About
University Staff Development
Is a collaboration between Alistair Duncan and Toby Buckle who between them have worked with many university departments to grow management capability, build staff resilience, facilitate strategy development and help teams collaborate and communicate effectively.
We deliver innovative staff development to enable individuals and teams to achieve high performance, be resilient and work together well.
We bring pragmatism to what is sometimes considered a pretty wooly area of development.
We make sure that staff are able to apply theory in practice and take into account the complexity of people, the organisational context and the situation at the time.
Our Mission
To equip leaders and teams by giving them a different way of thinking.
Toby Buckle
Toby helps to develop better leaders and teams that can cope with pressure, be flexible in how they work and respond effectively to challenging situations. He first became interested in leadership in the early 90s studying Bsc Hons in Management Science at UMIST. He has held management and senior management positions, he was a director at a company ranked by the Times as one of the Top 100 Companies To Work For.
For over a decade he has been responsible for coaching and developing staff from across the UK as well as in Europe and Asia in the private, public and social enterprise sectors.He’s worked with household names including National Geographic and Mediacom, public sector organisations such as HM Prison Service, Great Ormond Street Hospital and the NHS, and influential charities from Save the Children to Help the Aged.
Toby uses the tools and knowledge he’s gained through 25 years of training and coaching to help others get the heart of what leading and team working means to them, producing results that are both lasting and meaningful.
Toby sits on the board of the Better Brighton city think tank, has previously been chair of trustees for charity EverymanUk and sat on the steering group for the Social Enterprise Network and the interview panel for senior appointments at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
“Two things excite me: helping people to work well together and supporting them to develop their leadership, resilience and performance” — Toby Buckle,
Alistair Duncan
Alistair knows that when we’re more engaged in our work, we are more satisfied, more fulfilled and more balanced. He understands that leading with integrity, clarity and impact is essential. He recognises that helping others to create balance and fulfilment in work changes everything — for both them and those around them. For Alistair, helping leaders and teams tap into their true potential and achieve their highest aspirations is his biggest motivation. Seeing his work click for people is a real buzz.
Alistair spent 25 years in the business world, working with top corporations such as American Express (where he developed and delivered leadership training) and IBM (where he led their Top Talent programme).
Beyond the boardroom, he has vast third sector experience running leadership workshops for enterprises including Brighton-based Whitehawk Inn and Exeter’s acclaimed Phoenix Art Centre.
Alistair has quite the list of credentials, but if you asked him to name his biggest achievement it would simply be seeing people from all walks of life work out who they are, enabling them to act with purpose and authenticity.
“Being in a room with a group of people and helping them make the changes that matter to them is where I’m happiest” — Alistair Duncan
Qualifications:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® practitioner
7 Habits, Stephen Covey Institute Situational Leadership®
IBM Facilitation for Trainers
NLP Master Practition
What they said about us:
“I’ve been to lots of staff development and different training over the years and this just feels completely different. It’s really practical because you are giving us tools, but more importantly, you are giving us completely different ways of thinking – ideas that would never come into my own head. I don’t think I’ve ever had this level of enjoyment and experience in any staff development. You guys have just got a different approach.”
Manager, School of Business, Management and Economics, University of Sussex
Get in touch
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