It’s that time of year again with the award ceremonies coming thick and fast with the BAFTA’s, Golden Globes and Oscars to name but a few. Even though they won’t be at the Oscars Welsh Company Call of the Wild Ltd have been cleaning up when it comes to winning prestigious business awards.

Call of the Wild are in the unique position of being the current holder of the Welsh Small Business of the Year title in addition to being the current National Team Building Company of the Year.   Now to add to these prestigious titles the Company have won another 4 awards in one week! Firstly Call of the Wild has been chosen by a judging panel including Deborah Meaden and other leading entrepreneurs such as Bebo Founder Michael Birch as a winner of Smarta.com’s inaugural ‘Smarta 100’.  Not only did Call of the Wild make the Top 100 Small Companies in the UK it was also voted in the Top 5 for its Business Ethics.

The Smarta 100 is the ultimate business accolade, recognizing the UK’s smartest small businesses. Smarta.com has uncovered remarkable companies who have gone the extra mile to differentiate themselves from the market or found clever ways to compete, from their marketing plan to their ethical stance. The result is a fascinating insight into the unique business ideas that are thriving in the current economic climate.

Business isn't always about bulging bank balances. The top 5 for ethics category chose "companies are out there to make a positive impact on the world. They dedicate themselves to protecting our environment, helping people more vulnerable than themselves and rejuvenating communities starved of socio-economic opportunity."

Deborah Meaden commented:
“Discovering great new businesses is a passion of mine as is encouraging businesses to think and work better.  The Smarta 100 does both of these things – and celebrates the best of British business at the same time. I was delighted to see ambitious people saving hard and raising finances to turn their ideas into flourishing businesses ”

Read more about the award and the SMARTA 100 Top Small Companies in the UK

Over the past twelve months much of the UK economy has been hit, to a greater or lesser degree, by the downturn of the global economy. Budgets have been slashed, people laid off and companies have had to re-appraise (cut back?) on their training plans. Like many other companies Call of the Wild has also had to carefully look at its business models and client base to see how we can come out of the recession as a leading player in the management training industry.

To this end, during the third quarter of 2009 the directors of Call of the Wild held a series of executive meetings to discuss budgeting for 2010 and to try and anticipate what effect the current worldwide financial crisis may have on the training and development plans of our clients. One of the outcomes of these meetings was to ask our clients directly what their plans, in terms of training, were for 2010.

We came up with a short customer survey which included four of the following questions. The responses are included after the question.

1.    Has the current recession had an impact on your learning and development budget for 2009?

78.7 % of respondents thought that the recession had a negative effect on L&D budgets

2.    Has the current recession had an impact on your learning and development budget for 2010?

60.5 % of respondents thought that the recession had a negative effect on L&D budgets

3.    What areas of learning and development will you be focusing on in 2010?

42% of respondents thought that leadership development should be the focus and 60% of respondents thought that team development should be the focus

4.    What areas of learning and development do you see as essential to focus on post-recession?

51.1% of respondents thought that leadership development should be the focus and 81.1% of respondents thought that team development should be the focus

5. Which delivery methods are you considering using in 2010?

63.6% of respondents said that they would be considering Workshop/Programme on site and 54.5% said they would consider E-learning.

What is obvious is that our clients see that great leadership and teamwork is even more important in the current financial climate, where more needs to be done with less resource. It appears that they are using the current situation as an opportunity to think carefully about what areas of L&D are really important to their organisations.

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2. Read

3. Commit a gratuitous act of kindness every day

4. Reduce the number of stressors in your life

5. Spend time with people who share your sense of humour

6. Dispose of some assets to release cash for spending

7. Contact close family and friends

8. Improve your appearance for instance through exercise

9. Send funny cards to people for birthdays, when ill, congratulations

10. Keep a file of funny stories or jokes

For more information on personal development programmes, including leadership then visit our website.

LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION


1     Trevor Adams, my assistant programmer, can always be found
2     hard at work in his cubicle. Trevor works independently, without
3     wasting company time talking to colleagues. Trevor never
4     thinks twice about assisting fellow employees, and he always
5     finishes given assignments on time. Often he takes extended
6     measures to complete his work, sometimes skipping coffee
7     breaks. Trevor is a dedicated individual who has absolutely no
8     vanity in spite of his high accomplishments and profound
9     knowledge in his field. I firmly believe that Trevor can be
10   classed as a high-calibre employee, the type that cannot be
11   dispensed with. Consequently, I truly recommend that Trevor be
12   promoted to executive management, and a proposal will be
13   executed as soon as possible.


Addendum
The idiot was standing over my shoulder while I wrote this report.
Kindly re-read only the odd numbered lines.

For more information on management training visit Call of the Wild's website

2. Emotions can motivate, de-motivate or obstruct thinking

3. Hopes enhance performance. Anxiety and fear diminish it.

4. Optimistic self-suggestion increases success

5. Persistent low mood impairs thinking and health

6. Obstacles to feeling good can be reduced

7. The pursuit of body-based pleasure, laughter, involvement, staisfaction and sex (BLISS) will beenfit the speed and accuracy of your thinking.

For more information visit our website

Related Themes

Positive Thinking

• To improve performance in the day to day job role
• To raise an individuals awareness of themselves and their capabilities
• To empower individuals take on more responsibilities
• To deal with an underperformance issue
• For career planning/personal development purposes
• To support traditional training interventions and help maintain good performance
• To reduce the cost of sending staff on external training (from both a cost and time perspective)
• To motivate the staff member
• To facilitate and support an organisational change
• To improve staff retention by providing tailored and focused development

Coaching should be seen as an investment, like buying a new computer system, and this investment should lead to success for the individual and organisation.  If, as a manager, you invest time in coaching your staff properly, then the benefits you will gain will include:

• A more productive and efficient department/team
• Development of your own management skills
• Greater awareness of your team’s strengths and weaknesses
• A reputation as a good ‘people manager'
• Less time on time consuming fire fighting and more time to develop yourself

Now, some staff members may not want to be coached, they may feel that you are interfering and are expecting more work from them.  They may feel demotivated by it, which if done incorrectly or for the wrong reasons, could be a possibility.  However, coaching is a skill and if done correctly should do the opposite.  Very few staff want to do a bad job, so any help provided to help them perform better, can only be positive.  In some organisations performance is linked to pay, so why would staff not want to be coached as part of their own self development?

Coaching requires a different type of management approach and those with a naturally autocratic style may not find it easy, thinking that it is easier just to tell staff what to do rather than all this coaching stuff!  However, if done properly, coaching is good for business.

For more information visit our website

Related Themes

Assessment & behaviours

Listening Skills