Juliette Dennett is helping firms invest in the skills of their workers.

As a Dale Carnegie trainer, Juliette works with businesses such as Bradford & Bingley which, despite the recession, are committed to investing in their staff’s future.

Juliette, Dale Carnegie’s managing director for Northern England, believes that this support for their workers will pay dividends for them in years to come as the financial downturn ends.

Dale Carnegie Northern England is a franchise of the company which was founded in America in 1912 and now operates in 70 countries, with around 2,700 instructors presenting training programmes in more than 25 languages. More than seven million people worldwide have completed a Dale Carnegie training course.

Dale Carnegie Northern England looks after clients including Adidas, Gordons’ solicitors, Yorkshire Bank, Odeon Cinemas, British Airways, Panasonic and Manchester City Council.

Training is designed to give people in business the opportunity to sharpen their skills and improve their performance, to build positive, steady and profitable results.

Juliette joined the company in 1995. Before that she’d worked in senior roles with high-profile companies including IBM, promoting computer technology to businesses in the Eighties, and promoting beauty products as export marketing manager for Revlon.

Taking redundancy from Revlon led her to work for a training company, where she was able to use her varied skills and experience.

The well-known Dale Carnegie book, How To Win Friends And Influence People, introduced her to the company where she would continue her career. “What appealed to me is that the organisation is about a good ethical way of engaging people at work, getting the best from them and developing their potential,” says Juliette.

She initially worked in a sales role and trained to become a trainer. Juliette, who lives in Mirfield, was appointed managing director of Dale Carnegie Northern England in 2000.

She says her role is supporting organisations to engage with their workforce and develop talent. She is confident companies who are committed to developing their employees during these testing times will reap the rewards, as their staff are more likely to stay with them rather than look elsewhere.

“The majority of the work is customised in-company development,” says Juliette.

She says the training programmes give staff the knowledge and look at how they are accountable for enabling changes to happen. People are encouraged to look at how they can impact on their job. The training programmes also focus on enthusiasm and confidence.

Juliette believes that, despite the recession, businesses in the Bradford district recognise that training programmes for staff are still imperative. She says they will be better off in the long-term.

Juliette says her greatest job satisfaction comes from helping people progress in their profession.

“I love making a difference to organisations through making a difference to the performance of their people,” she says.

“To be a Dale Carnegie trainer, you need to have a dynamic personality. You have to connect with people and understand the business context in which they work, because we are about improving the business.”

She advocates trainers also have outstanding presentation skills.

For more information about a career with Dale Carnegie, go to dalecarnegie.com or call 0845 658228.