For executives, managers and teams interested in achieving superior performance and increasing productivity and effectiveness within their organisations, this programme will help you learn to maximise performance in both your personal and professional lives.

The philosophy of The Corporate Athlete is an integrated, holistic approach tailor made to support all levels of employees, in terms of achieving high levels of long term performance under pressure.

Professional athletes at their highest levels learn how to manage themselves psychologically, emotionally and physically and must consistently bring out the best in themselves. So to, must the corporate athlete learn to deal with pressure and remain connected and focused.

Sean Page, the programme leader, works as a sports psychologist and executive coach. This programme is a culmination of all his experience and insights through working with both athletes and corporations, and is made up of four modules.

Module 1: Psychological and Emotional factors

Create an awareness around the individual and group with regards to their coping styles under pressure, dealing with anxiety and working with involuntary psychological and emotional reactions.

Module 2: The Body

The body is key to the state of our minds and our health. Performance levels are enhanced when the body is used effectively to bring about psychological and physical change and recovery.

Module 3: Nutrition

Nutrition plays a fundamental role in energy production. Awareness is created with regards to recognising the significance nutrition plays in energy management and performance, what foods fit into a healthy eating plan and understanding the connection between blood sugar levels and energy, mood and performance.

Module 4: The Environment

Our working and living environments have a conscious and unconscious effect on us. Therefore how we see our roles and functions, and how we perceive our external environment, will impact our performance.

At the end of The Corporate Athlete programme, individuals and teams will have more insight, skills and awareness to attain higher levels of performance more consistently and maintain wellness psychologically and physically.

If you would like to find out more, please contact Gill.

We’re 11 today! And today Elaine and I finished the money part of our BEE deal! We have a new server, lots of new pcs, and new locks and security throughout the offices. Grant is bonding nicely with his trauma therapist, and playing with his new cell phone and laptop, and dreaming about what new car he would like to buy himself when the insurance finally comes through!

It’s so interesting that out of trauma comes rebirth and regeneration! Out of a terrifying hour when Grant didn’t know whether he would ever see his little boys again, is born energy, light and newness! Grant and I were reminded about how precious our family is, and how grateful we are to still be together - the alternative just being too terrible to contemplate! Out of the shock and sense of loss all Avos felt when we realised our stuff was gone has come a refreshing renewal - the cobwebs are gone: all is newness, and out of that comes innovation and the freshness we’re famous for, once again!

I know there are many South Africans who, when faced with the scary reality that crime creates in our country, feel there is no alternative but to go to pastures safer. I must say that this experience has committed me to do exactly the opposite: unemployment and poverty are such crime-makers in this country, and I am determined to make a significant impact on those issues in my lifetime. South Africa, I’m going NOWHERE! This is the most important place to be to make a difference!

Anyway: enough of my soapbox stuff. We’re into week 2 of our ‘operation renew’ change management process: I still do not have a button for the gate; everybody is asking everybody else who saw the keys last, Clint can’t open any documents on his laptop, and Jeanette is focussed on trying to find the quietest spot on the Avo property to get her work done. OK, everybody: after me…..”CHANGE IS GOOD!!!!”

Our Management Development Programme is slightly different to our other programmes in that it’s made up of some core elements, with a few specially chosen ‘additions’ that allow us to tailor-make a programme specific to what you need.

We have a formula that we have used in other interventions that will give you an idea of what can be done.

Mindfood sessions: Short, ‘digestible’ sessions that give people enough to ponder on, over time.

This is where the main content of the programme comes in. It’s quite a blended approach, as the knowledge sessions are in the form of short talks, some 5-hour workshops and some long-term integrated programmes within programmes.

The purpose of these pieces is to deepen people’s insight into themselves, the people around them, and the impact they have on the people around them.

Blog: A blog around retention and management issues to help consolidate learning in a transparent way.

This will keep your genXers engaged in a positive way and allow for even the most junior employees to comment in an open forum for internal communication, across all levels of the business.

Telecon ‘Book Clubs’: On site cappucino sessions to generate debate around raised issues.

There are various books and CD’s included in the toolkit. We encourage learning groups or ‘book clubs’ that are either virtual (telecoms), or physical cappuccino sessions where people talk through their insights from the different sources they access.

Coaching: One-on-one coaching to integrate learning and sustainability for senior and middle management layers.

In this layer of the Management Development Programme managers of others will go through a half day programme on the ‘First Principles’ of coaching. If middle management are able to become regular coaches then the personal development of their people will extend beyond the ‘classroom’ and into their every-day working environment.

Toolkit: Valuable tools to help gain insight and move forward.

This mix of books, CD’s and profiling tools appeals to different learning styles. It’s specifically designed to give middle management tools for self insight, self management and insight into their teams and how to get the best out, for them.

If you’d like to know more about this programme, please contact Gill.