News

Future Leaders having fun!

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:50:00 GMT

Open Course - Presenting with Impact and Resonance

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:34:00 GMT

Presenting with Impact and Resonance

The ability to project yourself is a crucial element of personal success. Presenting your company in a professional light is imperative for ongoing personal success. When you are viewed by others positively you are an effective ambassador for your organisation and seen as adding commercial value to those around you.

The most successful people present themselves and their ideas in a confident and coherent manner. Those who do, often inspire others and imbue them with a sense of confidence that they are being lead by the right person. People are then motivated by their leader and willing to work for the common goal.

We know all of that, yet we typically avoid challenging ourselves to develop the skills associated with presenting. Often we lack confidence in ourselves or are afraid of looking foolish.

John Curran of Curran Associates provides an opportunity to develop your presentation skills within an enviroment that is challenging and nurturing. Every single delegate comes away from our courses feeling more confident, more skilled and more eager to practise their skills when it really matters – for themselves and their organisation.

Next Step

If you would like to take that challenge, there are opportunities for you at the following times and in the following locations.

Central London 1^st & 2^nd December , 2010

London Heathrow 26^th & 27^th January, 2011

Edinburgh 23^rd & 24^th February

Birmingham 24^th & 25^th March

Central London 12^th & 13^th April

Included in the course are two days training, a DVD of your presentations over the two days and ongoing support and coaching for twelve months following your attendance. Each course is limited to 8 delegates.

The cost for the two day course, day delegate rate, course materials and ongoing support is £550 plus VAT, excluding travel and accommodation (competative rates can be negotiated through Curran Associates for accommodation at or near the venues)

If you would like to reserve a place for any of the dates above, or require any further information, please contact us:

John.curran@curranassociates.co.uk

Or by telephone

07702 246 352

If you would like to learn more about us, go to www.curranassociates.co.uk

Course Objectives:

To understand the component parts of an excellent presentation
To practise skills associated with presenting effectively
To understand and use appropriate preparation techniques when asked to do a presentation
To communicate effectively, taking account of your audience’s needs and expectations
To experiment and ultimately use a style of presenting that reflects you
To learn how to control nervousness and pressure
To handle questions effectively

To build confidence in yourself

References

‘In a long and varied career I have worked with many training
organisations. This one is different. Participants gain real insights
into their own strengths and weaknesses, together with a clear
understanding of how they might be perceived by other stakeholders. Even
the most cynical of managers tells me that John Curran is refreshingly
different and that the courses have been of real benefit. The courses are
also huge fun, being delivered with great passion and humour (for a
Scot).’

Terry Massingham
Former Group Chief Executive
M J Gleeson Group plc

John,

Thanks again for a most enjoyable & informative couple of days training, a different delivery style to presentation training that I have had in the past, but with the success of the candidates on the final day, obviously a very effective one, you should be justifiably proud of a job well done.

Don Howie, Gleeson Homes

Right level, very good

Mark Granville, Bryant Homes

Brilliant 10 out of 10. I would gladly recommend a friend, it’s worth it.

Laura Chibamu, Bryant Homes

I learned more in two days than in 2 years at University

Alex White, Swift Horsman

All from same course: Keller Ground Engineering

10 out of 10. Glad I came

Mark Edwards

Good fun and good learning experience

Jonathan Game

Excellent contained a lot of useful information for personal assessment

Phil Hughes

Fun, well prepared

Alex Craven

Very good

Lynn Clarke

Excellent and enjoyable

Eddie Evans

Excellent, apart from watching oneself on the video

Elizabeth Ward

Excellent, slick, just right

Julian Thackery

Excellent, well-prepared with options available and very worthwhile

Graham McGregor

Good that content was tailored to us, Time well spent, greater confidence

Rob Samms

Excellent, enjoyed it a lot

Nick Sharp

It was great, would recommend the course to anybody

Paul Buckley

Love them or lose them - Graduate Recruitment

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:49:00 GMT

Love them or lose them – Our Approach to Graduate Recruitment

Neil Fowler, Director, Product Development,

Micro Focus (IP) Ltd.

At Micro Focus we are committed to bringing in new talent to the Development team. Like many other companies we go to the Graduate Fairs looking for skilled and gifted people who can take our company forward.

