Welcome to GJR Performance Solutions
GJR Performance Solutions was formed in 2018 by Geraint Richards. Formerly Performance Director of GB Wheelchair Tennis, Geraint led GB to the number 1 position in Europe; winning 28 Grand Slam titles in five years; and bringing home a record-breaking six medals from the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.
Geraint utilises his unique experience of performance Paralympic sport to deliver dynamic, fun-packed, interactive team building sessions; shares inspirational, motivational and entertaining presentations and keynotes on a variety of topics including his own story; demonstrates how to maximise potential and deliver performance under pressure.
An understanding of the diversity of each team member
All our teams should be created with members from a multitude of backgrounds, with a multitude of experience, skills and opinions, but they have to understand that is WHY they are the team and what it means to be a successful one.
Recognition of their strengths and skills
Your team is important, but how often do you check they are set-up in the best possible way, with each individual in their strongest possible role, do you know what each member considers their personal strengths and the preferred or most enjoyed role?
Awareness of how these work together
The essential component to any team’s success is communication, we always need to make sure the conduits between team members are open, receptive and understanding.
Practical guidance that can taken back to the workplace
Stronger team bonds and understanding are essential to team building, but we also make sure team members take skills and techniques back into the workplace in order to enhance team performance.
Why GJR Performance Solutions?
We give inspirational and motivational keynote presentations delivered through stories that are funny and inspiring with powerful messages and learnings from our experiences with Paralympic sport and delivering unprecedented success at an elite level.
We provide unique, effective and fun team building sessions delivered within the framework of the challenges and rewards of understanding diversity and delivered within the context of the social model of disability.
We run interactive and fun workshops on key topical subjects including Trust, Engagement, Diversity, Disability Awareness, and Accessibility and Inclusion. All delivered in a relaxed learning environment with fun experiential activities.
Working closely with you to understand your concerns, needs and objectives, we use our expertise to ensure that these sessions draw out specific key learnings.
What we do
Keynote and Motivational Speaking
Keynotes (30-60 mins)
Geraint tells the story of his experience of leading the GB Wheelchair Tennis programme and taking the team to the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games touching upon important topics such as:
- authentic leadership and the importance of trust;
- focussing on the individuality of each player;
- appreciating the benefits of a diverse team;
- the importance of clear communication;
- planning and preparation;
- monitoring and reviewing;
- showing courage and resilience;
- being the best that we can be;
- developing Strategy to achieve the Vision;
- the importance of engagement in developing culture.
Geraint mixes light hearted stories with strong messages which are entertaining, interesting and relevant.
Team Building
Team Builds (4-6 hours)
One of our most popular team building event involves delegates playing tennis with a variety of adaptations:
- wearing ear plugs and ear defenders;
- using different simulation goggles and a ball with a bell inside it;
- doing various exercises in a tennis wheelchair.
This is a unique combination of experiencing a well-known and easily accessible sport with the opportunity to appreciate adaptations for several impairment groups.
A team building exercise is linked to each experience, for example:
- the deaf tennis experience is followed by a team build exercise focussing specifically on communication techniques;
- the visually-impaired tennis experience is followed by an exercise focussing on trust and communication;
- the wheelchair tennis experience is preceded by a problem solving exercise and followed by an activity focussing on trust, communication and individual skills.
Training Workshops
Training Workshops (2-3 hours)
Trust – the Foundation of Team Engagement
Geraint links his experiences as Performance Manager of a Paralympic sport and leads an interactive workshop defining trust and using fun, practical activities to demonstrate the importance of trust and how it is built and also how it can be destroyed.
Disability Awareness, Diversity, Accessibility and Inclusion
Geraint links his experience of disability sport with important messages on these topics. Focussing on simple yet clear definitions while engaging delegates in fun practical exercises to help create genuine awareness of the challenges and barriers that society places towards people with different impairments.
