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Hi, my name's Beverley Hamilton.
I can best introduce myself and describe what I do by sharing with you a defining moment in my life. After a varied career path involving teaching physical education, sports coaching and some great years as an RAF Air Traffic Control Officer, I found myself working for British Airways in learning and development.
It was August 2001, I had just been promoted to Training and Development Manager for customer services and I was looking forward to the challenges of managing a larger client area and a small team.
Then one afternoon just after 2pm, I was walking back to my desk and noticed a crowd of people who were transfixed to the TV situated at the end of our work area. I stopped and asked what was happening. That day was Sept 11 2001.
As you can imagine that day impacted the airline business dramatically. Over the next few weeks and months, as the business strategies and tactics changed to cope with the fallout of that day, the impact on the non-frontline areas of the business was huge. Budgets were slashed and all non-essential development was stopped.
As a result, the job I had been promoted into became almost obsolete with little scope for me to give and get what I wanted. As a result of that, I became disillusioned, bored and frustrated with my job. Then I saw a light! 13000 volunteers were needed to take severance from the airline. I was so fed up that leaving was an obvious opportunity and a great solution. However, I dithered and procrastinated and couldn’t bring myself to make the decision, for fear of what I would do and how things would work out if I left a secure job.
I decided to take a holiday and this was the catalyst for a swift realisation – leave or become a whinger and a moaner like too many other people that I disliked.
So on my return from holiday relieved and excited that I had finally made the decision to leave, I walked into my boss’s office and announced that I would like to take voluntary severance immediately. To my dismay the answer was no you are too late in applying.
From that day in May 2002, it took me another 10 months of nagging and pleading before I was finally granted severance.
From that experience, I decided to devote my professional life to helping other people take decisions and make choices so that they actually achieve what they say they want and don’t miss their chance of success. That is why in June 2003, I set up One Step Further.
Professional Mission
* Positively transform the fortunes of organisations through challenging their status quo
* Inspire and provoke leaders and managers to stretch the limits of their capability, imagination and performance
* Model continuous learning and innovation
* Challenge the norms and strive to deliver value and achieve excellence
* Keep things simple
* Be authentic |
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