What Clients Say about Mike
“Mike has been an effective coach in not only making me feel completely comfortable in being able to open up to him to discuss important matters, but has been a great leader in keeping me focused on what’s important, and how to better approach people situations. After working with him, I feel much more balanced and much more aware of my own actions and thoughts in order to get better people outcomes.”
Selina Radetti, Recruitment Consultant, RAA, Mile End SA
“Working with Mike is to describe him as a big bright light that shines on us the leadership team and draws out our own lights to shine bright. He initially helped us with re-evaluating our strategic plan. This consequently led us to explore and pursue shifting to a self-organising culture as we realised this would give us a better ability to stay abreast with an increasingly complex and fast-moving business environment.
Mike has an ability to create a space where we can connect deeper as a workplace community and draw on our collective intelligence. Essentially, it is a space that allows us to step outside our busy minds where we can see issues and challenges with fresh eyes and clarity.
Mike’s unconventional style challenges conventional thinking and has enabled us to work more collaboratively as a leadership team, solve problems more creatively, create a more enjoyable work atmosphere, show greater resilience in stressful circumstances, solve staff issues with empathy and empower staff to take on greater ownership of responsibilities and decision making.”
Danny Harmer, Training Operations Manager, Access Training Centre, Dudley Park, SA
“My conversations with clients used to be transactional, now they are transformational. It’s not about the widgets I sell anymore, it’s all about the relationship with the person. It’s really exploring and addressing the client’s needs and solving their problems instead of a preset agenda of what to sell. This shift in my thinking has profoundly increased the business I am generating now”
Connor O’Rourke , General Manager Sales, Datacom Systems SA, Adelaide, SA Pty
“With the constant challenge satisfying high customer demands, managing a high pressure operation and contributing to the organisation’s senior management team can be quite a juggling act and at times can cause much friction. As a result of Mike’s coaching, I am now a better equipped communicator with a greater capacity to make better decisions, maintain my composure in challenging situations, constructively engage with the management group and contribute to my work in more harmonious ways.”
Simon Bryant, former Executive Chef, Hilton Adelaide, Adelaide SA, Celebrity Chef on the ABC’s “The Cook and the Chef”
“I recently attended a session with Mike titled “Powerful Conversations for Leading Transformation” and observed him conduct such a conversation, it was a quite brilliant! In a relaxed and personable manner Mike was able to change his clients attitude and approach to a problem almost it seemed, without the client being aware of what was happening. There was no “technique” used, it was simply a chat and the result was remarkable”
Rob Parkinson, Rob Parkinson Coaching, Adelaide, SA
“The ‘Bringing Out the Best in People’ workshop exposed me to a different way of approaching difficult conversations & how people think by stepping back & viewing the situation from an ‘up above’ perspective. The workshop also gave me an understanding of how to challenge my frames of reference & meaning to intentionally choose my attitude & approach to new tasks which I have found really useful. Taking a moment to get myself into the right frame of mind is so powerful & valuable & is something that I deliberately do each day now.”
Sarah Gerrard , Branch Manager, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Adelaide SA
“Your ability to ask questions and unlock potential is priceless. Of particular value is the way you engage me in finding my own answers. You have taken me to new dimensions in my thinking which has allowed me to come up with new solutions to challenges that I didn’t see before.
In addition, using your approach to organizational alignment has helped me create an environment in which my management team now strongly drives in a common direction and in collaboration with departmental goals. Through that, my team has increased its use of time by 25 percent and doubled the number of projects it successfully completes in a month.”
Adam Vanthethoff, Chief Operating Officer, Adelaide Oval SMA Ltd., Adelaide SA
(former Food & Beverage Manager, SKYCITY Casino Adelaide)
“I went away from the workshop, not only with some good tools and approaches but also personally in an inspired space. I used the booklet you’ve provided to draft up a business framework for OD in both areas I work in!”
Heather Gibb, Occupational Psychologist, SA Health, Adelaide, SA
“Bringing Out the Best in People is a tremendous opportunity to look outside the square and gain skills that can be applied everyday. In a business where people are a vital asset I have been able to apply skills picked up at this work shop to gain positive results and maintain a better balance of proactive accountable team members making my day more productive and focused on the running of the business. Learning new skills through this approach allows good operators to play on a different field. A winning one.”
Josh Hampton, Restaurant Bars and Events Manager, Parkroyal Melbourne Airport , Melbourne VIC
“As a member of the executive management team of SKYCITY Adelaide managing a multi million dollar budget and 500 staff I am constantly faced with challenging demands. To go beyond these demands and to deliver quality results one not only must have the appropriate strategic and operational skills but also a well developed mental and behavioural capacity. Always searching for new ways to get the best out of myself and my people I find Mike’s unique ability to coach priceless. I have developed new personal skills to assess and respond to my environment with much greater clarity, focus and flexibility. This allows me to spend more time on productive activities and significantly less time on unnecessary interferences. Mike’s coaching is refreshing and highly effective. His human performance know-how is a great resource to any senior manager who needs to perform at their best.”
Jason O’Sullivan, former Operations Manager, SKYCITY Adelaide, SA
“Hi Mike. You might be interested to know that I spontaneously coached a friend in need last night on the eve of having to go to court on an extremely emotional and stressful matter today and I actually helped her create a state of calmness and optimism and anchored it and she told me this evening that it well and truly worked and really helped her get through today and she had a positive outcome. I was hoping that I would do it properly (being a novice without any material to remind me of the process) but I just kept thinking ‘please let me help my friend’ and put myself into a calm state and it all went according to plan! Unbelievable!! And of course … your influence is spreading and making a difference.”
Karen Lane, KM Manager, Minter Ellison, Adelaide
