Admiral managers train with Welsh rugby stars

Two hundred managers from the Admiral Group attended an away day with a difference recently when they were joined by four of Wales’ top rugby players.

Kevin Morgan, Ceri Sweeney, Luke Charteris and Rhys Williams helped the Group with a series of team building and coaching workshops put on as part of an annual away day organised by freshbaked™ Corporate.

Held at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea, a series of exciting workshops were designed by freshbaked to inspire confidence and equip the delegates with the leadership and management tools they need in their day-to-day roles.

Following a series of theory based morning sessions on topics including coaching for high performance, successful change management, managing projects that get results, the players took part in a number of practical sessions aimed at giving delegates the chance to try out their new skills.

Vanessa White, managing director of freshbaked Corporate, said: "The ability to retain learning is more powerful when it is applied. The exercises our delegates carried out engendered teamwork, leadership and decision making skills, all of which are fundamental in their day-to-day roles.

"The players, supplied by our sister company Total Sport Management, were a great asset to the day. They energized the group, shared their own experiences with the team and made sure that everyone had a lot of fun."

A role play actor was also on hand for a handling difficult conversations workshop which provided thought-provoking scenarios to develop the managers' ability to be objective when tackling new and difficult sessions.

Added Vanessa: "There is no better way to learn than through experience. Role play and forum theatre provided participants with opportunities to try out solutions using real life situations in a stimulating learning environment."

Gareth Roberts, Central Training Manager at Admiral Group, said: "Following a successful event in 2007 we again turned to freshbaked Corporate to help with our annual manager's away day. The theme for the day was 'pushing the envelope' and our brief to freshbaked was to help us push the boundaries and extend our managers' current limits of performance.

"freshbaked met our brief and created a set of meaningful and exciting courses that challenged our managers whilst having fun. We're looking forward to seeing the results in the workplace."