BRFS Strategic
My focus is just as the name says: Strategic.
People, teams and organizations are often overly task-oriented. This is understandable - things need to get done. Besides, most of our organizations are set up to reward task-oriented behaviour from all levels. It’s part of the focus on short-term results which predominates in today’s business. At the same time, this lop-sided success is exactly the approach which has created some of the biggest problems that organizations face today.
My aim is to improve your organization’s strategic planning, and prevent it from becoming just another task to be done. I use techniques which deliberately, sometimes uncomfortably, steer you to stay in the strategic space and prevent a premature focus on tasks.
My aim is also to help organizations become more human places, through real leadership and transformed teams. How to do this is a source of great personal growth for me as I try to create environments that facilitate organizational and personal change.
Enjoy the website and my blog, and if you think my approach is useful, contact me to discuss how I might help.
Alex McCafferty
Why My Clients Are Nuts About BRFS Strategic
“What is the ideal way to develop leadership? How can you use power to influence the thoughts and actions of your team? How do you identify for your team that leadership and management are two distinctive and complimentary systems which in the wrong hands can dominate the culture of a large or small organisation? Those were problems that I needed to resolve to assist the business as it prepares for change and to help the team cope as they struggle through it.
I was keen to understand how Alex McCafferty could assist me and my team to move from a task orientated management team to a more effective team utilising coaching and mentoring styles in the future - our "New World". We are promoting the New World as a place where we are more responsible, held to account and display behaviours that motivate and encourage staff to improve within themselves and their teams.
It was clear that Alex listened to our needs and was able to build a dynamic, flexible program to identify an approach to build a leadership team. Alex worked with my team to identify the cultural traits of our business and establish the vision of the place we needed to be. We were able apply our learning's to ensure our team members could grow to become a New World Leader and to assist individuals to self appraise their leaderships skills and style and ultimate career path within or outside the organisation.
Alex McCafferty has enabled my team to understand the need to:
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• be accepting and encouraged to take responsibility
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• be brave enough to hold themselves and others to account
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• be flexible and able to positively influence those around them
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• share the philosophies of a high performing team (shared purpose, acceptance of individual differences, joint problem solving, able to give and receive feedback, celebrate successes)
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• work within the fundamentals of (providing clear leadership, managing for performance, team work and future sustainability)
I recommend Alex McCafferty to any business with the desire to manage complex issues or improve existing business performance. Lex can positively influence business improvement by developing an approach that will suit your needs from concepts in framework modeling, via facilitating techniques, strategic questioning, business coaching through to workplace learning capabilities.”
Jeff Hogarth
General Manager - Operations
Northern Region
Versacold Logistics Services
“Participation in the NeWT (New World Training) Sessions, has given all the participant the tools to use to be better leaders, firstly for their team and secondly the company. There is a significant difference between being a manager and a leader, and through the training the participants are now better prepared to be leaders. The sessions encouraged openness and honesty. A set of guidelines were produced in the early stages to ensure that all participants were assured of the freedom to speak openly. In doing this, the participants were enlightened to being part of what a leadership team means.
* The sessions encouraged all participants to challenge they way things are done. Not just focussing on the tasks but on the bigger picture. Sessions included looking at certain behaviours and creating archetypes from those behaviours. In doing so we identified what the real underlying culture of the business is like. This made is easier to see what we didn't like and what we needed to nurture.
* Some participants 'self selected' themselves out of the sessions. The sessions were direct and confronting. For some of the participants this was a new experience and a little daunting. Those that decided that this wasn't for them opted out, to return to their usual day to day activities. Leaving the balance of the group to continue to challenge and develop the concepts we were working through.
* Coaching and Personal development was introduced to all participants. For some this was the first time they had ever undertaken any coaching. This was challenging and again quite confronting for some participants. Each participant was asked to find a coach and have at least one weekly meeting. Some of coaching sessions are continuing, others have found that they are not comfortable with process and have stopped the sessions. Those that are continuing with the sessions, are learning more about how to approach their work and are starting to discuss quite indepth topics during the sessions with their coach.”
Rachel Corcoran
Human Resources &
Health Safety and Environment Manager
Northern Region
VersaCold Logistics Services
A Bit About Me
I hold bachelors degrees in Arts, Commerce and Law from the University of Queensland, and a masters degree in Science (Environmental Management) from the University of London.
I am also an NLP master practitioner, NLP coach and a member of the Cognitive Edge network. This indicates that I am extremely comfortable with ambiguity and able to hold diverse viewpoints!
Having lived and worked for extended periods in Australia, Kenya, Luxembourg and Italy, I have and a broad cultural appreciation as well as a smattering of several languages.
Experience working in finance, tourism and hospitality, property development, cold logistics and education gives me a broad base from which to draw. My most unusual job was being a hot-air balloon pilot over the Masai Mara Game Reserve.
My greatest pleasure is cooking pizza for family and friends, while drinking a good red wine and listening to opera.
