David Poole

Managing Director at Lattimer Ltd

I have now been working with Steve for over four years.  During that time, I have progressed from being Production Manager to Managing Director and the business has increased turnover and profit year on year.

Working with Steve as my Coach and Mentor has been a key element to achieving these goals both on a professional and personal level.

We have covered many areas in my development during this time.  This would include developing my leadership skills, learning tools to empower my employees, improving team cohesion and creating a culture within the business that has achieved growth and stability while achieving our financial budget targets.  

Such has been the success of his coaching that Steve now coaches several of my team and is seen as an important part of our drive to continually improve in all areas and empower the workforce.

I would not hesitate to recommend Steve to any business who wants to build a successful, motivated and empowered team which will ultimately achieve the results required.

Personally, Steve has had a massive influence on my development and progression.  I could not have progressed without his coaching, mentoring and support over the last few years.  I have benefited from several new learning tools and techniques which have helped me become a better manager, leader and person and I look forward to our next sessions as we continue our progression together.

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Testimonial for Steve Walker – Workplace Executive Coach and Mentor

I first met Steve during my time as Operations Director at SMS Electronics in Nottingham. At the time, Steve was already working with the senior leadership team, including several of my direct reports. After observing the positive impact he was having, I decided to explore coaching and mentoring for myself and signed up for monthly 1-1 sessions.

Working with Steve turned out to be an incredibly valuable experience, both for me personally and for our senior management team as a whole. From the very beginning, Steve focused on fostering clarity and understanding across all levels of the organisation. His tailored approach addressed the specific needs of our team, and his ability to listen deeply, ask insightful questions, and provide actionable guidance truly transformed how we communicate and collaborate in pursuit of our goals.

What sets Steve apart is his exceptional ability to serve as a trusted sounding board, offering a relaxed and personal approach. He creates an environment where you feel comfortable exploring your thoughts and challenges, while skilfully guiding you to make your own informed decisions. This balance of support and autonomy has been a game-changer for me.

I’m incredibly grateful for the impact Steve has had on my personal growth. I can’t recommend his coaching highly enough.

Andy Elms 

Director of Operations.

Texecom Ltd

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Testimonial SMS Andrew Maddock CEO

  Testimonial 

Three years ago, a decision was made by Andrew Maddock (Co-Owner and MD) at SMS (Smart Made Simple) to start a culture change. He wanted to create a story for his business based on the values of a family.

Andrew realised this journey would be a long and difficult one and recognised that to make this a success he would need to enlist the help of an experienced executive coach and mentor. At this point he enlisted the services of Steve Walker of Engineering Business Support Ltd to help guide SMS through this change.

Since then, Steve has been working with SMS’s leadership team, individually and in groups. They have been given the opportunity to be professionally coached by someone who listens and acts as a sounding board for them. This enables them to have time to think about what they bring to their role and how they can develop themselves within that role and for the future.

The results so far have seen a major step change for SMS and have become a differential between them and their competitors in the industry.

Steve has enabled the current leadership team to grow and become more aware of themselves in any situation, thus, empowering them to make choices and take responsibility for the actions required. They have increased in confidence exponentially, enabling them to become more organised, productive, time efficient, independent and calm. The team now have increased recognition that everyone needs to work together to get a job done and to overcome problems and challenges. This is creating an environment where colleagues are helping each other.

Overall, coaching has also helped increase the value of our brand. It enables us to attract a better standard of colleague to the company and helps us to retain a motivated and accountable workforce.

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                                    Ceri Williamson EX Cyrus

I have been having coaching and mentoring sessions with Steve for approx. 50 sessions over the last three years.

During my very first session, Steve explained that coaching is not for everyone and that it works well for some people but not for others.  Being new to it, I thought I would give it a go and see if it would be at all useful for me.

Well, I needn’t have doubted it - my personal development really took off! As an engineer that got promoted to a senior management position, I felt like I had good instincts but generally lacked the confidence to fully commit to my ideas. Steve let me talk about my ideas and the thoughts behind them and encouraged me to believe in myself. He achieved this in two different ways: Firstly, through coaching where he would ask a thought-provoking question and just let me talk, thinking things through and coming to either a task list or solution to move forward, just nudging the thoughts along as required. Secondly from mentoring. Steve has such a vast experience from his own business that he is happy to share what worked well for him, and things he would have done differently. This skill allowed me to use Steve as a sounding board for any pending ideas that I was unsure about.

I believe that the entire company benefited from just myself having sessions with Steve. Avoiding conflict through carefully wording questions and body language, increasing productivity and team development through a trust, empower and delegate model, enforcing discipline through a firm but fair model etc… we’ve covered so much! Even some trickle down coaching where I have tried some of these with my team in our 1-2-1 sessions.

