Keith Edmeades

Since matriculating at Jeppe Boys High in Johannesburg, my work has taken me through five careers, each with its own learning curve; and each in a way that has enriched my life enormously.

For the first four and a half years after matriculating, I served as a management trainee, firstly at a company in Johannesburg and then at a company in Zimbabwe and finally for a building contractor in London.

Secondly, after working, as a draftsman in two London-based architectural firms, I spent the next five years as a full time student of architecture in London and was elected as a full member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a member of the Architects’ Registration Council of the United Kingdom. A year later I founded my own architectural practice in London, engaged initially, on residential developments. During this period, I was also engaged as a Consultant Architect for a London-based practice and was appointed to the panel of private architects serving Surrey County Council’s Department of Architecture.

Thirdly, I taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. During this time I was also engaged as a consultant to the Construction Industry Training Board. Here, I was heavily involved in developing material and facilitating workshops throughout the UK, in preparation for the legislated changeover to the Metric System, in the building industry.

Fourthly, At the end of these assignments, I returned to South Africa to found a consultancy engaged in factory audits and the development of operating & Quality Assurance procedures for manufacturing organisations.

Fifthly, in 1980 I founded Effective Executives, a management training company focused on public and in-company courses which I headed until 2007 when I moved into the field of one to one coaching of individuals in the same range of interpersonal skills I earlier covered in my workshops.

Finally, having realised that training in the field of interpersonal skills is completely inadequate if we are, through the services that we offer, to have a greater influence on the bottom line results of our clients’ organisations. Accordingly, we have redirected our focus to the design and implementation of one to one coaching interventions working with key individuals and focussing exclusively on a predetermined improvement, in measurable terms, to the organisation’s bottom line performance.