With a V

Jane Allott – addVantage coach

Jane is passionate about people development. She clarifies the real areas of focus and then energetically encourages people towards fulfilling their potential – business or personal. She’s results orientated, full of energy and draws inspiration from wherever she can find it. She has qualifications in Life Coaching and Counselling, as well as qualified to administer and use a variety of psychometric tools.

Jane’s particular expertise lies in:
• 1:1 coaching up to and including Senior Executive levels
• Designing development solutions specifically focused on career progression
• Conducting diagnostic business reviews that highlight key strengths, and areas requiring attention. Producing recommendations that deliver measurable results

Most recent projects:

• Working with Provident Insurance as a coach and to coordinate activities for their 3 Management programmes.
• Establishing a development programme for the Provident IT management team
• Psychometric profiling to support the recruitment & development of senior management positions in the Legal sector & Government bodies.

Prior to my freelance career, I worked in the Retail Industry, including the Arcadia Group where I held commercial and development roles. Prior to leaving Arcadia, I was Head of Graduate recruitment. Main achievements in this role included:

• Creating a 3 year strategy with specific emphasis on attraction & retention
• Positioning Arcadia within the Times top 100 Graduate Recruiters
• Achieving recognition as “Employer of Choice for Graduates in the retail sector”
• Building external partnerships with other retail companies to promote the broader picture of retail

With a V – Head honcho

Steven specialises in the bespoke design of customer service training solutions. Each training intervention is developed to perfectly reflect the culture of the commissioning enterprise and is practically focussed to deliver results.

Steven’s particular expertise lies in:
• Immersion in the culture and values of organisation to create effective materials and events
• Interacting and challenging individuals at all levels in the organisation to stretch their performance
• Working with clients to ensure all development tools and events produce short and long term results

Recent assignments include:

• The design and delivery of a global Retail University for adidas®
• Defining Pan European customer service standards for Levi Strauss and Co ® and the development of practical tools to meet and exceed the standards.
• Designing bespoke customer service training packages for White Stuff, Speedo, Animal, Dune and Bridgestone tyres.
• The creation of a compendium of customer service training games for line managers and trainers.

Prior to consultancy Steven had a successful Pan European operational and learning and development career. He has held Directorships in sales and retail. He has a B.A. degree and is a Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development . He is also licensed by the British Psychological Society to administer a variety of psychometric instruments.

Simon Cooper  – Illustrator
Simon Cooper has a BA in illustration and a large box of crayons with which he has over the years conjured up all manner of visual delights for numerous publications and a variety of websites. He has created, written and provided artwork for several successful cartoon strips and has illustrated a number of children’s books, receiving the occasional award for doing so. And he won the Art prize at his school.

Clients include:
Auto Express + BBC + Car + Cedar Communications + Empire + Evo + Golf World
The Independent + Match Of The Day Magazine + Men’s Health + NME
Oxford University Press
Penguin
Pan Macmillan
Punch
Radio Times
Times Literary Supplement
Time Out
Spitting Image
Which
World Advertising Research Center

To see more of Simon’s work check out cooperillo.com 

Rachel Gierula - With a V – Service SolVer™ expert  

Rachel is lead coach and trainer bringing the Service SolVer to customer service team leaders. She shares her wealth of customer service knowledge and experiences with those she coaches and encourages them through structured coaching sessions to develop and implement the service solutions that are right for them and their organisation.

Rachel’s particular expertise lies in:

• Using coaching to help people unlock their potential and realise short term goals or long held ambitions
• Training with passion, enthusiasm and most importantly fun!
• Helping coachees to take ownership of their own development

Recent assignments include:

• Business coaching for members of the Ai Claims Solutions management team and talent graduates
• Creating and delivering Team Leader coaching and training at Sandvik U.K.
• Coaching and business development support at Jo Holdsworth Recruitment
• Executive coaching for MDs

Rachel has worked in the Financial Services Industry for over 20 years, the last 15 of those at Royal Bank of Scotland and
Provident Insurance before setting up her own business in 2008. During her career as a call centre manager she led teams
of 150+, set up and managed outsourcing contracts and deliver the claims service provision for companies including
Virgin, Mini, Vauxhall and Renault.

