Uncovering Strengths and Building Skills

Catherine's background as a leader in Social Work resulted in years of research on, and practical experience of, the elements required for human thriving. Taking this knowledge and experience, Catherine has now worked with thousands of individuals, teams from all sectors and leadership groups at the top of their game, supporting them to build the knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits to reach their goals.  

"It has been my experience, through many years of working with people and teams in a wide range of environments, facing many complex challenges, that all humans have the potential to learn, grow and build insights, human skills and strengths throughout their life times."

Catherine's approach to human development is quite unique. 

"A great deal of human development training can be dry and boring and once completed, people often go back to behaving the same way they've always done. 

This is such a waste. 

The workshops and programmes that we have developed, have been specifically designed to be highly engaging, inspiring and fun. It is in these environments that we learn best."

A central element of that is the integration of research from neuroscience, performance psychology and business. 

"People love the science. It helps them understand themselves and their brains and bodies better. I am also passionate about ensuring that our training delivers real results through the science of behaviour change and habit formation. When we consider that at least 43% of our daily patterns of behaviour and thought are habitual and under our conscious awareness, unless we make changes at that level, we will not see the results to our well-being, performance and leadership that we desire."

Catherine has a particular interest in supporting people, teams and leaders to build Resilience & Mental Toughness.

"There are many misconceptions around what resilience and mental toughness means, particularly when applied to leadership. Contrary to what many people might think, it doesn't mean being cold, unfeeling and unaffected by the challenges of life. 

Some of the most resilient and mentally tough people that I have met, are so because they are comfortable with being vulnerable, not knowing and learning through failure. 

Real resilience and mental toughness - the ability to recover from setback, tolerate uncertainty, persevere, adapt to change and actively seek out challenge for the growth it delivers - is born out of a dedication to the development of a range of human skills and strengths."

The development of Human Skills is a central theme of Catherine's work.

"In 2020 I had the privilege of working with a very skilled group of individuals tasked with creating a platform for Malaysia's seven million students. As part of the work, I created a psychometric to measure the skills required for success in the future of work. The research led me to discover a unique set of Human Skills which, combined with technical skills, are essential for people to thrive, perform and lead in the future of work. Some of these skills were previously referred to as 'soft skills'. This is entirely misleading as there is nothing soft about them!"

Catherine developed a unique framework mapping out 16 Human Skills across 4 domains. 

"What I love about the development of Human Skills is they operationalize a range of essential skills - skills that we were never taught at school or university. If these skills are not present, at best people and teams will not deliver results, at worst real problems such as work related stress, serious under achievement and conflict occur. 

The good news is that with a research based framework and a methodology for unlocking behavioural change, everyone can develop the skills required for successful working now, and in the future of work."

Catherine has provided inspirational talks for businesses and events on a range of entertaining science-backed topics.

"My favourite scenario is when businesses or event organisers give me a topic and let me create a novel way to approach it to keep audiences engaged and motivated. I created The Chemistry of Motivation for Successful Sales talk for the Chamber of Commerce 2023 Festival of Business, to help people understand how to get over the awkwardness of selling and link sales to extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. It's important that audiences enjoy the talk and leave with practical ways to use the learning."

Great teams don't happen by chance, they are built, developed and supported by great leaders. When a team works well together, the results delivered by far outweigh results from people working individually, even if they are high performing. This is more complex in remote and hybrid working models.

"The saying 'The Whole is More than the Sum of the Parts' has never been more true than when it comes to teams. A cohesive and connected team, channeled into action towards meaningful goals is a joy to behold. 

Working together requires a range of complex human skills and strengths. Not just the ability to communicate and collaborate but deeper skills such as the ability to self-regulated, stay focused and work to resolve the inevitable conflicts that arise.  

Organisations that invest in developing their teams benefit from groups of people who know, respect and enjoy working together and delivering results."

Catherine has worked in partnership with a wide range of organisations, developing bespoke training solutions for the unique challenges that they face.

"I absolutely love working in partnership with organisations and delivering something innovative to meet their needs. A great example was when Almac Pharmaceuticals approached me to develop programme to support their people as they made the transition towards retirement.  We developed a unique solution called the Design Your Future Programme which harnessed insights, workshops and coaching to support people to make the transition to retirement with clarity and confidence."