Richard had previously led the successful “Living Service” and “Every Little Helps” programmes in Tesco. He’d turned down offers to join other consultancies in favour of independence and the opportunity to share what he believed was a winning approach to helping people and cultures perform. (And, to be honest, with 3 young kids, he wanted the freedom to have a bit more time to practise coaching confidence as best he could with them!)

In Tesco Telecoms, they created a culture change programme of workshops & coaching, which started with the leadership team and involved everyone in the office and customer contact centre. There were so many success stories; from Neil the CSM who learnt how to choose a positive attitude and keep listening, instead of taking it personally when a customer was frustrated, to operations manager Pete, who seemed to find his spark for work (and DJing outside of work) again, to Andy himself, who discovered that his vision of winning hearts and minds was possible! By focussing on developing emotional intelligence skills and more oppenness and honesty in people, confidence grew, better decisions were made, people enjoyed their jobs that bit more and performance improved.  Winning hearts and minds was a central theme, and a common phrase of the programme became: “it’s not just what you do, its how you do it that makes the difference.”

The inspiration for the name Wiseheart was  born. You need wisdom to know what to do and then confidence, motivation and energy in how you do it, which comes from the heart. (well, from the amygdala in our brains, which is like the engine room for our emotions; and did you know the origins of the word emotion literally means “to move” or “that which moves into action”. Tell that to the next person who tells you emotions are wooly!! We digress…)

And so, when Andy left Tesco a few years later, he met Richard again and offered him both a lovely cup of strong coffee and the idea of going into business together. They both believed in the potential for people and business to live their values more confidently and to become more focussed on delivering for customers to drive results. The simple vision was to inspire service. Even before a second coffee, they’d agreed to give Wiseheart a go.

Developing awareness and capability in people, in simple and pragmatic ways can transform the performance of individuals, teams and businesses. Enabling your leaders and your people to choose a positive attitude will give you a competitive edge because attitudes drive confidence, performance & loyalty. Poor service is often the result of a combination of poor leadership and an individual’s inability to choose a positive attitude. We have experience of enabling both and a successful track record of achieving powerful results.

Helping people become more confident, motivated & energised is a service we enjoy providing, we’re proud of our track record of delivering results .