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Culture Change Testimonials

 

"I always looked forward to our sessions together. The Cultural impact of your work on the organisation has been profound".

                                                              Paul Stobart, CEO Sage UK

 

 "Since starting the change process with Leap we’re finally hitting forecasts consistently each month and are on track, despite challenging market conditions, to hit our revenue and profit forecast for 2009".

                                                 Jayne Archbald (2008), Head of Sage HR and Payroll

  

"George is one of the most effective business psychologists and coaches that I have had the pleasure to work with".

        John Morley (2003), Director Change and Programme Management KPMG Consulting

  

  "At the time of the Lloyds takeover BOS Commercial had achieved its 2008 income and deposit targets, as well as successfully migrating to a brand new operating model and radically transforming our culture. Our successes were in part due to a strong, dynamic and aligned Executive that was prepared and empowered to meet head on our culture challenge. I was delighted with the contribution Leap made to our transformation."

Adrian Grace (2008), MD Bank of Scotland Commercial Bank

  

 

"George Karseras has worked with me during a demanding Change Programme.  He is adept and insightful and has an ability to spot areas requiring both development and facilitation.  He has a keen sense of the interventions required to enable individuals and teams to work much more effectively.  Using his tools and interventions he allows members of teams to discuss and air issues in a non-threatening environment, using carefully chosen, questioning, language."

Director (2007) BBC Scotland

  "I must admit I was somewhat sceptical about your role initially - however, your no-nonsense and pragmatic approach won me over, you immediately delivered tremendous value to my role as Programme Director."

Simon Parker (2004), Director Atos Consulting

  

"Shifting attitude and mindset is extremely challenging, however we have seen that with the right process and commitment from our leaders, it is possible to achieve. The results demonstrated from Leap’s involvement in Direct Sales prove this."  

Jo Ray (2007), Managing Director Small Business Division, Sage UK

  

"I was most impressed by your depth of understanding of the issues we faced in changing the culture at the club and the professional no-nonsense way you supported us in solving them."

Corrin Palmer (2009), Director of Operations Bristol Rugby Club

  

 "I think you did a truly outstanding job on delivering the values piece – representing Atos Consulting with a huge amount of personal credibility."

Bernard Brown (2005), Head of Atos KPMG Consulting

 

 

 

 

Leaping Teams

"George’s work with my senior team over the last couple of years has been significant in helping us develop a clear strategic direction for the organisation over the next 5 to 10 years and in building rock solid working relationships within the team itself. He has led the team through a process to set our strategy based on analysis of different long term scenarios and has improved the team’s effectiveness by an innovative approach of working with pairs within the team to recognise and value differences and individual strengths, which has led to the strengthening and deepening of relationships across the team.

I value his clear sightedness, his strategic understanding and the powerful insights into the leadership of the organisation which he has provided over the course of his work with us."

Director (2007), BBC Scotland

  

"The Leap Partnership has played a significant part in our success story since turning around our business and we continue developing our relationship to excellent effect."

Helen Deeble (2009), CEO P&O Ferries UK

  

"George's expertise in top team development is unparalleled - he's the best I've met at accelerating the process of building highly effective, robust and successful teams. I would thoroughly recommend him to any CEO or MD who is ambitious for their Board to do well."

Adrian Grace (2008), Managing Director Bank of Scotland Commercial Bank

  

"George I can't tell you how much I enjoyed working with you. It was a great experience and think the part you played as team facilitator couldn't have been done better."

Jenifer Duhon (2005), Shell US Marketing and Brand Manager

   

"Leap helped us to work through our individual differences and understand the need to change our overall team dynamic. The results were a more cohesive and effective JV team – one that was better able to get on with driving the Barclays Insurance Business forward."

Tommy Young (2007), Managing Director Barclays Insurance (Home, Motor, Travel)

  

"The introduction of advanced techniques for developing High Performance Teams has had a very significant impact on our leadership approaches at Board level and has cascaded down throught the senior management team with great effect. Management and leadership behaviours are more effective and more collaborative than at any time in the history of our company. Leap Partnership adopted a great approach and have delivered the goods."

Andy Reeves (2009), CIO P&O Ferries

 

"You’re did a great job here, it was not easy being a psychologist in Premier league football, but I considered you very much part of my management team."

Glen Hoddle Manager Southampton Football Club

"I had worked with Leap as a member of the P&O Ferries Executive Board and I could see the benefits of introducing their skills and techniques to my Tourist Marketing Team. I was looking for a step change in a number of areas that would enable me to improve the overall cost efficiency of my department; a reluctance of some team members to ‘go the extra mile’, improving the income/volume mix, reduce team wasted from uncoordinated activities, enhance the targeting of spend on more appropriate activities, increase the timeliness of deliverables, and fundamentally enable us to hit more budgets. Leap has delivered on all fronts."

