our Schools week only requires 1 or 2 hours of your time in the week of 18-22 October to visit a school or college in your locality. For further details and to register to take part visit http://www.visitourschools.org/
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Growing Business Awards 2010

By Skillkick | Published: August 1, 2010

Growing Business

Growing business

growing business

The aim of the Awards is to celebrate the achievements, innovation and entrepreneuralism of UK businesses.
The awards comprise 11 award categories, which include the following:
  • Green Business of the Year
  • Customer Excellence Award
  • Global Outlook and Expansion Award
  • Young Entrepreneur of the Year
  • The Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs

Applications are invited from independently-owned companies that have less than 1,000 employees. Entry to more than one category is permitted.

Winners will receive a certificate and television, radio and press coverage. The Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs offers a cash prize of £50,000.

Visit the site for more information

 

Benefits of sponsoring:

In 2010, The Growing Business Awards achieved approx £180,000 of media impact value across the national and regional press; as well as through core media partners Real Business and Business Voice magazines.

Benefit: Year-long programme of event sponsorship, brand promotion, editorial coverage.

Exclusivity. We can’t keep every possible rival from attending, but you can put your firm at the forefront of support for the UK business sector by becoming an exclusive sponsor from your market segment.

Benefit: Appearance of leadership in your field, ownership of the awards.

500 of the UK’s most successful businesses and entrepreneurs will be in attendance, including hand-picked VIP guests.

Benefit: An unprecedented networking opportunity with your core market.

The opportunity to present a major award in your sector.

Benefit: The opportunity to position yourself as a key champion of growing businesses.Branding around the stage set and all awards material.

Benefit: A strong brand presence helps you maintain the highest profile in the market.

Table at the prestigious Growing Business Awards.

Benefit: The ability to network at full capacity by covering the room.

Access to the delegate list.

Benefit: Allows you to plan meets at the event and make the best use of the time you will have with your core audience.

As a category sponsor, a senior representative will be seated at the top tables along with CBI director-general Richard Lambert, and other key VIPs.

Benefit: unparalleled networking opportunities at the very top of business.

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Glasgow 2014 23rd July – 3rd August

By Skillkick | Published: July 5, 2010

Glasgow 2014 23rd July – 3rd August 2014

Glasgow 2014

 Glasgow 2014

As with London 2012 Olympics, delivering the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will require the procurement of goods, works and services of all types and value from an extensive range of companies.
The Commonwealth Games Business Portal brings together contractors and suppliers and provides businesses of all sizes with the opportunity to find out about and compete for Games related contracts.
Interested suppliers can register their company details and receive automatic alerts when new contracting opportunities are available.
For more information please visit: http://www2.glasgow2014.com/BusinessPortal

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