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Jonathan Forrest is the owner and principal coach-consultant at Fast Track Learning. Before becoming a full-time coach his last corporate role was working at Goldman Sachs as an Executive Director looking after leadership development. Prior to that he held senior training positions at Sungard, NatWest and LogicaCMG. Before his corporate career Jonathan trained as an opera singer. Click here to download his full biography.

Working with Jonathan are a team of trusted coach-consultants who, like Jonathan, held senior positions in the corporate world before becoming full-time coaches. Each coach in the team brings unique skills and insights, but what unites all of them is a combination of world-class coaching/training skills, real business experience and a passion for the work that they do.

What is unique about you?
It may seem a cliché, but the feedback we get constantly from our clients and attendees is “you really made me think” and “the best course I have ever been on.” Leaders who send their people to our interventions frequently report back to us on the real, noticeable change in behaviours and attitudes from their people. Our coaches all have vast experience in working with many different organisations, in different sectors and are therefore able to draw on that experience and knowledge to help attendees.

How do you achieve results?
Using a combination of different disciplines and the wide-ranging experience of the people who work at Fast Track, we coach and facilitate throughout all of our interventions – rather than teach. We ask participants to talk about real-life situations where we can apply the lessons learned during the sessions. We help participants understand what is within their control and what is outside of it. This in itself is often a light-bulb moment for many attendees – discovering that the only thing they can really control is themselves, their attitude, their thoughts, their behaviours.

What can attendees expect on your interventions?
Attendees can expect to be challenged and stretched – in a relaxed and fun environment with no-one being asked to feel uncomfortable. All we ask of attendees is to come along with an open mind, be prepared to challenge us (and themselves) and be willing to embrace change and the ideas we present. They can expect that by the end of our programmes they will start to think and behave differently - whether self-leading at the more junior level or leading others at the more senior level.

How do you measure success?
We like to be able to show real results from our programmes. Leaders who send their people to our programme should expect to see a difference in behaviour immediately their people return to work – which is in many ways the most relevant measure of success. We do also provide more quantitive figures and statistics to clients to show success – see our separate page on Results & ROI (Return On Investment).

So, Fast Track Learning is a 1-1 coaching organisation?
No! It is certainly a part of what we do, but our offering ranges from 1-1 coaching (at any level in an organisation - not just executive level), through classroom style interventions (covering leadership, engagement, feedback, presentation skills and many more), to conference facilitation and keynote speaking.

You talk about coaching and coaches as opposed to trainers and training - what's the reason for this?
It's a subtle, but we believe important, difference. Much of our work is in classroom style interventions, running what might be traditionally called "training courses." We believe, however, that the best sustainable change in people is when they discover the answers for themselves rather than being told - hence we coach our attendees rather than train them. That doesn't mean, however, that we spend all our time using a coaching approach - we will also use a "tell" approach where appropriate. In fact what we do is use a variety of different approaches. We think of ourselves, and describe ourselves, as coaches because that is the identity we choose to adopt that we believe brings about the best results for our clients.

Are you linked with any professional bodies or hold relevant qualifications?
Yes. Fast Track Learning is an Organisational Member of the Association for Coaching (OMAC). Each of our coaches is qualified as a coach and linked to either the Association for Coaching or other equivalent professional coaching body. Additionally, each coach will have other qualifications and professional memberships, such as the CIPD Certificate in Training Practice, or membership of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).