Company: Antoinette Oglethorpe Ltd
Company Description: Antoinette Oglethorpe Ltd. is a multi-award-winning training and coaching company. Founded by a former L&D Director for Accenture, Avanade and FTSE 500 companies, the company specialises in career management and mentoring. Clients include Red Stripe (part of the Heineken group), the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Services.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Mentor or Coach of the Year – Business
 Nomination Title: Antoinette Oglethorpe
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below:
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
Antoinette Oglethorpe is a multi-award-winning consultant, coach, speaker and author. She runs a training and coaching company specialising in career management and mentoring. Antoinette’s vision is a world of work where engaged people have great careers and deliver amazing results for their organisation. Since 2020, Antoinette’s business has grown from £138K to £270K providing career development support to 30 national and international organisations. 80% of clients buy more than once and stay 2-3 years.
Championing enjoyability and employability
Unlike traditional career support which focuses on job moves, Antoinette’s passionate about empowering people to gain satisfaction and skill development in their current organisation. In the past two years, her team has delivered 115 workshops achieving a net promoter score of 74% (vs. industry average of 71%). Those 1200 people are using her unique models, tools and templates to have meaningful development conversations. As a result, organisations like the World Health Organisation and Zurich Insurance are benefitting from the productivity that results when people are happier at work.
Innovative Solution to Scaling Delivery
To provide a cost-effective solution to scaling delivery, Antoinette has developed a certification programme which enables organisations to train 160 managers a year for the same budget as 40.
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
To provide a cost-effective solution to scaling delivery, Antoinette has developed a Certification Programme approved by the Institute of Leadership and Management. Certification allows organisations to scale from 40 to 160 managers per year across different geographies and time zones for the same budget of £20,000. Certification involves a unique approach which takes participants from knowing nothing about career conversations to delivering an engaging learning experience. A recent achievement is a programme with the British Medical Journal (BMJ)
Case Study – BMJ
In May 2021, BMJ received only 56% favourable responses to the employee survey question “I have access to resources to progress my career.”
Wishing to upskill managers, BMJ hired Antoinette’s team to certify nine ‘Career Mentors’ to deliver her ‘Confident Career Conversations’ programme.
The group trained 40 managers with great success, achieving an average net promoter score (NPS) of 90% (vs an industry average of 71%).
Outstanding feedback included:
‘Thank you for a very well-delivered training. It was much better delivered by peers than an external provider. I have encouraged all my managers to attend.’
Colleagues have asked when the next sessions will run, and L&D have created a waiting list. The plan is to train up to 160 managers per year.
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- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Antoinette passionately believes that empowering people to take ownership of their career development translates through to success for the organisation as well as the community they serve. Despite being a small business, Antoinette creates an impact on a global scale. Her supporting document and attached links outline how she has supported national and international charities as well as her clients. It shows:
Career Management and Mentoring Specialist: Antoinette has a clear mission and vision of a world where people operate at their best
Recognised Thought Leader: She is a number one bestselling author. Antoinette’s content-rich website contains approximately 40 hours of free content as well as resources to download.
Global Keynote Speaker: She is invited to speak at events all over the world.
Multi-Award-Winning Entrepreneur: She has been recognised with multiple awards.
Outstanding Client Success: She achieves a Net Promoter Score of 74% (vs. industry average of 71%). 80% of her clients buy more than once and stay as clients for 2-3 years.
Unique Tools and Templates: She has created unique tools and templates. which form the basis of her workshops. Her innovative programmes are approved by the Institute of Leadership and Management
400% Increase in Scale of Delivery: Certification programme allows training of 160 people for the same budget as 40, reaching across different geographies and time zones.
Outstanding Business Growth: These achievements have led to significant growth in her business, successes she shares through her charitable giving projects such as a pro-bono programme for Make-a-Wish UK.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 246 words used.
Career development is one of the most powerful tools to make a difference in retention and organisation results.
Redefining career development as ‘enjoyability’ and ‘employability’
A key challenge is an outdated mindset that career development is all about promotions and pay rises. A traditional approach to career support focuses on changing jobs. Antoinette’s approach is different:
“The average person spends 90,000 hours at work. That is too long to be unhappy. Career development is no longer just about jobs and promotions. It is about ‘enjoyability’ (the satisfaction employees get) and ‘employability’ (the skills and capabilities they are developing).”
Employees are the only ones who can define what success looks like for them. They need to take ownership of their career development with support from their managers and organisations.
Antoinette’s experience is that 92% employees who had a career development conversation felt more positive about their future; 62% employees who had a career development conversation were more likely to stay with organisation.
Removing fear from career conversations
Meaningful rethinking or redefinition of careers and development begins with conversation. As a result, managers must develop the skills to have a career conversation when they don’t have all the answers and may not be able to give the person what they are looking for. Delivery of 115 Career Conversation Workshops across 30 organisations has given 1200 people the practical tools and skills they need. Certifying in-house professionals increases the capacity four-fold from 40 per organisation to 160.
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