Richard Winfield
Thank you for visiting my page. If you are a motivated director, manager or business owner who believes you could become more effective with some personal support, please contact me direct at [email protected].
Or call me on +44 (0) 7970 891 343.
Facilitator | Coach | Trainer
"The Independent Authority on Director Development"
Corporate Governance Masterclass
Facilitation
Scenario Planning
Executive coaching
Mentor/Board Advisor
Specialist Career Coach
Creator of ThreeTicks Academy
Richard has always loved working in corporates and specifically with senior management teams and boards of directors. He is committed to helping improve board performance, because that is where the leverage is.
Corporate governance is another process supported by formally approved systems , and is a natural sequel to Investors in People. Richard has implemented board performance evaluation and directors appraisals, and run director training workshops in the UK and overseas.
Richard loves to apply his systems thinking live, working with senior teams internationally.
Corporate retreats and team away days should be an important element of every company's top level programme. Strategy meetings, scenario planning, skills training and team building all benefit from an experienced facilitator with a comprehensive grounding in corporate processes and an ability to manage an agreed programme structure with a light touch.
Richard has sat on several boards as an NED/Governor. These include an innovative engineering company backed by Electra Risk Capital, The International Association of Coaching and Birmingham Forward, where he represented them on the West Midlands Business Transport Group.
He has launched and built several businesses with colleagues, and successfully negotiated their sale to blue chip companies. He has trained and mentored senior managers and directors of SMEs and international companies.
For ten years Richard attended the major international coaching conferences and learned the latest thoughts and techniques from the masters - and from practitioners like himself. As a result, he was invited to join the Board of Governors of the International Association of Coaching.
An exercise he developed to teach coaches in Sofia, Bulgaria, has developed into the very simple but powerful 'Coaching on a Credit Card®', and been expanded into 'Invisible Coaching® - the art of natural coaching'.
As a systems thinker and an enthusiast for the latest developments, Richard has often been involved in the development or testing of new ideas and programmes. He supported the first local authority in Wales and the first magistrates court in the UK to achieve Investors in People status.
Henley Management College commissioned him to advise their client in Abu Dhabi on how to introduce Management Charter Initiative competencies and his exposure to a South African approach to scenario planning led to evolution of the Brefi Group approach.
Richard developed the New Directors Handbook and the Effective Director Masterclass multi-media online training programme from the workshops and Masterclasses he has delivered in Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Africa.
He is able to offer very flexible programmes in response to the specific requests of his delegates by drawing on his considerable archive of PowerPoint presentations, though these are currently more likely to be delivered by Zoom.
Richard is the creator of ThreeTicks Academy, the learning and development portal of Brefi Group. This source of courses, resources and knowledge has been created to help ambitious managers, business owners, directors and boards become more effective by providing distance learning products and services. Learning is designed for busy executives, in chunks of no more than 20 minutes so that it can be easily assimilated in short breaks.
Richard honed his communication skills as a publisher, firstly of an international transport policy newsletter. then as the co-founder of the leading trade newspaper that recorded the deregulation and privatisation of the bus industry. These were followed by of transport policy texts by guest authors.
As an author in his own right, Richard 's titles include Reflections of a Corporate Coach, Stories from a Corporate Coach and the New Directors and AIM Directors Handbooks.
Richard Winfield started his career as a transportation planner focusing on public transport. He designed, developed and commissioned the software for the world's first bus location system, on London's longest bus route !!.
He then project managed one of the earliest feasibility studies into the use of automated personal rapid transit systems, and won three wards for his work in determining the need for transport in rural areas.
Richard has a long standing practical involvement in the outdoors. For some years he combined a small livestock farm with his professional life, he has designed and built four ponds and spent a holiday working as a cowboy.
This creative relationship with nature is directly parallel with the approach he takes with his clients, seeking to bring out their natural talents and provide a structure within which they can develop and grow successfully.
My Mission
To help people make sense of their worlds
My Vision
A world of work in which individuals and teams achieve their potential in a congruent and ethical manner.
In particular, boards of directors providing strategic, moral and ethical leadership to transform the world's economy.
What I do
I help individuals and teams in organisations discover and achieve their potential so they can become more effective with less stress.
I help directors and boards become more effective by clarifying goals, improving communication and applying good corporate governance.
What you get
Clients call me when they need to bring structure and clarity to their thinking.
