One Degree Training & Coaching Ltd are a specialist provider of people focused leadership training and coaching. They were founded in 2022, by Andy Nisevic, who started the business after leaving a 23-yr career in the RAF. In his own experience, Andy served with some fantastic leaders, but also worked for some terrible ones. He saw first hand the damage bad leadership can do – he even heard of mar
riages breaking down because of the stress caused by awful leaders! Andy is on a mission to create workplace environments where people feel able to be themselves, and know they are valued and are invested in. This is important to him due to struggles of his own, dating back to his childhood. Despite being part of a large family, he was a stereotypical middle child, who in blunt terms, felt ignored. This made him feel as though he wasn’t as important as everyone else. He took this feeling into adulthood; it resulted in him struggling to fit in because he was always trying to be someone he wasn’t. This meant he found it difficult to form close relationships, it lead to anxiety, depression, and spending most of his adult life alone. This feeling of loneliness persisted in the workplace, despite being in such a large organisation. It impacted his ability to lead effectively, and he made many mistakes along the way. There was a single turning point that made all the difference to Andy. As someone with a stereotypical male attitude, for a long time he refused to acknowledge his vulnerabilities. He was very lucky, at an important time in his life, an excellent leader held a mirror up to him and forced him to recognise that he needed help. With the appropriate support, he found the strength to make 1 change that completely changed the way he led others. He started admitting his vulnerabilities. This honesty and transparency drew far deeper connections with his peers and teams. His outlook became far more positive, people engaged with him far more; he finally became the leader he wanted to be. Performance, achievement, and progression exploded. All because he was able to build connections and trust in the workplace. Nowadays Andy works with business owners, or senior leaders, who despite having colleagues, peers, and staff around them, feel isolated, stressed, or overwhelmed in the workplace. These feelings often, at best, just generate guilt at delegating effectively. Which means they take on a far higher workload, resulting in less time with their family and/or friends, resulting in more guilt stress/overwhelm/isolation. But also leaves their teams feeling under valued and uninvested in. Andy helps leaders create true connections with their workforce. He supports them as they develop the skills, knowledge, and attitudes within their teams that means they can operate autonomously. Thus, providing them with time to grow their business, or to simply spend with the people, or doing the things, they love the most. Andy spent the last few years of his RAF career facilitating their leadership courses. In his (admittedly biased) opinion, the training provided was second to none. However, despite such good training, he still heard many, many, stories of terrible leadership. He struggled to resonate with this. After a period of research and reflection, he realised that training can be the best in the world, but if students aren’t supported while contextualising it into their reality, it’s all too easy to revert to the status quo. This is why he developed a programme that combines training, coaching, & mentoring. He teaches the knowledge, and supports the implementation into participant’s individual circumstances.
