The Yellow Palette
"The Yellow Palette is a one-man careers management consultancy, created by Richard Yates, which plans to do exactly what its name implies. Yates chose yellow for sunshine while the palette reflects the talents possessed by individuals that "can be mixed, matched and re-mixed time and time again."
Yates is unreservedly passionate about his second chosen calling. He worked as a counsellor for the Morgan & Banks consultancy in London before deciding to set up on his own.
His mantra is attitude and his challenge to those who have either lost their jobs - or who want to make a career change or strengthen their current jobs - is to be positive and to use their networks. "One of the saddest incidents I can recall was the devastation of one very senior businessman. He admitted to me that he never dared walk his dog during the day - in case his neighbours realised that he must have been made redundant." says Yates.
Out of the negative though, comes the positive, he says, adding that almost everyone actually benefits from being sacked. "I can say that almost everyone I have worked with has emerged stronger, happier and with more focus. What I tell the people that I advise most of all is to shed that typical British reserve," he says. "Go out, network, be positive." The Yellow Palette has an eclectic mix of clients from City firms such as Morgan Stanley to the Surrey Police Force.
Yates reckons there is huge growth in executive performance coaching. "It can be lonely at the top, there are few people executives trust to talk to or confide in. Some have simply become one-dimensional and have lost their passions and outside interests," he says. One recent client now gets up two hours earlier than previously and is learning a new language, while others have been persuaded by Yates to run or take up a new sport.
Extracted from "Outplacement & Career Management" - a special report by Margareta Pagano, The London Financial News
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