Inclusion Hampshire – turning potential into growth
Inclusion Hampshire are the leading charity providing education services to young people across Hampshire. They specialise in offering mental health and well-being support to learners across their two sites; Inclusion School and Inclusion College. The sites provide a collaborative, learner-led approach to education enabling their learners to achieve recognised qualifications whilst also providing individual, emotional and academic support so that learners are equipped with the skills, self-belief and motivation to find their own pathway to success.
As Founder and CEO of Inclusion Hampshire, Cheryl Edwards motivates and is a constant for all those in the organisation regardless of the business challenges that she faces. Cheryl admits that this can be a lonely position to be in and that it had affected her morale and motivation, impacting on other areas of her life. This resulted in her losing confidence and questioning more about what she was was doing and whether she was the right person to move Inclusion forward.
Cheryl was introduced to ActionCOACH through a local networking group, she attended a group gifted coaching session and started working on a 1-2-1 basis with Natalie at the start of 2022. The coaching sessions provide Cheryl with an opportunity to review areas of the organisation with Natalie and encourages her to set aside time to plan to ensure she gets things done. With the tools Natalie has available for Cheryl to use she has been able to change, examine and assess a number of situations and move forward in a positive manner.
The senior team at Inclusion are also involved in coaching with group training sessions so they too benefit and learn from the toolkit Natalie has to offer. These group sessions have afforded Cheryl an insight into how aligned the team is to the culture of Inclusion. Prior to these sessions Cheryl felt the team were quite aligned but she has discovered that they are all in alignment and both she, and the team have found the sessions energising.
Some of those exercises have been fundamentally beneficial to us moving forward as an organisation
Natalie has helped Cheryl develop her skills when it comes to delegation and not only has Cheryl learnt how to delegate effectively but she also now trusts in her delegation. The confidence that has grown through this skill has meant that she no longer feels she needs to oversee every decision made and has allowed Inclusion to really grow. Cheryl has even been able to step back from the recruiting of staff members and has seen positive results from doing so.
After starting coaching Cheryl felt that she saw immediate changes in herself and these started to be noticed by others in the coming weeks and months. Cheryl always knew that there was potential for growth in Inclusion but was unsure of how they were going to unlock that growth. Since working with Natalie they have seen their turnover grow from £600K to £2.5million this year, an increase of 316%!
Anybody in business needs a partner that understands what they’re going through.
This growth has resulted in, amongst other things, Cheryl being able to increase her salary which has, in turn, improved her family life. Her family have also noticed a change in her. “They’ve noticed I’m more focused and realised that I’m going to achieve what I set out to achieve.”
I felt that I didn’t have the right skill set, I’d taken Inclusion to where I can, I’ve developed it to the best I could do and actually, I’ve gone beyond that and, you know, I have to pinch myself!
Formed in 2002, Xenogenix is now one of Salesforce’s exclusive ‘Crest’ Partners in the UK. In 2020, keen to grow the business quickly, the founders worked with Natalie Simms and her team at ActionCOACH WBF to set and meet aggressive growth targets.
