Background Coaching & Training Experience
Clair empowers leaders, teams and people with diverse personalities and cultural backgrounds to find the strengths in themselves and one another, and to communicate in ways that will enable more effective cooperation, foster well being, and increase success.
Following a career in corporate IT with BT, M&S, EY, Nike, and the AAB bank, Clair founded Peptalk productions giving personal leadership trainers a podium to shine. As a trainer and award winning speaker herself, she incorporates her business experience and multicultural background into her courses on leadership, team building, intercultural competence and public speaking.
Having lived, worked and/or rooted from six Middle Eastern and Western countries and served on the board of the Society for Intercultural Education and Training, Clair feels at home in many cultures and also understands the journey of internationals as they move across the globe. Her book Navigating the Culture Maze (2024) helps leaders and expats work and live across cultures effectively.
Watch Clair be interviewed by Dorleta Gonzales at DG.Talks: Intercultural Maestro
Approach & Benefits
Focussing on individual strengths, communication styles, and cultural influences, Clair uses a variety of approaches to help you and your team to get the best out of yourself and each other. Her training is tailored to your needs. She firmly believes that learning flourishes in an atmosphere of enjoyment and her training style is relaxed, interactive, and peppered with storytelling and humour.
Clair may use DISC Personality profiling; Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Positive Psychology, Non-violent communication (NVC), Solution Based Training (SBT) Intercultural competence models, and (Business) Storytelling and Humour amongst other approaches to address the following:
- Ensure your message gets the attention it deserves with business storytelling.
- Focus sales and marketing efforts in a way that speaks to different cultures and personalities types.
- Using DiSC personality assessment focus on the following questions and consider how best to manage and work with team members:
- Are you and your team members aware of each other’s strengths (and weaknesses) and are you making the most effective use of them?
- Are you frustrated with ‘their’ time management skills and want to make sure they get the job done?
- Would you like your feedback to impact the recipient as you intended it?
- Are who you are and what you do well matched?
- Manage international or multicultural teams successfully with the necessary intercultural competence skills.
- Ensure your expat colleagues can adjust with minimum stress in order to be able to focus on contributing to the business.
Selected Testimonials
“I am delighted to recommend Clare, an exceptional professional whose work I have had the privilege to experience first-hand. Witnessing Clare delivering intercultural trainings was indeed inspiring. She artfully combined professionalism with storytelling, creating an adaptable and interactive training environment that was both enlightening and fun. Her strong grasp of Adult Learning Theory and her ability to apply it effectively distinguish her as a truly phenomenal trainer. In a project where we collaborated, Clare consistently brought innovative ideas and valuable suggestions to the table, contributing significantly to its success. Clare is more than a great trainer – she is an educator who understands and applies the principles of learning in engaging, practical, and impactful ways. Her expertise, adaptability, and the fun she infuses into her work make her a truly outstanding professional.
Without reservation, I recommend Clare. Her dedication to excellence, creative problem-solving, and dynamic training skills will be an invaluable asset to any” – Dorleta Gonzalez – Leadership Communication Consultant
“I have worked with Clair on a number of occasions. I’ve watched her present engaging workshops, in which she shared her insights and where the participants walked away enriched from the experience. I’ve watched her speak, walking the fine line between humour and sincerity, making a great impact and a real connection with the audience. I’ve worked with her on committees where her thoughtful leadership led the team to success and wherein I learned a great deal about myself. I have the highest respect for Clair. My experience is that she is fully present with every role she undertakes. I recommend her wholeheartedly and without reserve.” – Andy Baker – Educator, Speaker and Event Organiser
“ Follow this link: https://youtu.be/4xal4wf5u6s?si=qhKdHe3pkJZHFMSX ” Christina Zumpolle: Leadership coach
“ Follow this link: https://youtu.be/MmtTI8Un8MM?si=xm7NbRo3Gm8OzFpM ” – Sangbreeta Moitra, Leadership coach
Training Courses and Conference Presentations
Leadership and Team trainings
Objective: To enhance effective communication and cooperation at work.
- Understanding Personality Types
- How to motivate your team members.
- How different people manage time and what you can do to keep them on schedule.
- What causes stress and how to manage stress and conflict.
Intercultural Competence trainings
With a diverse personal background encompassing English, Dutch, Israeli, Iranian, Iraqi, and American cultures, along with her studies in International Relations, Clair’s dedication to intercultural competence is to be expected.
She is an Author of “Navigating the Culture Maze: A roadmap for global leaders & expats” which provides intercultural insights using practical tips and anecdotes from the Middle East and Europe as well as cultural models from around the globe. More details here
Objective: To explore the values and experiences that drive behaviour in different cultures in order to nurture understanding and help to interact with each other more effectively.
Collaborating Across Cultural differences
- What is culture and how it form us
- Why do ‘they’ behave so strangely?
- How to work effectively across cultures
The expat Journey
- Preparation
- Experiences
- Coping effectively
Living and working with The Dutch; The English; The Israelis; The Arabs
Public Speaking and Storytelling
Objective: To help you craft and deliver an impactful speech. R.E.A.C.H. your audience
- R – Relax. Public speaking is stressful for most people. We learn tips on how to overcome that.
- E – Engage. How to grab and keep the audience’s attention.
- A – Anchor. How to formulate and anchor your message in their minds.
- C – Construct an easy to follow structure.
- H – Introduce Humour where appropriate.
Other Activities and Professional Contributions
Toastmasters Public Speaking Competitions: European champion of Toastmasters International Public Speaking contest 2024.
Hobbies: Toastmasters Public Speaking, Amateur Dramatics, Yoga