APPROACH

My approach to coaching and consultancy will be tailored to your specific needs. Often I will blend the role of coach and consultant according to the issues and circumstances in question. I also recognise that there is usually an overlap between work and personal issues. Challenges in one area can affect performance and behaviour in others. With your permission we can address both.

With a background as both a management consultant and coach (I have over 30 years of experience advising organisations and individuals, building on my London Business School roots) and a creative (I'm also an Architectural Association trained architect and a photographer) one of my strengths is genuinely understanding the diverse challenges - creative and otherwise - facing individuals and organisations and what it takes to succeed.

WHO I WORK WITH

I specialise in working with creatives (including many construction sector professionals such as architects and engineers), 'creativity conductors', and CEOs,  business owners and entrepreneurs.

Schneider Coaching specialises in helping creatives and others achieve their full potential.

The creatives who I work with range from those in design and architecture to those in the arts, media and fashion sectors.

If you're a creative, our focus may well be on helping you to achieve your full potential, both creative and more generally. Or there may be specific issues that you want to address.

As an individual you will have your unique strengths and challenges that require special attention. You may feel stuck or stagnant in your career. Or you may wish to improve your leadership skills, address creative blocks or find a better balance in your work-life routine. Depending on your needs, acting as both coach and consultant, I can work with you to help clarify your vision and goals, agree your career or business strategies, set out your next  steps, review your activities, build your confidence, and/or identify how you can more effectively manage your working relations with others. In the process I will aim to provide the tools and guidance necessary to help you achieve your personal and professional goals

I also work with 'creativity conductors'. These include people with responsibility for managing design and innovation and generally leveraging an organisation's creative resources

I am passionate about nurturing creative thinking in individuals and organisations who don't always see themselves as creative.

Sometimes becoming 'more creative' is about getting people to think differently, for example, using innovative and more effective ways of addressing and solving problems. In other instances it can be about developing 'creative' awareness or skills in a particular area. Or the focus maybe on putting in place the 'right' conditions for generating creativity and innovative thinking and how best to build a creative culture, nurture innovation, develop teams, remove hurdles, understand creative processes and / or leverage the potential of creative assets.

Whatever the context, I will work with you to nurture and develop your (and your team's ) creativity and creative thinking.

CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners often need to be creative in order to stay ahead of the competition, and to stay positive and energised in the face of endless challenges that don't always seem like opportunities.

In this context my role - as coach, consultant, creative thinker and general trusted advisor - may be to be there to bounce ideas off, to work through pressing issues, and/or to interrogate both strategic and creative matters. Or to provide a fresh perspective. Or to just listen.

As a creative management consultant who has worked with hundreds of small businesses as well as numerous larger organisations I can help with a wide range of business and creative issues. Using Positive Intelligence techniques I can also assist with challenges ranging from dealing with stress, to conflict management, managing relationships and building resilience. Most of us suffer from the negative consequences of our inner judges and saboteurs - which may range from hyper-achieving or over-controlling to being hyper rational, a stickler and /or an avoider - and we can work together to address these too.

“I used to have sympathy with the view that management consultants simply borrow your watch to tell you the time, only to walk off with it.

My experience with Schneider has been very different. Eric borrowed my watch, told me why it was running slightly out, then gave it back - pointing out that with a bit of cleaning it would be worth more than I had thought possible.

Eric Schneider gave my consultancy the kind of invaluable independent perspective that I hope we give to our clients”


Robert Smith, Jog Limited

“Eric is the only businessman I have met who is also both a genuinely skilled and observant “creative” and an effective and gritty strategic consultant, able intelligently and articulately to evaluate the needs and objectives of others on their own terms, rather than simply by reference to himself…

… throughout, I have also valued Eric’s ideas and contributions on diverse small issues such as logo-design, the content, tone & ‘pitch’ of web sites and brochures, aspects of overhead management and even preparation for important meetings and presentations.

What I like about Eric is that he is prepared to get to the nuts & bolts; he can bring real rigour to the table. He can also be relied on to take a step back from time to time and try to lift one’s head up to the horizon that lies ahead.”


Chris Agace Chalk Hill

“having taken a slightly sceptical approach to the process, I found the whole exercise very rewarding. Eric has the knack of getting to the nub of an issue quickly and without fuss giving us a clear set of issues to address”

Ian Yallop, Stephen George + partners

“I just thought you might like to know that Strides has got a new word doing the rounds: "Being Schneidered." It made me laugh. I want to become a word someday … Your presence has "unstuck" us and pushed us forward, for which I am extremely grateful.  Thank you and well done. I hope you enjoyed the process, others certainly did.”

Elizabeth Kavanagh

Head of HR, Stride Treglown

“Eric Schneider is an outstanding management and business consultant. Even his free up-front session gave me invaluable ideas for growing my business. In the paid consultancy which followed I have gained a clear idea of where I am heading and what I need to do the get there. I have already taken significant actions that are moving my business forward. Eric's consulting is worth its weight in gold”


Graham Price, CEO Abicord

“Eric distinguished our strengths and encouraged us to build upon them. We gained valuable insight into the perception of our company from our valued clients. (He) also taught to recognise bad habits, no matter how simplistic they may have appeared, and install good ones in their place."

Jon Eaglesham, Barr Gazetas

“The process has opened up many new fields of discussion within the office. Everybody on the staff enjoyed meeting Eric. Often now when we have a problem someone will say: 'what would Eric say?'!”

Alistair Barr, Barr Gazetas

"…Throughout this six month process Eric delivered insight, knowledge, financial acumen and most importantly intellectual challenge to the business planning process. The initial benefits are a practice reinvigorated, recharged and most importantly ambitious to face a new decade of challenge…”

Mark Hobson, Maber Architects

“Eric Schneider came highly recommended for the task; he exceeded expectations. Through his astute and tactful guidance we have and are achieving development ambitions which I would have not thought possible”

Lyn Edwards, GMW Architects

“… Eric's comprehensive grasp of business economics and real in-depth knowledge of our industry has meant that his findings and recommendations have been seen as authoritative across the firm. As a result even within a few months we have seen a massive improvements in morale, focus and productivity. We also now have a clear route map for expansion and an increase in profits that is ‘owned’ by all the team"

Nigel Spawton, Gray Baynes + Shew

"I had reached a plateau in my career progression and Eric has been very helpful in creating a framework for me to organise my thoughts and ambitions on how I could progress in the future.

Eric's warm and encouraging manner dispensing positive criticism has helped boost my confidence. The 360 degree review was very illuminating and helped me to develop ideas for what I should focus on going forward.

We covered a lot of ground during our sessions, which carried on successfully via video during lockdown. (Even when the) sessions were completed, Eric still took the time to check in on me and ensure that the office was aware of my progress."

Karen Fuller, Barr Gazetas

WHAT CLIENTS SAY …

In my coaching I am also very cognisant of the power of the mind and how ways of thinking can affect a person's behaviour and effectiveness. This includes how our internal 'saboteurs' and 'judges' can hold sway. A critical element will often be to ensure that the brain really is working as a friend and not a foe using Shirzad Chamine's Positive Intelligence techniques. These are transformational and can make a major difference in helping the initial positive results of the coaching and consultancy endure. Think of mental fitness as being as important as physical fitness.