Most of the problems that occur in a business are often due to a breakdown in relations between management and workers and among colleagues.

A healthy company has a high level of interaction between all members of the organisation, but a dysfunctional one is divided into different sub-groups.

The issues can arise from a clash of cultures or even the business growing too rapidly to properly adjust to the changes that have happened in a short space of time.

But one Bermuda-based executive coaching firm is aiming to help companies and employees overcome these problems by equipping them with the tools to tackle the issues.

Benedict Associates Ltd. and the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda, which is run by partners Philip and Linda Brownell and managing director Vaughn Mosher, believe there is a big call for executive coaching on the Island and that businesses can get their own in-house people trained up to offer their own form of coaching - both seeing a real return on investment in their company and making it more self-sufficient in the future.

"A lot of times, what it boils down to is the web of relationships and mix of people within the business," said Mr. Brownell.

"In an ideal situation it is very interactive at all levels of the business, but in a broken or dysfunctional team what you see is little clusters and sub-groups forming."

Mr. Brownell said that many of the problems stemmed from the relationship between people in the organisation or an individual, sometimes as a result of a difference in lifestyle.

He gave an example of one company which brought in a lot of new senior management from overseas, but the transition had not been a smooth one as they sought to work effectively with their Bermudian counterparts.

Another case, he said, involved an organisation that underwent a quick expansion, adding new staff and erecting new buildings, with no chance for its original employees to take in the raft of changes.

Mr. Mosher, who has served a number of clients from the international business, hospitality, retail, wholesale and construction industries, said this was a common situation with mergers and acquisitions and accounting firms.

He said there were several factors which came into play, including Bermudian vs. non-Bermudian, race and political affiliation, which needed to be taken into account to arrive at a solution.

"We have a number of upper level executives coming in and a lot of the time they wanted to be be totally separate from their company to use us as a sounding board," he said.

"They want to talk about their own career, especially as they approach retirement, and that has been really useful for some people who feel they don't have any other place to go.

"They sometimes feel inhibited by coming here because they may think they are bad or not well or there is some kind of dysfunction that needs to be dealt with as a medical matter.

"Sometimes we deal with someone who is angry or emotional and wants to make a knee-jerk decision like firing someone and we have to get them to think rationally about what they are doing."

Benedict Associates, which has been in business in Bermuda for 25 years, specialises in running an employee assistance programme, as well as offering psychology services and working with companies for individual and team coaching.

Its sister company, the Gestalt Training Institute of Bermuda, focuses on teaching, training and development, in addition to consulting and therapy.

The organisation works in partnership with the UK-based Academy of Executive Coaching, which provides training for coaches, and in April it will be launching training programmes for coaches to help them towards their certification, including intermediate executive coaching and a diploma in advanced executive coaching.

Mrs. Brownell said: "They will get the basics which gives them a little bit of understanding about coaching and the training we give makes you viable for certification.

"They can use it within the organisation that they are in and teaches them to work with team members better and understand people better and gives them the tools to take on this responsibility."

For more information about executive coaching and courses contact 295-2070 or 533-3409, email info@gtib.org or visit the website at www.benedict.bm or www.gtib.org