I can help you identify core issues and make the complex simple, holding the space for you to create your own solutions.
"Richard puts you at ease without you knowing it. I thought I was having a casual conversation with Richard but by the end I realised that he had identified an entirely new perspective of my skill set. That's the power of a good listener!"
John Morris, Director Public Affairs & Communications.
"We approached the exercise with an element of cynicism - after all, we know the business better than others right? How wrong we were. Through careful and thorough pre-meetings and detailed analysis thereafter, Richard brought together the strengths and exposed the weaknesses in the organisation. The resulting clear actions have improved business no end."
Nigel Payne, Chairman, Hangar8
"Thanks for the two days of your valuable assistance and expertise. The structure was most successful and in your quiet and diplomatic way you kept us on track. It was a most worthwhile exercise and we really progressed our strategic thinking."
Kevin Foo, Chairman, Victoria Oil and Gas
"Richard Winfield is the most passionate and effective advocate of coaching I have yet encountered. His blend of integrity, attention to detail and insight ensure that his corporate coaching approach is one you can trust - giving a sure foundation to build upon."
Lex McKee, Productivity Coach, Trainer and Mentor
“Thank you for facilitating our meeting last week. It's amazing how much clarity and harmony can be achieved by an hour or so of quality interaction and reflection. Great feedback from the team and raised levels of enthusiasm for new monthly meetings. Neil has already organised the next one in the Midlands. Thanks again for your expert intervention.”
John Skivington, Director, LHC
“Richard was a very capable facilitator who understood the brief that we set. He facilitated from a position of knowledge and experience, but did not impose this on the group; he kept the meeting flowing and managed the time well.”
Ann Bentley, Director and member of global board, Rider Levett Bucknall
“Having an external facilitator enabled people to say the things that concern them that possibly they would not raise normally. Everyone felt listened to and that what they had to say mattered. By agreeing processes/the way forward and having individuals take ownership and others supporting that person in their ownership has really helped move the organisation on.
“It has brought things to the surface, made difficult conversations easier to have and really cleared the air, if not necessarily on the day with all the follow up work that happened after. “Our direction, operationally and strategically is a lot clearer now that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet!
Paula Fowler, Managing Partner, Fisher Jones Greenwood
“This project was well organised with the right mixture of internal and external input. All member feedback has been positive and for the first time we have individual and organisational development plans, which are already being implemented.
“Richard Winfield listened to our requirements and delivered a quality process, which he managed professionally from beginning to end.
“The fact that we have positive feedback from all our members and effective outcomes speaks for itself. A very well managed project.”
Chris Almgill, Chairman, Worcester Community Housing
“Thanks for a stimulating two days, which has resulted in my senior management team reviewing the way they work, plan and implement. The biggest change has been in how they work together as a team! We are now already using 10 minute brainstorming sessions very productively. We are very pleased that a number of important business issues have been identified and already worked upon with the next steps clearly identified. In summary, excellent.”
Roger Randall, Managing Director, Biomet UK.
“Thorough, competent, knowledgeable and an excellent communicator capable of articulating his knowledge in a well paced manner.”
Richard Pearce, Birmingham City Council
"The retreat organised by Oando PLC and facilitated by Richard was extremely professional. The team enjoyed the retreat and followed through actions has changed their behavior. The facilitation style was very easy to follow and interesting. The outcome of the retreat was also used to develop the outline of the Quarterly Management retreat."
'Demola Ogunbajo, Manager, Avaizon Consulting, Nigeria
"Thank you very much for delivering the training for NF Gold team."We enjoyed working with you, and I was personally very happy to see how responsive you were in adjusting the program when required. We went through a lot of material, and I am convinced that the participants will be able to recall and hopefully apply many of the techniques presented in the sessions."
Dejan Popovic, Director, New Frontier Group, Austria
"The day exceeded our expectations and a great deal emerged which will be very valuable going forward. You brought a refreshing and innovative approach to the day and the personality profiling which you did in advance and used to illustrate board behaviours was inspirational."
Peter Maskell, BHSF, UK
“As a unique not-for profit organisation, LHC has benefited from Richard’s thoughtful and creative approach to improving board performance. Over and above the excellent project work, I find it particularly useful to be able to approach Richard on an ongoing basis as a critical friend, helping to shape the continuous improvement of our governance arrangements.”
John Skivington, Managing Director, LHC
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