Are you struggling with difficult realities caused by recent events or issues that you have been avoiding for a long time?
March 2020 saw the start of what is likely to be the most surreal and testing time in the lifetime of those that have lived through it.
This coupled with the existing demands of everyday life, has made dealing with conflict even more difficult.
Our Mediation and or Coaching services will help you navigate any challenges you are facing.
Why Forward Focus Group Ltd?
Forward Focus Group is committed to helping you explore and resolve areas of concern through coaching and mediation, with a specific focus on improving communication and confidence; two key requirements to achieve successful outcomes.
Our coaching will assist mediation parties in identifying problems and their root causes, while our mediation expertise will provide you with the guidance to resolve issues and focus on the desired outcome.
Mediation
The mediation services offered at Forward Focus Group Ltd, adhere to the strict rules and regulations in the industry. Our clients come first. We offer a structured and impartial service, using specialised communication and negotiation skills, to assist disputing parties to resolve conflict. Mediation is, used in law as a form of alternative disputes resolution.
We guide parties in a process which focuses on the needs and rights of all involved. Forward Focus Group Ltd mediators facilitate and manages the interaction between parties, helping them to communicate openly and negotiate with each other, with a view to parties reaching optimal solutions to their disputes.
Mediation is a generic term used to describe a process where parties come together voluntarily to talk to each other with the help of another person present, the Mediator. Mediators are skilled in facilitating meetings which help parties to future focus and manage conflict where it is exists. Mediation is a process designed to help parties reach resolutions that both parties perceive to be fair and balanced. As an impartial person the mediator aids constructive discussions to enable parties to reach agreement.
In most mediation arrangements, the mediator will meet with each party individually before facilitating the first joint meeting. Thereafter, the number of future joint meetings will be dependent on the nature and complexity of the issues. Please note however, that in Civil and Commercial mediation, the aim is that an agreement is signed by the end of the meeting. All mediation is without prejudice, therefore, not valid in a court in future legal disputes. At the conclusion of the mediation process, with a signed agreement, many take their document to a solicitor. In Family mediation cases, the agreement is known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), parties often take it to a solicitor to obtain a consent order from the court.
Mediation benefits those involved because it is often cheaper than using a solicitor and issues resolved more quickly. Hostility that might be present when communicating solely through solicitors is less likely and it empowers parties to make their own decisions, assisted by a skilled and impartial person. Decisions made during the mediation process are focused on achieving the best result for all involved and tend to more accurately reflect what the parties require. This thereby increases the likelihood of agreements being adhered to by all parties.
Family Mediation
Fair resolutions
A couple came to us because they were unable to communicate with each other in a rational and productive way during their divorce. With our impartial service, they were able to reach fair and equitable resolutions, because the decisions that were made were made for them by them.
At the start of their marriage, they were equals. They were on similar salaries, and both sold properties the proceeds from which went into the family home. Once the children were born, she gave up her work to become a full-time mother.
At the breakup, they both wanted a greater than 50/50 split of both assets and access to their children. Her greatest concern was that 16 years of not working would make it difficult for her to go back to work and earn a reasonable income. He had had a successful career and felt that he could reduce his working hours to have more time with the children.
Initially each had engaged expensive solicitors to fight their corner. However, they soon realised they were not talking with each other, and their legal costs were going to significantly erode their assets.
With us, they were able to talk with each other, focus on the future and think realistically about what was best for both the children and for them.
Workplace Mediation
Reaching compromise
In a workplace dispute over pay, neither the employee or the employer wanted to part company or go to tribunal. Through mediation both parties were able to reach an agreement by each compromising.
Due to a company reorganisation and a change in the pay structure, a member of the sales teams’ earnings reduced significantly. The employee had threatened to take the employer to an employment tribunal. The employer argued they had to change the pay structure for the business to survive.
Through mediation both parties were able to state their position, by identifying what was most important for them. This enabled them to reach an agreement by each compromising, thereby, preventing what could have been a costly tribunal.
Civil & Commercial Mediation
Avoiding high legal costs
Using our mediation services enabled both parties to future focus and reach an agreement over a difficult contract dispute.
This was an exceedingly difficult contract disagreement. The dispute was concerned with a contract to provide a particular service for 5 years. The company who initially engaged the contractor found that they could in fact provide the service in-house at a more competitive price. They argued that as they were no longer receiving a niche service, they were within their rights to ask for early termination of the contract.
Using our mediation services enabled both parties to future focus and reach an agreement which benefitted them both, without what could have been a long drawn out and costly dispute if it had gone through solicitors and the courts.
We Understand Your Challenges
Here at Forward Focus Group Ltd, we will help you get through any conflict, we understand your challenges and will tackle them head-on.
We all experience some of the feelings and fears above. In mediation we will help you to both communicate and hear each other to reach resolutions.
