I have had the privilege of working with Ann Benford over a number of years, initially through the use and development of psychometrics for recruitment and development purposes, and in recent years executive coaching.
Ann’s advice and support has always been first-class in terms of leadership development and building cultures of high performance and talent pipelines. Project work has included corporate team development, individual coaching at director level and more recently acting as mentor within the Company’s executive mentoring programme.
I can always rely on Ann quickly establishing credibility and empathy with colleagues of all levels and disciplines, and this translates into significant impact on the performance of managers involved in the associated coaching.
Ann provides an invaluable and objective perspective which has been of immense benefit to me within my senior HR roles in a variety of sectors, and I would recommend her most strongly to future clients requiring support with realising leadership potential, coaching and mentoring.
Ann has worked with individuals and teams at the Partnership Group for over five years during which time the business has grown approximately ten-fold. She brings a great combination of straight-talking but insightful guidance tempered with a touch of humour and uses it to deliver meaningful improvements, be it with our up and coming talent of tomorrow, established executives or in team situations. I would have no hesitation recommending Ann to anyone looking for an experienced, pragmatic coach who consistently delivers.
Steve Groves, Chief Executive Officer
Ann has worked with Partnership for several years now providing pragmatic and effective business coaching to both groups and individuals in the business. She very quickly familiarised herself with the business and has grown to know and understand the varying challenges in many divisions. Ann's no nonsense and practical approach has produced some excellent results with both developing talent and established executives throughout the organisation. On a personal note I know I can always talk through challenges with Ann and never fail to come away with a clearer view of how I am going to approach a situation. I would recommend Ann to any organisation they would not be disappointed with the results.
Jane Kennedy , Chief Operating Officer
Ann worked for me when I was Managing Director of a small Engineering company making specialised parts for the motor industry. At this time we had grown to some 40+? Staff and there was a need to re-structure the business and appoint a management team.
We quickly built a good rapport and I found Ann to be highly empathetic which enabled me to unburden my thoughts and concerns through my confidence in her. We were then able to work together on solutions.
Whenever I needed a sounding board or support in the people areas of my business I have found her coaching extremely useful both face to face by telephone and email.
Specific areas Ann supported the business in were as follows:-
2002 - Conflict resolution exercise with two directors, which had been ongoing for 4 years with many £0000’s being spent previously on a variety of training and development courses . Ann’s intervention resulted in the directors recognising their interest lay in 2 different directions and one director left with the company making significant cultural changes, followed by growth and sustained profitability. All of which Ann contributed towards.
Nov 2003 - June 05 DTI Partnership Fund Project. The whole of the workforce were involved in this project. We conducted a staff survey where we also communicated the company Aims, Vision and Values and the new teams and business units. We then worked with these teams to look at their issues and introduced the new staff standards by which the company would measure itself. The results were analysed and at a company day out we communicated our view of the future which was full staff involvement and a share in the company’s profits.
2007 - Ann ran a Management Development programme and designed a bespoke 360 feedback process which she implemented with positive results and a training needs analysis for the team.
Ann is a very dependable friend with excellent communication skills and the ability to quickly identify the real issues in any given situation.