What our clients say

Ebuyer had recently been purchased by a small group of individuals, and a new Senior Leadership Team formed. Those members of SLT who were part of the previous company engaged with Pro-Development on the Inspiring Leaders Bootcamp programme.

My personal experience of working with Pro-Development was fantastic. The staff were incredible, they made you feel at home straight away, and their insights into you just by saying the first ‘Good Morning’ shows how skilled they are at their craft. The course helped me understand my managerial style better, helped my understand my communication style better, how to communicate with others better and what motivates me as an individual. These insights were incredible.

I can’t really describe the value that working with Pro-Development brought to me, especially at that moment in time as well. Abi and the team were just so supportive of everyone and amazing cheerleaders for us all.

It sounds cheesy to talk about a ‘journey’, but whatever journey I was on, Pro-Development were there every step of way, and I cannot thank them enough for their help, support, guidance and inspiration along the way.

I sincerely hope that I get the opportunity to work with Pro-Development again in the future, and would recommend them to anyone who is willing to listen. Thank you.

Beyondly has always placed employee satisfaction at the heart of the business and as a result, benefits from a highly engaged workforce and a positive culture.  The team has nearly doubled in size in the last 5 years, and one of the challenges this has presented is maintaining the small team feel, consistency in approach across line managers, and the positive culture.  We have engaged with Pro-Development in a number of areas, some of our line managers have completed training courses, the whole team has done the DiSc profiling and this was then used to feed into small team walking days with the aim of enhancing cross-team collaboration and relationships.  One of the team also participated in the Remarkable Leadership Programme.  Michelle and Will initially described this to me as ‘transformational’ – I was a little sceptical, however, that is exactly how our team member has described it.  She has got so much out of it and been on a real journey of personal discovery.

All the PD team we have interacted with have been a pleasure.  Engaging and fun and it’s clear they know their stuff! As a result of the programmes/activities we’ve done with PD we have seen improvements in the skills of our line managers, a greater understanding across the whole team of different communication styles and for our team member who completed the Remarkable Leadership Programme, she has highlighted that she feels she can add greater value to the business with a shift in her responsibilities – something that I can absolutely see the potential with.  She is building the documented case for this as we speak.

It’s clear that the PD team are very passionate about their work and the quality of the support we have received from them is a reflection of this.

When we first reached out to Pro-Development, we were facing challenges with the leadership team. We wanted to empower our leaders and enhance collaboration within our teams, but we were struggling to find the right approach and expertise to guide us. Our goal was to build a more connected, motivated, and high-performing team, and we knew we needed support from experts who truly know and understand us!

We engaged with Pro-Development on a bespoke leadership walk/team building activity. Right from the start, the experience of working with them has been incredibly positive. Michelle from Pro-Development took the time to understand our unique needs to enable her approach to bring the best out of all that attended. As always Michelle brought her enthusiasm and knowledge with her and made the day not only insightful but enjoyable!

On a personal level, the programme helped me reflect on my leadership style, and I developed new skills to communicate more effectively with our leadership team.

For our business, the impact has been transformative. Three major outcomes we have seen include:

• Improved team morale – Engagement levels have risen, and our teams feel more connected and valued.
• Increased productivity – With better collaboration and clear communication, meetings and projects are running more smoothly and efficiently.
• And the most important for our business and what we wanted to get out of the day – Enhanced leadership skills – Our managers are more confident and capable in their roles, which has a positive ripple effect throughout the business.

What I have valued most about working with Pro-Development is their commitment to our success. They have gone above and beyond to ensure the day met our needs, and their support did not end when the day was over—they continue to work with us and offer valuable insights. It has been a rewarding experience that has truly made a difference in our business.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Pro-Development to any business looking to empower their team 😊

I joined a course with Pro Development through my employment with Ebuyer. I was a manager of a big team through progression within the business, and never had any training. This led me to a position where I understand the business and it’s goals, but not necessarily the proper way of dealing with correct scenarios. I knew how to deal with business and staff, but never knew how unique each member was and how each scenario needed to be deal with differently.

Due to this, I went on the Leadership and Management course in York with Pro Development. The experience was nothing short of fantastic, I was nervous going into this course due to it being completely new to me and doing learning for the first time in several years, I was never great in a classroom environment growing up, but this was completely different, refreshing and a great way of learning.

Personally, the program helped me develop and come out of my shell and understand my style a lot more. It taught me that every manager is good for different reasons, we’re not all the same and have unique characteristics that help us perform correctly in our jobs.

It also benefitted me within my role at Ebuyer, and it benefitted the people I worked with in many ways. It taught me every scenario is different; everything needs dealing with carefully and other people need different support. It also taught me a lot about dealing with difficult scenarios, being a young manager I often struggled trying to lead and mentor people older than me, due to them being pushy with my guidance. This course helped me with that, it helped me show them different ways so they felt less taught, and more coached along.

I valued the full experience start to finish, this was fantastic for me. Abbie was great, thoroughly helped me and made me feel comfortable within the course.