As you will see from the cases above, our Job is to:
Ensure all in the dispute have a voice, and that we will hear that voice
Ensure that mediation results in the best possible outcome for all parties
Ensure there is a balance of power throughout the process
Ensure safety in being able to speak and express fears
Coaching
At Forward Focus Group Ltd, through our coaching services we aim to help you achieve success, in either your personal or professional life.
We will help to identify when you are self-sabotaging and how to recognise and unlock your true potential to maximise your performance to achieve. You will learn how to set specific goals and objectives to realise the results that you want.
We will challenge you and at the same time support you to achieve all that you set out to do. In partnership with you, your coach will help you identify your limiting beliefs, the obstacles that are stopping you, pinpoint your vision, fine tune it and realise it.
Coaches are trained professionals, skilled in the art of helping people to face their fears and act on them for positive outcomes.
Career & Family Coaching
Finding the right tools
An engineer was struggling to support her working husband due to his low mood and anxiety, and the pressures of juggling all aspects of home life for them and their children. The need for her to decide regarding the offer of a promotion at work (a promotion she really wanted) further complicated things.
An engineer was struggling with supporting her working husband due to his low mood and anxiety, with juggling all aspects of home life for them and their children. The need for her to decide regarding the offer of a promotion at work (a promotion she really wanted) further complicated things for her.
Coaching helped this client to just take a step back and discuss her concerns with someone who would not judge her, it provided her with ‘timeout’ from the situation which allowed her to think more logically. She was able to address questions such as what was the most important thing for her? What were the practical things she could do to ease the pressure? Where could she get help? With the answers to those questions and more, she was able to put achievable plans in place.
Coaching to Gain Focus
Identifying limiting beliefs
A Training Manager was unhappy in his role in a large organisation because he felt undervalued. Through coaching he was able to identify his limiting beliefs, recognise his abilities and improve his self-confidence.
Coaching helped him identify the cause. He learnt that any feedback he received that was not 100% positive caused him anxiety. His parents had never taken the time to teach him anything. They left him to learn things for himself, and no matter how hard he tried, whatever he did was never good enough. This resulted in his limiting belief that any negative feedback meant failure, even if he knew he had done an excellent job, leaving him feeling undervalued. He also learnt that he chose his career directly because of his own experience, he recognised the importance of training and the need for people to be able to do things correctly.
Limiting beliefs can develop at an early age, yet people do not know they have them. This client through coaching was able to identify his and work on them which in turn enabled him to recognise his own abilities and improve his self-confidence.
Business Start-up Coaching
Finding clarity
We helped a client who wanted to work for themselves rather than being an employee, and gain clarity on whether they should start a new business.
Starting a new business can be daunting. Although the client knew that this was what they wanted to do they did not know in which area or how to go about starting a business.
As coaches we offer structure and support to help our clients get clarity about what they want. What the client was clear about was that they wanted to work for themselves, they no longer wanted to be an employee. With this knowledge we helped the client gain clarity on what it was about being employed that they did not like verses how and why they felt being self-employed would motivate them.
Through working with us, the client discovered that they needed to do something that fell between the two. They wanted something where they were not operating alone, where systems and support were already in place. Something that allowed them to be primarily responsible for their own input/output; profit, in a field that was of interest for them. What the client identified from this exercise was that working for a Franchise in a customer facing industry would meet their needs. Before coaching the client had no clarity at all; this gave them something to thoroughly research and pursue.
Business Start-up Coaching
Achieving Success
Another business start-up. The client came to us full of enthusiasm and with a noticeably clear idea of what their business should look like. However, this enthusiasm did not include any thoughts regarding the realities and practicalities of starting their business. They had fantastic bigger picture ideas, but had given little thought to what was practical and doable within the time-frame that they had set themselves to be up and running.
Coaching reigned them in. In helping the client to realise that the bigger picture was not going to be achieved without dealing with the smaller things first, we started setting realistic goals. It was not a case of dampening their enthusiasm but helping them to channel it in the right direction to give them the best chance of achieving success. The coaching sessions enabled them to get into the detail of what they needed. Manageable goals were set each week, in the form of them conducting detailed research; each used their individual skills, e.g., product research, property type and location, where finance might come from. This resulted in the development of a business plan from which they could clearly identify their market, understand their competitors/customer, and understand and map the financial projections against which to measure and build in milestones. All of which, they recognised needed to be in place to ensure the success of the business.
We Work in Partnership with our Clients to Help them Achieve Their Desired Outcomes
We will help you face your fears and achieve all that you want to achieve.
Ensure support in working towards your required outcomes
Ensure you have the support you need to make life changing decisions
Ensure that you are accountable for your actions
Mediation or Coaching? Do these apply to your situation?
If you would like us to contact you to discuss your concerns, please provide your details here.