Niki Dole

What is your role at Learning Cog?

“I am an associate trainer and I do all sorts of leadership development and management training, and I’m also a licensed practitioner for Insights. I’ve been delivering insights for between seven and eight years. That’s my favorite thing to deliver. Which is why I wanted to work with learning Cog because they do lots of insights. I also do other leadership management training for all different companies and some of my own clients as well. I do lots of work with first line managers, people who are just stepping into leadership and management, but no one’s ever taught how to do it. It’s great seeing people have that light bulb moment when they learn how to manage teams.”

Describe your training style.

“Very interactive. There’s lots of talk, lots of activity for them. To me, I think the most important thing is everybody’s involved. And obviously understanding insights you respect the fact that some people are going to be more involved than others and that’s okay, but you have to find a way for everyone to feel like they’re part of it. Whether I deliver online or face to face, it will always include lots of small conversations, big conversations, little bit of self-reflection time, time for people to think or make notes and time for people to sort of stand up and move around the room and get involved. I also try really hard with everything I deliver to make it really relatable for them. I think it needs to have a lot of practical elements and apply that to the real life situation.”

Who inspires you?

“Stephen Bartlett, and the people that he interviews. I love podcasts and I find him very humble, considering his success and his wealth. I love some of the guests he has on and he’s not afraid to ask the difficult questions and he’ll really go there which I really love. I find him quite inspiring considering his background. In terms of people I know, I worked with a Director who was just so engaging, so consistently enthusiastic that she was contagious, she had this way of inspiring you without her even realising she was doing it. It wasn’t intentional. It wasn’t deliberate. It was just her personality and the nature of the way she liked to communicate with you. It always made me feel good.”

Motivational quote

‘You get what you repeat’

‘What you permit you promote’

‘Don’t mistake kindness for weakness’

‘Believe you can and you’re half way there’