I have just finished reading the autobiogaphy of Dragon's Den star, James Caan.  In his inspiring book, 'The Real Deal from Brick Lane to the Dragon's Den' you discover that there is much behind the quietly spoken individual who joined the Den's line up last year.  His father, who had a profound impact on his life, had a saying: "Observe the masses, then do something different", and this strongly resonated with me. 

When we set up Motivational Leadership, we wanted to do just that.  We wanted to look at what our competitors were doing, learn from them, and then apply this to allow us to work in new ways which had a more sustainable impact on people development.  We wanted to find different ways to market to our prospects. We wanted to feel that we had embarked on a different journey to what we could have done if we'd simply followed the crowd.  At the time, it felt like a bit of a risk, but just reading these words in this book, I know we are on the right course.

Tell me. what would 'different' be for you and your business?

Kate

As we talk to people about Motivational Leadership we quite often get asked "so how did the three of you decide that combining your businesses to make Motivational Leadership was the thing to do?"

I suppose the answer is that the idea kind of evolved.  Lynne and I had worked together about 10 years ago and even then had started to hatch plans for our business empire.

I moved on to a job in the private sector and shortly after Lynne left to set up her own company.  A few years later I went out on my own and we kept in touch and collaborated on a number of projects. 

About 3 years ago Lynne became a licensed practitioner for Motivational Maps and met Kate, who also ran her own business.  Lynne decided that the three of us should get together.  When we did all meet up we discovered that we all had a similar approach to our training and coaching work and that although we all had successful businesses we were thinking "is that all there is?"

As our discussions evolved, Motivational Leadership was born.  Since then there have been deep discussions around our values and objectives ... and who was going to man the Caribbean office!

We also have a lot of discussions about the number 3 and it's  mystical powers!  The fact that the brain finds patterns of 3 easy to recognise, presentation points should come in 3's, organisations should consider 1 individual 2 team 3 organisation, there are 3 wise men, 3 blind mice, 3 witches in McBeth, 3 little maids from school, the good the bad and the ugly - we are still arguing over who gets to be which on that one!

So that's sort of how we got to where we are today.

Sarah

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We spend so much time reading that we're delighted we can now offer you our personal recommendations via our books page.

Clients often ask us to recommend particular books, videos or audio downloads that relate to the subject areas we happen to be training them on at the time.  Recently, I was delivering a presentation skills course and was prompted to think about which ONE book I would recommend for inexperienced speakers.

Choosing one book is quite a challenge but in the end I plumped for this one by Max Atkinson who has years of experience in this field.  It is well structured, well written and the chapters on rhetoric demonstrate the importance of words.  For all you NLP practitioners out there - enjoy!

Lynne

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One thing I love about my job is the fact that I get to pass on my thoughts on what is new in the world of learning.  And tomorrow evening is no exception as I have been invited to speak at JCI Southampton to share my ideas on what it takes to be successful.

So what will I be speaking about?

I've decided to base the talk on the ground-breaking work on Executive Skills by Chuck Martin. In his book, "SMARTS - are we hard-wired for success", Chuck provides a useful inventory for working out what cognitive functions we are naturally good at (and energised by) and which ones we lack (and feel drained by).  These functions include areas such as Emotional Control, Planning and Prioritisation, Organisation and that old chestnut, Time Management.

The bad news is that, according to Martin, these Executive Skills are fixed by the time we get to adulthood. So if we are currently a poor time manager, chances are we will always be a poor time manager.

Good news is that the book gives plenty of ways in which we can work around our weaknesses, and instead spend our time more usefully playing to our strengths.

Tomorrow evening I'll be sharing these ideas with a roomful of people who take their personal development seriously and I am looking forward to see what they make of our take on this research.

Once I have their thoughts, I'll be sure to pass it on...

Kate

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After many months of planning and hard work we are so excited to formerly launch Motivational Leadership Ltd through this website!

Motivational Leadership is a wonderful progression by the coming together of three successful training, coaching and consultancy businesses; Kate Turner Associates Ltd, Sarah Cook HR and Business Developers Ltd.

We have been so fortunate to work with superb professionals that have taken us to this point.  Lynne Elvins was our Design Adviser from the South West Design Programme.  She did a superb job in helping us specify our brief for all of our branding requirements.

After a formal selection process (masterminded and supported by Lynne!) Ignition DG were chosen to be our design agency.  Their talent knows no bounds - they took everything we said on board and have delivered us the most wonderful visual identity.

Andy Poulton of Business Link has been invaluable in sharing his wealth of knowledge on all things web related and in finding us aPrompt who have delivered this wonderfully flexible website.

Thanks to you all and, to our clients, we welcome you to the world of Motivational Leadership.  Please stay a while, browse the site and if you register as a member, you may find a nice surprise waiting for you :-)

Kate, Sarah and Lynne

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