John Shackleton became one of Europe’s top inspirational speakers after achieving phenomenal success as a successful businessman, international sports coach, property developer, British (and now NZ) Masters swimming champion, executive coach to CEO’s and MD’s; quite a background!

John is a performance specialist and author of "Life is for Living" and "Inspire your Team".  He became one of Europe’s top inspirational speakers after achieving phenomenal success as a successful businessman, international sports coach, property developer, British (and now NZ) Masters swimming champion, executive coach to CEO’s and MD’s; quite a background!  He's also one of just five NZ professional speakers who have been accredited CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) and was named 2007 "Speaker of the Year" by National Speakers Assoc of NZ.

John explains the importance of controlling attitude, confidence, self-esteem and mental focus. “My passion is helping people to understand how improving these things greatly enhances their performance either as a producer themselves or a manager of others”. John’s style is energetic, amusing and hard hitting, using examples from business and sporting achievements (and failures!) and then adapting them to his audience’s environment. 

John Shackleton spent most of his teenage years training as a competitive swimmer but failed to reach international standard because of a lack of self-belief. “I now realise that I had all the skills and ability but I just didn’t believe that I was good enough.” Retiring from competition in his late teens, he became a coach and studied Sports Psychology. This eventually led him to coach the British Triathlon team to become European champions. It also persuaded him to get back in the water and he still competes today. In July 2000 he placed 5^th in both the 100m and 400m Freestyle events at the World Masters Swimming Championships. He swims faster now at the age of 50 than when in full training at 18 years old!

In the 1980’s he started a British based training company developing an impressive client list, including organisations like ICI, Rank Xerox, Securicor, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, etc. and it eventually became the premier company of it’s kind in the UK turning over more than £1,000,000. His role as MD of this company coupled with his sports psychology background led John to become one of the UK’s top business coaches, working with CEO’s and top executives from many blue chip companies including 3M,  SmithKline Beecham, Astra Zeneca & Pfizer.

His eighteen years experience in business and training, combined with his sports psychology background, have given John a unique style and an unrivalled ability to help individuals grow, develop and achieve more. His presentations use the latest human development technologies to help people excel and achieve new heights. “Most people really want to achieve greater things, but are held back by their own thinking, negative attitudes, limiting beliefs and fragile self esteem. I love helping people to harness the awesome power they have inside and use it to create outstanding results in their lives.”

John Shackleton is a powerful and inspiring speaker - he pulls no punches and knows what works from personal experience!

Raise your Game:

Organisations spend a large percentage of training budgets teaching a variety of communication and sales skills but few managers know how to instill the confidence that helps people get things done and clinch deals.

Fancy motivational theories don’t work when we have just had five failures in a row. What does help is good levels of self esteem, disciplined thinking, goal clarity, mental focus and the ability to visualise the success we want.

John’s Raise your Game presentation is a complete skills toolbox supplying practical guidance on:

• Attitude Control
• Improving self esteem
• Client psychology techniques
• Confidence for closing deals
• Correct mental focus
• Successful goal setting
• Measuring personal performance
• Effective Action plans

Great Leaders are Great Coaches:

Most people don’t know the buttons to press inside their own head to get higher levels of achievement. The sports coach finds those buttons and helps athletes motivate themselves to achieve ULTIMATE performance. The same applies to management. The last thing a manager wants to do is motivate their team every day. They need to know how to inspire employees to be self-motivated. It is not about teaching tasks, it is about coaching people to think differently and aspire to greatness.

John’s Great Leaders are Great Coaches talk is practical, interactive and fun and helps managers understand that success comes from:

• Coaching to boost self esteem
• Raising self-belief to facilitate learning
• Clarifying and then developing other’s goals
• Providing feedback effectively
• Spotting when people need coaching
• Learning from business models

Get Fit for Life:

Our success is in our own hands. If we want to change the results we are getting, we have to change our habits and actions. Not always an easy thing to do.