White Water Strategies

Who are you?

Averil Leimon, director of White Water Strategies.

What do you do?

As a firm, we transform people, aligning their personal development with their business goals, for maximum success. Our approach is based on sound, psychological, evidence-based methods and years of real business experience. We work with both individuals and groups, coaching and challenging them to greater success.

Why should I care?

Because if you don’t you are probably haemorrhaging money through your people. Good companies know that they need to develop their best people in order to achieve a competitive advantage. Also, companies are more likely to attract and retain the best people by having an enlightened attitude to career development. Having first established where an individual’s strengths lie, I then work with them to ensure they achieve the best in their role and that they aim for the best role for them. I work with groups, as well.

What can you do for me that I can’t do for myself?

The type of clients I work with have usually got where they are because of technical excellence. They then recognise that their expertise in understanding, motivating and communicating with others may not be quite at the same professional level. They realise they have to hire an expert in the field to get the best results.

What mistakes will you prevent me from making?

You have been busy building your business. I have been studying human psychology and business success in theory and practice. It is not so much that you are going to make mistakes; it’s more that you might miss opportunities. It is my job to challenge some of your assumptions about yourself, your people and the way things need to be done. You can think of this as risk management.

How else will you save me money?

Return on investment can seem tricky to measure when it involves people. Yet none of the five companies I assessed in my book Essential Business Coaching had the slightest doubt about the value. They have daily evidence of the success of individuals, teams and departments as a result of intensive business coaching. Studies in the USA and UK have put ROI at 6:1. Taking into account the effects of a more sophisticated and successful workforce, improved relationships, better-functioning teams and the reduction of costs through retention and internal succession planning, where else can you get a return like that on your money?

Give me an example of one business you’ve worked with this year.

A construction consultancy had experienced a period of rapid growth that it expected to continue. It needed to develop its consultants, attract the best people to join the firm and retain its excellent employees. We gave its senior staff the chance to become committed to development throughout the company. We coached the senior managers in their own development and management style so they became actively responsible for the career development of more junior employees. They are now extending this process throughout the business.

Why should I trust you?

I am always appalled by how much trust companies put in external experts without checking their credentials, their philosophy and code of ethics. As a founder member of the Association for Coaching, one of the first accredited coaches and an accreditor myself, I am always delighted when people challenge the theoretical grounds that exist for what I do. People only tend to describe what I do as ‘soft’ once. My mission is to have solid scientific underpinnings for everything I do, but also to strip it of jargon and make it pragmatic and useful to business.

Ok, so how much will it cost me?

We keep it simple. Day rates are £1,800 and half days £1,500 for consultant time.