In our regular series, we are profiling key members of The Icehouse team, so our wider network of...
We all know the importance of upskilling your team; how it empowers owners, managers and leaders to drive growth, opens doorways for employees to excel, and expands the breadth of a company’s expertise. If you want to have a great business, you can’t do it alone, and need a great team with you.
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Workshops are an essential component of The Icehouse’s offering in making that happen. Our Sales Skills and Financial Skills Workshops give participants an opportunity to learn practical new skills and fill knowledge gaps to better perform their daily tasks and make more informed decisions in specialist areas to make a greater contribution to the direction of any business.
In both of The Icehouse’s two-day workshops, participants can expect to take part in a multitude of different activities and exercises. Often this involves small group learning or working in pairs – all designed to significantly lift the individual’s skillset.
Research shows that employees who are equipped with new techniques are more efficient, innovative, and versatile, leading to improved productivity, better problem-solving, and a sharper competitive edge.
Jamie Brock, Icehouse coach, Sales Skills Workshop facilitator and The Icehouse’s Regional Lead for the Bay of Plenty, explains that while participants are guaranteed to learn from the speakers and the facilitator, “the success of effective workshop upskilling comes from being surrounded by a group of like-minded people and rubbing shoulders with individuals from different industries who you have never met before.
“Secondly, we’re always so busy, and yet, we all want to keep learning. Sometimes we just need to decompress and put ourselves away for a couple of days in an environment that will help you in your careers, your roles and your businesses.
“Real learning can also come from sifting through the two days and finding three or four really useful nuggets of knowledge that offer new insight and real value around where you're at, where your role is at, where your business is at, and finding what's relevant to you. Then it's about taking away those learnings and applying them when you're back at work.”
Harrison Levien, agent at BYL Livestock and a Sales Skills Workshop alumni, highlights the importance of taking what you know and finding more strategic ways to morph everyday functions to get a greater result.
“The big one for me is what’s known as a call plan. Whether on the phone to clients or meeting them in person, it just radiates a point on how important it is. We had one prior to going to this course, but now it’s about having that plan and learning it, so you're going to be asking the right questions and not going to miss out on something. That was a big motivator for upskilling… [and] now I have the skills to really help drive the business forward.”
Workshops are not just for the next generation of leaders, senior management, or the troops on the ground. Many of our Owner Manager Programme and Leadership Development Programme alumni realise they want to immerse themselves a little deeper – to benefit from the more focused and intense structure workshops provide.
Content will always be king, but the success of any workshop also depends on the facilitator – someone who can create an environment that is conducive to “good” learning. Jamie uses his specific facilitator training to good effect.
“The facilitator is incredibly important. A good facilitator is clear and concise in their instruction, keeps the group on track to tackle the content in an efficient but balanced way so the group gets the learning, but in a way that isn’t laboured. Anyone can stand up in front of a room as an expert and talk about a topic, but it's also about how you deliver it, and taking your audience and clients on the journey with you.”
“I did the Financial Skills Workshop with Matt Bellingham in 2020 and it was 100% worth it. I’m pretty keen to do some other Icehouse programmes and workshops over the next few years,” says Eva Pemper, founder and owner of Eva Pemper Wines.
“I got a bigger understanding of what to look at in terms of my finances, what are the important things to look for, so you don't just go and make decisions based on nothing. So, if you're doing things like discounts, for example, have you really understood how much that will actually impact the business and understand what it means to offer a 5% discount in contrast to a 10% discount.
“With Matt we didn't just talk about finances. We talked about other parts of the business, analysing our strengths, and learning what we all really need to focus on.”
“Matt Bellingham was just amazing. He made it so interesting and fun – all his little stories and anecdotes were fantastic, because it wasn't a boring numbers course,” says Amy Bourke, Founder of Blank Canvas Catering and another Financial Skills Workshop alumni.
“The biggest thing for me was understanding cash flow. You can be profitable, but you can fail if you have a lack of cash. One little thing that I was reading through my notes is: ‘profit is food’ – and you can go without food for a while – ‘but cash is air’.
In a rapidly evolving business world, upskilling is essential for staying relevant, adapting to change, and unlocking new opportunities for success. Workshops are a flexible, low-cost and low-risk way to achieve those marks.
For information on programmes, workshops and business coaching services from The Icehouse, click here.
For more business ownership and leadership advice, check out more of our resources.
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