I would highly recommend Steve to anyone who sits in an influential position within a company as I’m sure he would add value.

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------‘As a growing engineering consultancy, we needed external support to accelerate our growth and strengthen our leadership.  Before working with Steve, I was spending most of my time working in the business rather than on it. Steve helped me to trust, empower, and delegate to the senior leadership team, allowing me to lead the business more effectively and focus on longer term growth.  Steve also helped me to put clearer processes and procedures in place, leading to increased team accountability, better client outcomes, and greater confidence in future growth.  I would highly recommend Steve to any engineering business looking to take the next step.’

Kind regards

Stewart

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Thank you for your all help, Steve J I am a better person now than 2 years ago when I started my lead buyer journey.

I can say, I have gain confidence in what I could do and things I am capable of.

One of the things I learned is to have that clarity and understanding in whatever I do. When I was given the responsibility, our department did not have any focus that we could working on, and I always felt that we were not a team. However, as we move along, we were able to set things slowly and focus on them. I have discovered things that were put in place that were not working and had to adjust them to what is required, like our balance scorecard. There’s a lot more that I had to adjust in the way we work that I’ve seen best for the business. All of this is because I was made aware to have clarity and understanding.  

I could say that you had helped me become more creative J I had experienced putting processes together and implement them.

My personal goal when I became a lead buyer was to leave the place better than I found it, and I believe that you had helped me achieved my goal. J

I may not be able to write all of what you had helped me, however, all I can say is I feel confident and in a better position than when we first met.

I wish you all the best J

Hi Steve,

I find our coaching sessions to be incredibly insightful, I'm not sure I would have advanced myself to my current position without knowledge and encouragement I'm gaining from our sessions.

I'd probably just be in an eternal box.

I've read many books that I otherwise would have never have known of, introduced to various concepts for success and improvement.

I speak a different language now and listen in a different language. I understand more from the same communication than I did before.

I find myself coaching others too, as I believe in what I'm being taught represents a set of best practises.

It's certainly opening up potential for me that I otherwise would not have.

My perception and understanding of the world, situations and those around me has greatly improved.

I think the coaching idea is good, I'm a better person because of it.

Best regards,

James

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Dr Christopher Nankervis

Business Owner  WeatherLogistics.com

Stephen has proved invaluable in lifting several barriers to success. At the start of the coaching, I needed more direction. The balance of coaching and mentoring, presented with a clear distinction, steered me on course.

Realisation of my future, delivered through an effective visualisation exercise, gave me a positive outlook. With vision, the business gained focus, providing me a broader purpose to achieve goals. Stephen also established my values, ensuring that these aligned with this vision.

Over the period of just a few months, Stephen has helped me develop several business leadership skills, self-confidence and empowerment.

Chris

Nora Padar 

SMS Electronics Beeston  Purchasing Team Leader

We have recently started our sessions with Steve, but the personal and business benefits gained from coaching with him are already invaluable. It has been great to have someone external to coach and mentor me, as I am able to talk confidentially about any issues I face on a day-to-day basis and I can also have an outside opinion (mentoring), which sometimes helps a lot more.

We are going through coaching tools that will help me become a better leader. In fact, I already feel more confident and looking forward to put the skills I learn from Steve into place and will definitely change my management style as a result of our time spent together.

Steve has the ability to keep the sessions enjoyable, significant and knowledgeable and also the ability to listen.

Our sessions will take the company, the team and myself to the next level.

Nora

"Steve is an extremely professional individual, with a passion for Coaching and Mentoring.

Steve has been a brilliant facilitator over the time that he has been my Coach and Mentor, which has allowed me to view things from different perspectives, and to recognise for myself where I can make changes and improvements in both my professional and home life.

I was initially a sceptic with regards Coahing and Mentoring, but having worked with Steve for the last 6-months, I have seen the range of benefits from following such a process. "

Andy

Geoffrey M. Price

Management Consultant

September 10^th 2010

I have known Steve Walker for more than five years, during which time he held the position of Managing Director of Barton Precision Engineers of Bulwell, Nottingham. In this role, the owners of the company delegated to him full responsibility for its strategic management and he was very much the driving force for growth and profitability in the business, setting strategy and taking capital investment decisions. He was the main focus for liaison with major customers and installed strong customer service and quality principles.

Steve was with Barton’s for 30 years, 12 of them as MD. He built a strong board and also developed a senior management team, encouraging managers to contribute more and take responsibility for their actions.

 He modernised the company in many ways; achieving ISO 9000 and AS9100 Aircraft Accreditation, and introducing computerised systems and management performance indicators.

At all times he protected the company’s assets and reputation and maintained its Vision, mission and values. I know him to be honest, hard-working and totally reliable and have no hesitation of recommending him to a future employer for a senior and responsible role in engineering.

Geoff Price