 

We have worked with Michelle and her team at Pro Development for many years and the professional service and customer support we receive is always outstanding. The team at Pro Development are experts in supporting SMEs and their warm and accessible approach leaves delegates on their programs inspired and confident to take their learnings into their everyday roles.

 

Recently Michelle supported our Junior Board at Benenden Health as they transitioned from one project into the next with members to debrief and offboard, new members to onboard, and team to build. This required reflective workshops, coaching, an experiential day at Ripley Castle, setting standards, having honest conversations and holding on another to account. Michelle brought energy, enthusiasm and her expertise to this piece of work and it left a lasting imprint on the new Junior Board.

We are keen to provide our management team with skills to lead and manage their teams and bring about improvements in the business.  Unfortunately we have not had the budget so far to be able to provide training to the whole team but instead have identified those who would most benefit from the Skills Bootcamp programme.

The Pro Development team have been amazing from alerting us in the first instance to the Bootcamp and the funding that was available and with good communication prior to, during and at the end of the programme from Abi who was delivering the course.

The two participants who have attended the programme have approached it enthusiastically and have got a lot out of it.  One attendee was new to managing a team, the other had been in the role for 12-18 months but both came away from the training having learnt new skills and benefited from the knowledge sharing with other participants, particularly through the Action Learning Groups.  They are also noticeably more confident in their interactions with their teams.

We have worked with Pro Development now for several years and love their approach.  They are really invested in working with us to identify the desired outcomes of any training or projects and then delivering on these.

I attended the Inspiring Leaders Boot Camp 6-month course to help understand myself better in the workplace with regards to my managerial style and learning skills to assist in managing others and managing time

Everyone was approachable and answered questions fairly.

The course made me think about how others work and how I interact with them.  Outcomes of the course include creating a calmer environment to work in, learning to delegate tasks better and learning to have more time for myself.

The thing I valued the most at my time with Pro-Development was the ease of joining in and the hospitality given.

This course has exceeded my expectations. The course content was great and really helpful, but the way in which it was delivered was fantastic. The combination of different activities kept us all engaged and the variety was really good. It has been without a shadow of a doubt the best, most engaging course I have been on. Lee and Abi at truly fantastic at making everyone feel included and heard.

I feel much better about myself and my worth. I will take these skills with me in my
future. I am very fortunate to have done this course and I really feel I enjoyed it. I cannot praise Lee and Abi enough they are fabulous!

All sessions were clear, well planned and flowed well. Allowed time and discussions when questions were raised. Sessions were full and engaging. Good biscuit selection!

This course has had a big impact on me. It’s empowered me to do really important self reflection on who I am as a leader and continue to grow within work and life. Lee and Abi have both been sensational themselves, offering a really thought provoking and practical course which has really built my skills and confidence. I’m also very grateful to my fellow learners for great insights in the ALG sessions.

I have found the programme really great. The group as a whole were supportive and helpful. You build the trust between each other which is encouraged by the trainers. I will miss the value of the ALG’s. This is the best training that I have received.

Thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, the course was an “experience” rather than a training course. Lee and Abi present with such animation and enthusiasm you cannot help being drawn into the subject matter. Hope to attend further courses in the future!

The training allowed me to think more critically than before and look for things to continuously improve. I learnt to be more self reflective – very thing for me was learning about forms of communication. Pro-Development were engaging and excellent throughout.

Very positive impact – the training helped me to look at things from a different perspective.
It was a good learning curve. I feel the program opened my eyes to look at things in a different way.

Exceeded my expectations as to what I’d get out of it, with building in confidence and highlighting lots more things to build on to become a better leader.

Joanne Baker has been a brilliant teacher. Very patient and approachable. Able to apply what we have learned not just to our work life, but our personal life too.
It really opened my eyes into the person I am. Not only that but my communication skills have changed a lot and able to read tone and voice to get best results.

The training has been a huge eye opener for me and has had a massive impact on the way that I handle almost every situation as a leader within Schneider. I believe it has equipped me with the tools I require to continue to grow and progress in my career.

It’s been a well structured course. It has had team debates, good interactions, creating a good team environment enabling great team discussions. I believe as well that the ALGs were fantastic and I would love to continue these. I believe could bring great benefits to the site. Should have more one to ones. Wouldn’t be team leader if I did not have mine. All modules were well presented and the booklets had all the information we needed.

The course in general was engaging, I feel I have learned a lot about myself more than just being a team leader some personal aspects too. I’ve grown in confidence in my work environment and home life.

The outlook I have from this whole course is that it has helped me tremendously, Joanne’s support and coaching has been second to none. My whole mindset has changed and I believe I am now closer to the team leader I need to be and who my team need me to be. The tools and models we have used throughout the course have already been implemented into my role.

Training content was good, interactive activity got us engaged and made the sessions very different.
The training has given me loads of skills and tools to be a more effective leader. It has challenged my thinking and made me more aware of my actions and how my team perceive me.