Martin's experiences during tough times provoked his quest to discover the secrets of the most successful workplaces.........and he found them. His passion today is helping leaders create The Sustainable Workplace™, workplaces which return extraordinary results year after year because the leadership is so enlightened and their people so engaged.
Today Coaching-Works! offers individual and group coaching, seminars and keynotes and is in community with two other greater Edmonton companies equally dedicated to the creation of The Sustainable Workplace™, Creating People Power Inc. and Focus Management Development.
A personal message from Martin:
During the equivalent in England of my high school
years I loved art and geography, particularly learning how the landscape
was formed, how characteristics of mountains and valleys could be
recognise on maps by the patterns of contour lines. Hiking was already
part of my life and weekend camping expeditions in England's Yorkshire
Dales were guided by colourful maps of paper laminated with cloth,
on which each inch depicted one mile on the ground.
The Yorkshire Dales became Switzerland. Switzerland was succeeded by Northumberland, Northumberland became Scotland and then Canada. Along the way I was introduced to mountaineering, to fell search and rescue, to life-threatening disease and I learned lessons about myself, teamwork, perseverance, about navigating with map and compass and the false attraction of magnetic north. Those experiences provided powerful lessons for my life, vivid metaphors for life's journey.
Along the way, I worked too, just in case you were wondering! My quest for job satisfaction led me to landscape architecture and then to coaching and speaking via civil engineering and banking. During "interesting times" I pursued direct sales and as a volunteer specialised in media relations.
I have had the good fortune to discover job satisfaction twice, firstly in landscape architecture but never more so than now, inspired by mountain images, in my own speaking and coaching practice and with a passion for sustainability, personal and corporate.
I have met too many people stranded in the workplace following the avalanche of downsizing, right-sizing or re-engineering; too many people with so much to do that each day's mountain is beyond the capacity of their equipment or personal endurance. Too many personal relationships have been lost as more and more time is spent at work and too much creativity suffocated. There is too much research connecting great results with a kinder corporate culture not to seek to do something about it...
...and that is my passion.
But who is the Martin you'll meet?
I've been 35 for over 20 years now
and getting younger day by day. I have an active sense of humour,
some would say naughty on occasion, and I love laughing ... with people
and not at them.
I have a wonderful wife and 2 great children now leaving their 20s - clearly we had them at a very young age!
Special people, spiritual and marriage enrichment, painting in watercolours, cross-country skiing, eating with friends, sharing a bottle of wine, hiking, fishing and now, sailing are vital in my life-balance but working-out has a special role as it allows me to continue eating all the things I love most.