We are currently the fourth biggest software company in the UK and in the top forty globally. Keeping our technology at the cutting edge means that we need to recruit people who are capable of understanding what we do, but more importantly, recognising new trends or needs before anyone else in the market. Therefore, we try to identify people who can use their vision and mesh it with our ability to listen across the workforce to keep Micro Focus at the leading edge of technology.

The culture we encourage is summarized in our Charter for employees:

Cross Functional SupportAs a team, we work together with a collective responsibility for the shared objectives in support of each opportunity

Take responsibility & InitiativeColleagues are empowered to make a change within the organization

Respond promptlyResponding fast and flawlessly leads to superb customer satisfaction for internal and external customers

Deliver on CommitmentsDelivering on time build trust and respect with our customers

Close loop feedback/communicationAct upon and seek feedback to continually improving processes and customer satisfaction

Get involved, debate passionately, then get on boardBe open, be involved, be part of creating a successful organization.

Consequently, our approach to recruitment, we like to think, is unique. We meet the graduates or undergraduates through the usual channels and invite them to spend a day with us to explore their aspirations and capabilities.

This is done through a three step approach including:

Background to the Company and induction process,
Interviews – technical and general,
Review and feedback.

They are given a tour of our HQ in Newbury and they meet senior people from the development area to hear some background on our technology and our vision for the company. They then spend time with John Curran from Curran Associates. John’s remit is to help them relax, conduct some management games to get them talking and help them to hit the ground running through their technical and general interviews. They have lunch and meet people from the company who have come through the same process. We conduct various review meetings with the interviewers to discuss the candidate’s progress and capabilities. We do not conduct formal tests but we do explore their technical and interpersonal capabilities from an open and transparent viewpoint. Observing how candidates perform when presented with technical problems gives us great insight into how they will perform in similar situations. We are looking for people who can work on their own effectively and excel within teams. The graduates are then given specific feedback on why they were or were not successful. We find that this approach helps them to see the culture within the company and motivates them to want to succeed. Even those who have been unsuccessful have asked if they could reapply next time, or tell us that they have enjoyed the day and have learned more about themselves than at any previous recruitment days.

Below is an unsolicited comment from one of our most recent recruits.

Hi John,

It's Chris from the Micro Focus interview that took place on 22nd June 2010.

I would like to thank you for all of your kind words and support on the interview day; they meant a lot to me.

I would also like to mention that the interview process at Micro Focus was the best I have taken part in. I do not know who came up with the interview process, but it was excellent! Regardless of whether I would have received an offer or not, I would have left Micro Focus feeling that it was a great place to work.

I wish you all the best,

Chris S

As you can see, we like to help people succeed. So, if you’d like to hear more about what we do, or apply for a position in the future, please look on our Website: www.microfocus.com

Neil Fowler

The Chips are Hard!!!!

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:30:00 GMT

Working with a team of managers last week, we discussed our time management logs and the time thieves we had uncovered. When it is someone senior to us, we are sometimes afraid of letting them know that they are using our time gratuitously without concern for our ‘normal’ responsibilities. Equally, we are often afraid to let them know for fear of their reaction to this insight, especially if they are our ‘sponsors’ within the business. We are often afraid that they will go into denial and start justifying their actions as more important to the business than our usual responsibilities. Worse still they may view us as negative or even ungrateful.

The analogy I used was from a recent experience. I often cook at home and love to please my wife with my latest recipes. I am mindful that my wife has high expectations and I sometimes feel disheartened if she complains of a cold plate or over cooked food. Recently, she made a meal where the chips were rock hard. I sat there waiting for her to acknowledge that she had overcooked the chips. And I waited and waited; to the point were I started to eat with my mouth open so that she could hear the crunch on these teeth busters. Towards the end, she said, ‘I think the chips are overdone’. I burst out laughing and reflected back to her, her likely reaction if I had made the same error. She was mildly irritated by my observation, but I don’t think I will suffer from ‘hard chips’ again.

So while I debated with a delegate as to whether she should bring her log information to her boss, we agreed that people have different expectations of us than they lay on themselves and that they are less empathetic to our perceived needs. We agreed that she should show her boss the log and just leave it with him for him to draw his own conclusions to the data, particularly the three hours of her time he used up over a five day period.

I reflected back to her that he was unlikely to acknowledge great guilt over these findings but that the best she could expect would be that he would say: ‘The chips were a bit hard!’ That indeed would be progress.