Chris Gilkes - With a V – Service SolVer™ expert  

Chris specialises in understanding and changing behaviour. She helps people uncover the things they think, do and say that aren’t useful anymore and replace them with practical, functional alternatives. Chris has a genuine empathy with people and a desire and drive for them to succeed.

Chris’s particular expertise lies in:

• Understanding human behaviour and helping others to make the necessary changes to the way they see, think and feel.
• Taking the best of what she knows to make it simple and achievable for everyone.
• Creating unique situations that evoke emotions that bring experience rather than theory.
• Making people feel good about themselves and confident to take their next steps
• Raising self awareness and making sure there is a smart ecological solution too.

Recent assignments include:

• Design of various distance learning packages for adidas
• Design and delivery of Respect Programme for Vita Lend Lease
• Getting your teams Engaged for NHS Supply Chain and DHL
• Design and delivery of development solutions for the RFU
• Change management programme including a Life Planning Tool for Magnox North, Nuclear Industry

Chris has worked in Learning and Development for more than 20 years and she can’t believe how lucky she is. She started her career in retail management and thinks this was a great grounding for all things service and fast moving. She has been consulting since 1998 and has worked across many industries. She says this is because people can benefit from changing their behaviours what ever they do.

She has a passion for all things that explain how people tick and has studied and qualified in lot of things ‘behavioural’, including NLP, Emotional Intelligence, CBT, Transactional Analysis and various profile and psychometric tools. Part of her passion is to take the best of what she knows and keep it simple for the people she works with. As a member of the British Psychology Society and the CIPD she keeps herself updated along with other professionals.

addVantage - Coach
Lisa specialises in 1:1 coaching. Her coaching process is structured to ensure there is an agreed end point but her approach is flexible to suit the needs of the individual. Her style is enthusiastic, intuitive and results focused. She encourages individuals to identify positive changes they can make to improve their own performance and the performance of their team.

Lisa’s particular expertise lies in:
• Getting people to open up so that the experience is meaningful
• Linking personal development to business goals
• Building on individual strengths and focusing on positive action
• Coaching across a wide range of issues such as career progression and development, managing change, influencing, personal effectiveness and creativity.

Recent assignments include:
• Business coaching for high potentials at Arcadia Group Ltd
• Team coaching and facilitation on creative techniques for Nike (Germany)
• Individual career development coaching to support the merger of Ottakers head office team into Waterstone’s
• Maternity 1:1 coaching for Herbert Smith and Alan & Overy
• Coaching for Curry’s Regional Managers to specifically improve their coaching skills.

Lisa has worked in Learning and Development for 15 years in various industries including retail and the public sector, working in specialist management development teams and in front line support. She has been consulting since 2004 and has worked for companies such as Burberry, Waterstone’s, The Arcadia Group, Nike, Debenhams, Herbert Smith, Alan & Overy, Marsh McLellan and the NHS.

Lisa is a graduate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a Member of the Coaching Association, an NLP Practitioner, and is BPS level A and B qualified to feedback on various psychometric tools e.g. 16PF, MBTI, Emotional Intelligence.

Event and Product Designer

Andrew will take the needs of your target group and design a learning solution which will be memorable, practical and fun. Above all else, Andrew ensures that the solution will bring a measurable benefit to your organisation.

Andrew’s particular expertise lies in:
• Innovative design. Ranging from “ten minute” bites to fully accredited learning programmes.
• Making learning interesting and interactive. You won’t find many PowerPoint slides in his courses!
• Making learning practical, by really understanding your needs and then tailoring a package to suit.

Recent assignments include:

• Working with Steven to write Training Games for Customer Care, which is one of Fenman’s best selling games packs.
• Designing short training sessions to aid the nationwide launch of new sales and service initiatives for Woolworths.
• Designing a one-day customer care course to support the roll out of a new Customer Charter for London Borough of Hackney.
• Introducing “action learning sets” into Girl Guiding UK, so the benefits of their customer training can be perpetuated throughout the organisation.

Andrew had 20 years of practical customer/sales/management experience before becoming a management trainer in 1996. He has now worked across a whole range of sectors. His “Ten Minute Trainer” series is one of the best-selling packages in the off-the-shelf training market. Andrew is an NLP Master Practitioner and also runs accredited courses on behalf of the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and Chartered Management Institute (CMI).