Meet our member Yvette Gyles, Director at The Management Centre (=mc), a consultancy empowering not-for-profits.

Yvette values hands-on training, teamwork, and learning at every step. A long-time Impact Hub member, she’s passionate about building skills, fostering connections, and exploring AI’s role in learning design.

Name: Yvette Gyles

Organisation: The Management Centre (=mc)

Job role: Director (Learning And Development Consultancy)

Mission: The Management Centre Learning (=mc Learning) is a training, learning and development consultancy. We work with the not for profit sector. The people we work with feel inspired, motivated and confident in the skills needed to create social good.  We build and nurture relationships. We are critical friends and trusted advisors. The solutions we offer match the sectors challenges and opportunities.

Which Impact Hub are you part of and for how long?

Kings Cross since we moved in 2020.

What do you love and about your role?

One of the things I value most about our work is that we’re all hands on. I love meeting participants on our courses and hearing about the brilliant work they are doing. It’s really important to me as a Director to stay close to that. Our training is practical and all about tools that can be used straight away. It’s really rewarding when you can see participants use a tool or model and have that light bulb moment.

What has been something you are particularly proud of?

I’m really proud of the team. We’re a team of 10 which includes a group of fantastic trainers and our amazing marketing colleagues. We all work really closely together. We don’t come together every day at the office as we’re out and about with our customers delivering courses. So when we are in, we love to chat, share ideas, keep each other updated, and work together on projects. Sorry to everyone at the Hub if we get a bit noisy when we’re all together like that!

What one word would you use to describe Impact Hub and why?

Friendly – there’s always someone to help you if you need it, people are up for a chat and getting to know you. I’ve met some fascinating people in the kitchen!

Can you name a colleague or member who has had a positive impact on your work?

Andreia in our team has a massive impact on how we work together. She is in the office most often, and knows where everything is and how everything works. She co-ordinates a lot of important areas for us and is always ready to jump on a call or Zoom to support the training.

What’s a valuable lesson you’ve learned in your career?

Everything is a learning opportunity! Keeping an open mind to that has really helped me. Problems become challenges to solve, mistakes become lessons for improvement, new projects become exciting opportunities.

How do you work to improve your work-life balance?

Work-life balance is really important to me, and that’s why I love our training on this area (how to manage the multiple priorities in your life). In fact, that was what inspired me to work for =mc in the first place, about 11 years ago! The tool that helps me the most is my action list – I know that sounds simple but it is a really effective tool. It helps me manage my tasks and crucially reminds me I don’t have to do everything all at once. That allows me to stop, keep a boundary on my personal time, and spend time on the things that matter most to me both at work and in my life.

If you could magically acquire a new skill overnight, what would it be, and how would you use it at work?

Oh gosh, there are so many things I want to learn! I’m super curious about the role AI will have in learning design and delivery, and generally how it can help make our work better /easier / faster / more impactful. I want to learn how to use AI as a tool, and not as a replacement for genuine human connection. Freeing up more time for nurturing relationships and fostering connections would be wonderful, and using that to support our participants too in their learning.

What techniques do you use to foster innovation and creativity within your team?

We use something we call our Hive Mind. This is when we come together collectively to share ideas and get creative. It’s really helpful to bounce ideas around and build together. You get different perspectives which enriches your ideas or approach. As trainers and facilitators, we’re really good at asking questions and exploring ideas before jumping into action.

What book / podcast / show would you recommend?

I really enjoy the Women at Work HBR series. This podcast is brilliant for anyone wanting to develop their professional skills and especially for women stepping into Leadership. It covers all sorts of essential skills and hot management topics. Harvard Business Review Podcast Series (discover online).

If you were to recommend IHL what would you say?

The IHL team are super helpful, friendly and welcoming. As a team that are not always co-located, having a place where we can come together and be ourselves is really important to us. We always feel very supported by the IHL team and the facilities are fantastic too. Oh, and the coffee is excellent!!

Connect with Yvette:

Yvette – linkedin.com/in/yvette-gyles

Website – www.managementcentre.co.uk/

=MC – linkedin.com/company/-mc