Frequently Asked Questions

Locations Covered

Which Locations Do 80:20 Performance Solutions Cover

 Over the last seven years we've worked with businesses throughout the UK and, on occasion, on projects with companies in Europe too. If we can add value and expertise and the project is an interesting one there are theoretically no locations we wont cover.

Fee Structures

How are 80:20 Performance Solutions Fees Calculated

Prior to every piece of work we do, no matter how short or long in duration, we will provide a quote detailing time-frames, resources utilised and costs. Ultimately we are charging for our expertise and therefore the time we spend working on a project.

We're in the business of adding value and, given the expertise we offer, our fees have been calculated to be extremely competitive.

Conflicts of Interest

What About Potential Conflicts Of Interest

We are a professional organisation and we offer full confidentiality to all clients. This enables us to discuss details of work that are often significant and sensitive. In the event of a conflict of interest that could not be satisfactorily managed, naturally, we would decline the project with an explanation.

Free Consultation

What Happens In The Free Consultation?

We use this process to gather certain information that is critical to us identifying whether we can help and the best way of doing so. Naturally it's a two way process though and we encourage you to ask questions to ensure that you're happy working with us. If necessary we can provide plenty of examples of our work and references too.

Privacy and Confidentiality

What About Privacy And Confidentiality?

For numerous reasons coaching clients often want to know that they can undergo a coaching process without divulging certain information which may be sensitive. This sensitivity may stem from a need to protect corporate confidentiality, their own client confidentiality or even just plain old embarrassment.

The first point to note is that all coaching sessions are completely confidential and no information is ever divulged regardless of whether it is deemed to be sensitive or not.

Modern coaching is not conducted like an intellectual or Freudian investigation into the why's and wherefores of a situation. Our coaching formats fall into two general categories:

• Content Based: where we apply specific techniques to bringing about change, developing skills and enhancing performance. The content models are specific applications we will teach you.
• Content Free: where we work on changing a specific behavioural response, a feeling or motivation in a given context. In these instances we may work with physical, emotional and mental states but we don't need to discuss actual content to do so.

If you are unsure of whether this coaching is right for you we offer a Free Consultation with all of our work.

Working With Motivation

Isn't Lack Of Motivation Just A Question Of Laziness?

Absolutely not, this couldn't be further from the truth. Motivation is often considered to be a function of the amount of energy we put into something, but that's really only a small part of a much more complex underlying process.

How Long Does It Take To Improve Motivation?

This really depends on the complexity of the context in question and if there are any related issues - such as emotional factors that need attention. Often it's possible to see distinct improvements in just a single session and often no more than one session is required.

What About When Other People Are Involved?

It's true that one of the biggest aspects of any context is the other people involved and those people are potentially one of the biggest influences on motivation. It's great to have someone to help motivate us, but in the professional world a mentor isn't always available and sometimes competition is intense, taking personal responsibility for motivation and performance is the most reliable option.

Coaching vs Training

How Will I Know Whether Coaching Is More Appropriate Than Training?

We can help you decide what is likely to make most impact for you. If you are experiencing a persistent behaviour that you'd like to change then we'd look at which factors influence the behaviour and the best approach to reaching a desirable outcome.

Many people make the mistake of attending training courses when really they would benefit more from one to one coaching sessions. Coaching sessions will be tailored to precisely fit your needs whereas on a training course there will be others there for the trainer to focus on too.

Skill acquisition through coaching is also possible and can sometimes be more powerful because learning is directed much more easily towards experiential activities and processes of discovery than with a group.

Group Sizes

What Group Sizes Do Your Work With?

It depends on the course but we ensure that headcounts are deliberately restricted to ensure that delivery is not impaired. Because our training courses focus on learning with exercises it is important that:

• Delegates get sufficient opportunity to interact with a trainer
• We are able to monitor participants during exercises
• The exercises are well explained and run on time

So we make sure that for larger groups we have additional qualified trainers / coaches available to assist.

Opportunities To Re-Attend Courses

I've Heard That You Invite People To Re-Attend Courses For Free?

On some of our courses we will tell people that, if they want to, they are welcome to re-attend either free of charge or for a nominal fee to cover materials. We do this to ensure that for more complex topics delegates get an opportunity to cement their learning. With more complex subject matter it also sometimes helps us to have different skill levels in the room. On occasion we will invite previous delegates who have demonstrated adequate skill levels to attend as a guest coach. Attending as a coach is a great opportunity to re-visit the training but with a new perspective and the stretch of coaching people.

How Long To Profile

How Long Does A Profile Take?

We offer several different profiles and how long they take to complete depends on several factors:

• Whether they are conducted face to face or online
• How many contexts are being profiled and how detailed those contexts are
• How much immediate vs follow up feedback is agreed

Choosing A Profile

How Do We Know Which Profile To Choose?

We have expertise in applying profiling to a diverse range of contexts so, in a Free Consultation, we can help you choose a profile that best fits your needs. The choice of profile will depend largely on what you want to use the information for.

Context Specificity

What Does 'Context Specificity' Mean?

Many profiles are based on questions that don't identify the specifics of the context in which behaviours occur. Behaviours, especially habitual behaviour, tend to be context specific so those profiling tools that don't identify context don't really offer real value.

When we are providing a profile for anything other than a simple screening exercise, we always use a profile that is context specific. So our job is to identify the context you want to be profiled in and then, throughout the course of the profile, to keep you focused on that context.

In this way we can provide motivational and behavioural profiles that are far more precise and accurate than most of those  tick-box / checklist style 'Personality Profiles' on the market.

Personality

What Is Personality?

The idea that we have a fixed personality suggests that we are subject to certain default behavioural traits. The jury is out on how much of behaviour is subject to hard-wired traits. It's true that our biological make-up has some bearing on how we may behave but is drowned by the impact of the choices we make about what we focus our attention on - goals and aspirations and problems alike.

We don't believe, therefore, that there is a great deal of value in trying to identify a personality. Rather to identify behaviours that seem consistent in a given context - but, importantly, recognising that they aren't fixed they're just habitual.

Business Types

Which Business Sectors Do You Consult In?

We have worked with businesses from numerous sectors including:

Our Free Consultation is designed to establish whether we can offer the type of expertise that will impact on your business success.

Focus Of Cosulting

What are Your Areas Of Expertise?

We specialie in performance through people so our coaching and training activities focus on developing people skills and solving people problems. our consulting activities are also focused on people but that includes:

We also work with how people work best in groups and teams

• How groups, teams and departments interact and work together.
• Enhancing marketing and sales processes to attract and retain clients
• Optimising the interactions people have with systems, processes and tools