Lead. Inspire. Action
When you get an email from
Neil Laughton you know
something exciting is about to
happen and recently I received
just such an email. For those of
you that have been readers for
a while you may remember the
interview with Neil back in issue
3 entitled Bravo Two Hero.
Neil is probably the most interesting person
I have had the pleasure of spending time
with, he is an adventurer and entrepreneur.
He has climbed the highest mountain on
each continent (Everest more than once),
crossed the Sahara, been to both the
North and South Poles, circumnavigated
the UK on a jet ski, flown a car to from here
to Timbuktu (yes I did mean flown) and
plays polo on a penny farthing just for fun
amongst many, many other things.
When he is not doing madcap things he
finds time to work on a number of his
business interests and it was about one of
these businesses that he emailed me.
Laughton & Co is a bespoke business
development resource, founded and led by
Neil who draws on his 30 years experience
in leadership roles in the military, in
business and on his many adventurous
expeditions, Neil and his team of training
staff, executive coaches, speakers and
adventurers offer bespoke learning &
development programmes, speakers for
special events and exciting adventures
for businesses and their employees. Neil
got in touch to ask me if I would help
him out (alarm bells started to ring) as
he was putting together a new one day
leadership and teamwork course that
he wanted some guinea pigs to try out
on. I can’t remember if I willingly agreed
or just accepted my fate but either way
I was booked on with a number of other
business leaders from Neil’s black book.
The joining instructions included the
following:
All safety equipment, overalls and helmets
will be provided.
Parts of the day will be conducted outside
and we want to ensure that you keep warm
& dry so the following items in a holdall bag
are essential:
1. Pair of walking boots / socks
2. Outdoor jacket / trousers (rainwater
resistant ideally)
3. Spare set of warm clothes (in case of
accidental immersion in the swimming
pool - a shower & towel would be
provided in this unfortunate scenario!)
4. Hat / gloves (optional)
Alarm bells were ringing loud and clear
at this stage.
building a giant frame to knock over some
barrels, archery, putting together toy cars,
meditation and building a tower out of
spaghetti……..to name just a few activities.
As someone who has been on hundreds
of courses I have to say that this one was
one of the most enjoyable and engaging
that I have done. There was a good mix
of theory and practical activities but more
importantly there was a no nonsense
approach to feedback from Neil and his
team. They didn’t dress it up, they told it
exactly how it was and I know that I was
not the only one to learn some valuable
lessons from the day.
If you want to know more about Neil you
can read his interview in Re: Magazine
online or to find out more about the
courses on offer visit his website:
laughton.co
By Jason Edge
I don’t want to give too much away about
the detail of the day in case you are
interested in taking advantage of Neil and
his team’s service but I can say that it did
include, fa