Simon Johnson, Tourist and Sales Marketing Director P&O Ferries 

 

Leap Leadership

"Working with George over a 12 month period has taken my leadership performance to a new level.  The depth to which he has worked with me and the way he has challenged me has enabled me to fine tune the way I lead the people around me.

For me, coaching only works if the sessions mean you change your actions – George has exceeded expectations as the session content remains at the forefront of my mind on a daily basis.  If you want honesty, depth and you aspire to operate at a higher level, then George is your man!"

Duncan Jarrett, Sales Director AEGON UK

"Through facilitated workshops and one to one coaching Leap helped us to embed transformational leadership behaviours into the fabric of our company leading to improved employee engagement and better overall performance."

Clive Mowatt, HRD

"George’s brief at Sage was to coach a number of senior executives in transformational leadership as part of a culture change programme.  George also coached me personally.  For an HRD – it can be tough to sit on the other side of the table when you spend a good deal of time coaching others for a living, only to be coached by someone else.  As a consequence I was pretty sceptical that I could benefit.  However the benefit of working with George was that he somehow always managed to ask just the right questions that made me sit up and take notice.  He helped me to regain confidence in myself and my abilities.  I always looked forward to my meetings – he was tough but in a positive way."

Karen Geary, HR Director Sage Group

"George’s coaching expertise has been incredibly valuable in assessing the weaknesses of my business practice and, most importantly, how to overcome them. His friendly and accessible manner has made the process of developing my leadership skills challenging but enjoyable and I would not hesitate to recommend him."

Jenny Foster, Controller - Bristol Fairtrade

"George is one of the most effective business psychologists and coaches that I have had the pleasure to work with."

John Morley, Director Change and Programme Management KPMG Consulting

"George was one of the more accomplished coaches we worked with - I would have no hesitation in inviting him to support us in any further assignments."

Peter Braganza Orange Central Change Director Nov 2003

 

"You were seen by Vodafone as one of the more senior members of the team and one that really added value in the coaching space."

Andy Langley, Senior Manager Vodafone Billing and Provisioning Services

 

Transitioning

"The pairs session that George facilitated was most influential in enabling me to successfully transition into a key management role whilst leading probably the highest profile of all of the ntl Finance Transformation workstreams. In particular the way that George facilitated this session 'set up for success' my working relationship with Miles, which was a vitally important working relationship to overall project success.  To this day Miles and I remain good friends and I often think back to the session that George facilitated and how beneficial it was both professionally and personally."

Kevin Yuen, Principal Consutlant KPMG Consulting

"The "pairs" conversations has allowed me to air issues that, under ordinary circumstances, you may shy away from, and has allowed dialogue to open up and for underlying, and sometimes deep-seated issues, to be brought to the surface, discussed, and in the most part, effectively dealt with."

Director, BBC Scotland

"I used Paired Facilitation with George to explore an existing relationship with one of my colleague with whom I have to work closely with. We have worked together a long time and we felt that we has started to take each other for granted and assumptions were starting to creep in so we felt there was room for improvement,

The session was a great opportunity to refresh the relationship and establish where improvements could be made. It was like meeting each other again after not seeing each other for a long time and remembering what you valued in the other person. Since then we feel our communication has got better and we are now meeting briefly once a week to keep each other updated. I can see a lot of value for this type of work not only with existing relationships or with problem relationships but with new relationships that may be critical to a programme or an organisation."

Tracey Bray, Executive Development Aegon UK Ltd

"I reached the yearly KPI's set within 6 months."

Sarah Staughton, Head of Marketing POF

 

Selection

"We’ve benefited greatly from Leap’s recruitment expertise that has enabled us to select not only exceptional talent, but those persons with the type of attitudes and fit that add real value to our team and Firm."

Ashley Harshak, Director People and Change

"Numeritas is a specialist consulting firm with a focus on financial forecasting.  We had identified weaknesses in our recruitment process, which had resulted in some poor hiring decisions.  Deborah and Jacquie at Leap helped us to identify the competencies we needed in our candidates. They then designed a recruitment process in close collaboration with us to assess candidates against the required competencies.

Our first impressions were of a highly experienced and practical team who quickly gained our trust by demonstrating a clear understanding of our requirements.  This impression was reinforced as we worked with Deborah and Jacquie as they delivered high quality solutions in a very tight timescale. 

We would certainly recommend Leap to others because they helped us achieve a much clearer understanding of our requirements and a thorough selection process that we can re-use on future recruitment campaigns."

Stephen Aldridge Director Numeritas

"The process we went through helped me to identify the right candidate from a capability, competency and personal chemistry viewpoint."

Simon Johnson, Tourist and Sales Marketing Director P&O Ferries

"Leap has helped us recruit several senior Executives at Board Level to good effect."

Clive Mowatt, HRD P&O Ferries HR Director