Tailored or Bespoke
Our Keynotes, team builds and workshops are completely flexible and can be tailored to the specific needs or your organisation to make sure that we get the right blend of experience, activities, and delivery.
For example, we can offer:
- A keynote delivered around any current focus of your organisation;
- Keynotes tailored for and pitched at specific target audiences be they leadership teams, departmental teams, volunteers etc;
- A team build experience with a disability/diversity and inclusion awareness experience;
- A disability/diversity and inclusion training session with a team build element included;
- We can also tailor the debrief of the team build exercises to suit your specific and immediate needs.
Within each event, we highlight the diversity of teams within organisations and practical methods of using diversity to empower teams in their working environments.
Meet the Team
The Need
In the world of corporate development, team-building exercises, motivation and training workshops can be incredibly important. Not only do they provide the immediate experience of the activities but they also develop group skills, communication skills and bonding. The activity is the means to the end – a high-impact learning experience in a fun, interactive session. Team-building programmes provide realistic experiences that empower individuals to contribute to common goals.
The main goals of team-building are to improve productivity and motivation. Taking employees out of the office helps groups break down political and personal barriers, eliminate distractions, and have fun. The benefits of team-building programs are so significant that many corporations have incorporated teambuilding strategies into their standard training curriculum.
Motivational keynotes delivered through storytelling can be inspirational and uplifting whilst providing powerful messages on key organisational objectives. Many of the messages are delivered through our experiences of elite sport putting a different and interesting perspective on messages that are usually delivered from a corporate standpoint to the corporate world.
Our training workshops are focussed on topical areas that are key to team engagement and performance. They are interactive and fun and allow delegates to interact and push their own boundaries in order to find a way to succeed.
Some of these benefits of our programmes include:
Improved morale and leadership skills
Happy personnel make happy teams, happy teams build skills and confidence.
Finding the barriers that thwart creativity
Better relationships break down barriers between team members and open-up creativity
Clearly defined objectives and goals
Making sure your team understands its direction and objectives and the important role that colleagues play in that.
Improved organisational productivity
Strong, cohesive teams with excellent communication improve productivity and profit.
Identifying a team’s strengths and weaknesses
Identifying and minimising weaknesses is just as important as developing strengths.
Improved ability to communicate and problem solve
Problems need teams to solve them, you need trust, confidence and improved communication
Testimonials
CIPD Wales conference
Excellent inspirational and motivational speakers who were able to present the subject area very ably.
Very powerful and completely inspiring. A fabulous way to end the conference.
All outstanding – what a way to finish the day. I left feeling inspired and on a high.
Excellent, motivational, funny, emotional and the messages that they provided will stay with me and I have shared at home and at work.
Absolute highlight. Inspiring and relevant on the diversity and inclusion agenda.
Probably the best keynote at any CIPD event I have attended. Inspiring and on message with clear links to HR. Fantastic!
Strong, personal and honest speakers. Bringing diversity and inclusion barriers in the workplace to life.
Really engaging and inspiring. Have been to many presentations from the sporting world before which have been difficult to relate to the workplace, I thought that this was very relatable.
Best part of the day, without doubt! Inspiring and probably the best closing to a conference I have ever experienced.
Testimonials
Welsh Government
An enjoyable and thought provoking day of team building and awareness. Very different (in a positive way) to the usual offerings.
Brought diversity and inclusion issues to life far better than sitting in a classroom.
Testimonials
West Wales Roadshow
Good to hear how theory translates into practice, Excellent messages reinforcing strategic leadership and performance management
Excellent speaker – insightful presentation. Fantastic glimpse into a world that I’ve never experienced. Excellent speaker and presentation
Testimonials
Rhondda Housing Association
Geraint’s session at our away day was really well received by our staff. He delivered it in a way that was funny and inspiring and it gave some powerful messages around difference and diversity which were delivered through some excellent stories and reflections from his experience in the sporting world of coaching. We would definitely recommend Geraint!
Our Clients
