Martin Sawdon

TESTIMONIALS

Martin provides executive. business and personal coaching and is a professional speaker and trainer. His passion is the creation of the corporate culture producing outstanding results by growing its people instead of consuming them like a fossil fuel. Martin delivers a two-day intensive coach training program for managers and executives wanting to start coaching in the workplace the following day. His Signature series of business workshops culminate in participants creating snapshots of the day’s learning in watercolors. No experience necessary! Martin’s own paintings are displaced on his website.

Martin’s work has been featured on television and CBC radio and in Dawn McCoy’s 2002 title, “Landing a Job for Canadians for Dummies.” His Clients include the governments of Canada and Alberta, the cities of Edmonton and Red Deer and the University of Alberta.

Martin provides business and personal coaching and speaks on personal development and issues of corporate culture. His signature series of workshops culminate in participants accessing their right brains by painting in watercolours. No experience necessary! Martin’s own paintings are displayed on his website.

A local member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, his qualifications include graduation from Coach-U, the professional coach training organization.

Martin’s work has been featured on television and CBC radio and Coaching-Works! is the only independent organization featured in “Landing a Job for Canadians for Dummies.”

His quest for job satisfaction has led him into coaching and speaking via the private and public sectors in four countries, two continents and three professions: engineering, banking and landscape architecture. During “interesting” times Martin has sold life insurance and door-knocked for a home renovation company.

He brings to his practice his tremendous enthusiasm for creating fulfilling lives. He has a well developed sense of humour and more than 20 years of innovation, problem solving and organization with many victories and yes, some defeats too. Martin has a special interest in a) the impact of today’s economies on people and the workplace, b) fostering creativity in business and c) life balance.

Martin is the creator of ‘The Sustainable Workplace’ and works with clients who have the guts to dream big dreams, the determination to pursue them and the courage to recognise that with this strange animal called coach they will achieve more and get there faster. He has many interests in addition to coaching which contribute to his own life balance. These include spiritual and marriage enrichment, painting in water colours, cross-country skiing, reading, hiking and fishing but working-out is particularly important as it allows him to indulge his eating habit.

Summary of Services:Personal and Business Coaching
Through meeting regularly with clients by telephone or face-to-face, Martin supports, challenges, encourages and provokes them to take their game to a higher level in business, personally, or both. Issues addressed vary from the interpersonal to the organizational via the envisioning and completion of specific projects.

Group coaching
Addressing similar issues as in Personal and Business Coaching but delivered to groups of clients facing common challenges.

An important note about coaching
In all coaching relationships, the issue is less crucial to its successful resolution than the synergy between coach and client, which is vital. For that reason many coaches, including myself, accept new clients only after a complimentary coaching session has established its presence.

Public speaking
Addressing topics related to Personal Development and the creation of Sustainable Workplaces. (Workplaces which are extraordinarily effective and achieve that status by growing people instead of consuming them like a fossil fuel).

Keynote and Speaking Topics

Interactive Seminars and workshops (a partial selection):

• ‘Works of Art: Creating Successful Sustainable Workplaces’

• ‘The Fine Art of Workplace Relationships’ or ‘Judging Books by Content not Cover ‘

• ‘The Art of Life Balance’

• ‘The Saying No Workshop For Compulsive Saying Yessers’

• ‘Personal Foundation: Becoming the best you can be’

• ‘Creating The Entrepreneurial Company’

• ‘How Best To Support Anyone Laid Off Or Made Redundant’

• ‘Changing Your Job, Your Career, Your Life’

Martin will also prepare and deliver presentations and workshops tailored to your organization’s specific needs. His specialty is seminars combining professional and personal development with painting in watercolors to access the creative right brain. No painting experience needed !

Would you like your organization to be not just a survivor but a leader ? ………..to be universally recognized for its success in every area of its operation with super-satisfied staff, customers and suppliers, to be highly profitable and considered the quintessential corporate citizen? If you would like to be part of building a new way of doing business – based on growing people rather than consuming them like a fossil fuel, this is the workshop for you.
You will access your right brain through wielding a paintbrush yourself and with your small group create your own work of art to inspire you in your journey. (Full-day)

Judging Books by Content not Cover…………
or The Fine Art of Workplace Relationships

You will I am sure be surprised to learn that in some organizations interpersonal relationships there is room for improvement! In this interactive workshop we talk about relationships of choice and those at work, the impact of personality and the ways in which the people of the workplace are going to be different in future. How we respond is going to make all the difference between loving going to work and hating it!
You will access your right brain through wielding a paintbrush yourself and create your own work of art to inspire you in your journey. (Full-day).

THE ART OF LIFE BALANCE
What are the components of Life Balance and what has that to do with painting in water colours? In this experiential workshop Martin addresses these and pays particular attention to relationships in the workplace and beyond.
You will access your right brain through wielding a paintbrush yourself and create your own work of art to inspire you in your journey. (Half-day)

ALL ABOARD THE COACHING TRAIN – or HOW TO GET ON TRACK and STAY THERE!

For everyone who ever wondered what coaching is all about, this is the presentation for you! A high-energy, interactive program in which participants look at some of their own challenges and experience a coaching “show-and-tell.” (Based on Martin’s article, “What is Coaching Anyway?”)

THE SAYING NO WORKSHOP FOR COMPULSIVE ‘SAYING YESSERS.’
Are you the person who can never say ‘No?’ This is the class for you ! We look at factors to consider before making the decision you want in your heart, the one which your head supports and what you have to do to make that decision stick.

PERSONAL FOUNDATION and YOUR SUCCESS
If we really want to take charge of our lives, what are the steps ? The people we see who are always at ease, never flustered or at a loss – what is it that they have ? What have they done to get there ? Personal Foundation is the answer. An introductory short session is available and also a series of 12 interactive presentations.

CREATING THE INTRAPRENEURIAL COMPANY
The intrapreneurial company is one in which everyone from the janitor to the CEO is sensitive to new opportunities for business and knows what to do when they are recognized. How much faster would your business grow if everyone was equally keen and able to do this? It’s not just about staff training. First you must create a culture in which your people want to stay, otherwise you’ll simply be a training ground for great people to be stolen by the competition. This workshop looks at both aspects of this challenge and invites you to create your own, intrapreneurial company.

HOW BEST TO SUPPORT ANYONE LAID OFF OR MADE REDUNDANT
As we hear of more corporations merging, more businesses reorganizing, so also more of our colleagues and neighbours find themselves unexpectedly pursuing new futures. Some of us don’t know what to say when our friends lose their jobs, we don’t know how to provide support and so we simply avoid them. You can learn the necessary skills! This presentation will show you how and also help you to empower other would-be supporters. Now is the time to act – your friend may be on the threshhold of the most exciting, the most satisfying time of his/her life. and your role may be crucial!

CHANGING YOUR JOB, YOUR CAREER, YOUR LIFE
This is usually a series of 4 presentations of an hour each. Each component can be the subject of a shorter presentation, but the 4 cannot be condensed into one, short, after dinner delivery. Subjects addressed are i) the components of a powerful resume, capturing and quantifying all our previous achievements, ii) Tools available to those wanting to make a career change or just entering the job market iii) Networking: what it is and what it’s not (e.g. a competition to see who can collect the most business cards), obstacles to networking, getting the appointment, the promise to make, and questions to ask, iv) Skills for the job interview, researching the company and its people, anticipating and preparing for the toughest questions we can imagine, what to wear and your strategy for the whole interview day.