The Power of Listening

>> Event Overview

Many of us merely ‘hear’ and fail to really ‘listen’. Effective listening can have a profound effect on all our interpersonal relationships at work and home. In this session Nick Thomas brings together his expertise from the worlds of sales and coaching to help improve awareness of the importance of effective listening, and some key skills and tools to improve performance in multiple different environments.

>> Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand the power of listening in multiple different work and life contexts.
• Be able to adapt your level of listening and listening focus to different contexts and environments.
• Understand that effective listening is a ‘learned skill’ that you can develop.

>> Speaker Biography

Nick offers a unique combination of skills in the UK insurance training sector – an industry sales specialist and a widely qualified professional coach and trainer. Nick is an Economics graduate with over 25 years corporate insurance broking experience. He was a highly successful sales producer in the UK broking market before progressing into regional and then national sales leadership roles. As National Development Director at HSBC, Nick was one of only 40 people from a global workforce of 265,000 selected as part of the STARS programme to recognise exceptional performance. He is a highly trained consultative sales specialist, and his experience includes a secondment with a major management consultant to design a best practice sales process.

In the mid-2000s, Nick developed a chronic health condition; his journey to recovery fostered a new range of interests, and a passion for health, and performance. He studied widely, qualifying as a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), obtaining a Diploma in Life Coaching, before going on to study Corporate/Business Coaching with The Coaching Academy. He is also a qualified Holistic Lifestyle Coach and Advanced Exercise Coach. Nick has worked in a self-employed capacity in training, coaching, and consulting since 2017, including as a specialist adviser in Insurance sector M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) sector. He set up Nick Thomas & Associates in 2020 in response to demand from his industry network for training solutions designed and delivered by people with a background of working in the industry.

Nick Thomas & Associates provides up to the minute training and coaching solutions with a particular focus on the challenges of the modern insurance professional, across sales, communication, and soft skills; technical insurance; customer service; management and leadership; performance, resilience, and health.

Nick Thomas partners with handpicked Associates, selected for their subject matter expertise, allied to first class training skills.

All training programmes are designed specifically to align to client needs and delivery overseen by Nick Thomas.

Clients include major insurers and brokers, a major global Insurer ‘broker proposition’, broker network groups, insurance recruitment consultants, MGAs, Mutuals and local insurance institutes across the country.