Testimonials

“Karen has been an integral part of our organisation for over a decade, working across all business groups and employee levels with remarkable success. Karens guidance and training in performance management, leadership development and personal growth have significantly boosted employee confidence and competence, leading to tangible improvements in communication and productivity within our business. She is not only highly knowledgeable, but also engaging and inspiring. Karen consistently delivers her courses with enthusiasm and flair, making each session enjoyable and impactful for all participants. Personally, I have had the privilege of collaborating with Karen on multiple occasions, and her professionalism, expertise and passion for her work are truly commendable. It is always a pleasure to work with Karen, and I cannot speak highly enough of her dedication and effectiveness. Based on our long-standing relationship and the positive outcomes we have experiences, I wholeheartedly recommend Karen Tracy for any organization seeking a skilled and dynamic professional in the areas of leadership development and performance enhancement. Karens expertise and commitment will undoubtedly bring significant value to any team or business.”

The Manufacturing Technology Centre is a research and technology organisation focused on accelerating and de-risking the development of innovative manufacturing capability so that UK industry can safely adopt the technology and gain advantage over its global competitors. The company’s growth through the 8 years since it was formed has been exponential and it now employs over 600 staff, with 20-30% year-on-year growth anticipated in the medium term. With this growth comes significant challenges in the development of the management and leadership skills across the business, and the need for specialist coaching and mentoring. Over the past 5 years, Karen Tracey of Dunelm Business Consultants has worked with the MTC on a number of assignments ranging from coaching the senior executive team to working individually with promising, but inexperienced, team leaders. As part of my own development into a Director with responsibility for the management of 300 engineers, I have twice had periods of leadership coaching with Karen, benefiting from her broad management knowledge and experience, allied with her creative thoughts and explanations of appropriate new tools and techniques to use. As an individual, Karen exudes positivity and passion for what she does and for what her clients can personally achieve, which I have found has taken my own self-confidence and performance as a leader beyond what I recognised I could achieve. I have also asked her to take on assignments for me to help develop two cadres of managers that work for me and seen very significant developments of, and received many thanks and compliments about her coaching from – these staff. Above all, Karen helps you understand yourself and others and I will not hesitate to use her again in the future.

Our growth has necessitated the directors to develop the management team and engaging Dunelm Business Consultant has proven an extremely worthwhile decision. Developing leaders is not a simple task and what Dunelm provide is the expertise, independence and focus. They enabled us, as owner/directors, to make the brave step of starting to delegate key roles to those members of the team that show various qualities that can be developed and encouraging those individuals to grow as leaders of the business. The approach is really supportive, with Dunelm getting to understand us as a business, encouraging the participants (the directors and senior staff) and helping us to accept and work with our different styles and abilities. The whole process is like going on an expedition, not knowing how we are going to interact, how we will cope with the challenges along the way and coping with the uncertain outcome. Dunelm ensured that we learnt a lot about each other, changed our views on many things and built trust between the team. This will be a continuous journey because we will never arrive. We will be striving to improve, through all the challenges, a sustainable and rich blend of management talent for the future. Karen’s personality is very engaging but also challenging. Her ability to tease out issues and demonstrate leadership tools is exceptional and we would highly recommend Dunelm to any organisation wishing to develop their leadership or management team.

When members of your team stagnate having hit a ‘brick wall’ in their ability, but you know they can achieve more, ask Karen. She will unlock their true potential, and it is wonderful to see them flying high again. Karen and her team, have rejuvenated senior management leaders and whole department teams within the Group. She is the hidden sensation that has transformed our results in recent years.