Cyrus, Managing Director of Maximum Performance, is an exceptional international trainer, facilitator and coach. He specialises in helping managers to focus on their role and responsibilities with the aim of getting great results with the people they manage.

He has helped organisations in both the public and private sectors to increase their performance through a range of interventions covering leadership challenges, motivational management and corporate and executive 1:1 coaching.

Formerly an internal learning and development consultant to the Ministry of Justice, his achievements there ranged from a major business process re-engineering (BPR) project to designing performance management systems and competency frameworks for over 12,000 staff and creating a range of management programmes for middle / senior civil servants that are still being run to this day.

He is passionate about coaching, and has developed an organisational-wide coaching programme for the Big Lottery Fund. His current / recent clients include the BBC, 3M, Accenture, Inter Hannover, Merlin Entertainments, Axis Capital, The Lancashire Group, American Express, Inverclyde Leisure, RED Consulting, Gala Coral, De Lage Landen, The Wine Society, London Executive Offices and the Big Lottery Fund, to name but a few. Whether delivering a one-off workshop or designing an innovative management development programme, Cyrus delivers with understanding, enthusiasm and passion, and truly believes that learning is about creation, not consumption.

Cyrus is enthusiastic and practical in his approach, with tools and methodologies explained clearly. His strong facilitation skills and focus on his audience create a powerful learning experience. This comes through very clearly in his book, Brilliant Workshops, published by Pearson Education. His academic and professional qualifications include a Masters Degree in Management Practice, MBTI accredited, SDI accredited, Facet5 accredited, DiSC accredited, Diploma in Executive and Corporate Coaching, Diploma in Business Coaching, Diploma in Business Excellence (EFQM), Hay Group Emotional and Competency Inventory (ESCI). Cyrus is currently working towards his coaching PCC accreditation with the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Feedback from clients / participants

‘Cyrus was fab – as usual.’
– ‘Building a Customer Mentality’ course participant, Inter-Hannover

‘The three sessions I spent with Cyrus were invaluable, he helped me think differently about how I work with colleagues to get the best out of them and me. I came away with some extremely useful tools and techniques for meetings and brainstorms which are simple yet very effective in day to day scenarios. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Cyrus to a colleague or client.’
– Justin Bates, Firstlight PR

‘Cyrus Cooper has worked with our organisation for the past six years, creating and delivering an array of workshops and facilitating team development sessions. His calm approach has drawn positivity from the toughest of audiences and he seems to arrive at the heart of the issue with ease, leading the most difficult characters towards solutions. His insights are astute and his advice is worth following. Above all? He’s a genuinely nice bloke.’
– Katy Grêlé, HR Director, Legoland Windsor

‘I have had the pleasure of working with Maximum Performance (and Cyrus Cooper in particular) to deliver a coaching programme across the Big Lottery Fund. We co-constructed and piloted the programme to skill managers in the basics of coaching and create a programme of development for Senior Leaders to also build their coaching skills. What Cyrus delivered was a programme that impacted on us with a huge amount of insight, interest and invigoration around coaching as a key skill in our leaders, managers and talent programme participants. We are about to launch our own internal coaching network that will continue and spread the great work Cyrus did for us.’
– Perry Timms, Head of Talent & Organisational Development, BIG Lottery Fund

‘The coaching I received has been a platform to improve my strength as an individual. The coaching experience has channeled my ability to think about solutions consistently and understand that the path forward is often one that can be constructed from my own mind. I do feel more effective as a result of the coaching experience. It has supported me to deal with situations that were current at the times of the meetings whilst also supporting a long-term view and a focus on my own career goals. The coaching has not only been a professional platform for self-improvement – it has also given me exposure to techniques and styles I have absorbed (as a result of meeting with Cyrus) that have helped me support friends/family outside of my work to develop solutions that have positively impacted on their professional and personal lives. As a result of the experience I have begun to coach individuals and have begun to see the benefits from the coach perspective. In terms of specific feedback on Cyrus, your support as a coach has continuously been genuine and your coaching has opened my mind to a way of thinking that is based in positivity, goals and results. I have been impressed with your ability to build rapport with me, a range of colleagues, and your self-confidence in a range of situations. I have learnt from the way that you roll (apologies for the rather street terminology) and thank you for this opportunity. I also appreciate your good nature and your continual offer of support moving forward.’
– Paul, Public sector manager

‘Cyrus coached me during 2012 and helped me to discover the best in me. Through regular sessions (six over the year) Cyrus worked with me to help me discover my strengths, identify areas of improvement and encouraged me work on them. He never told me what to do (even though I asked more than once!) but helped me to recognise these areas myself. Since working with Cyrus I have furthered my career and have a plan for where I want to be – and more importantly, how I’m going to get there. I can’t recommend him enough!’
– Emma Hughes, BIG Lottery Fund

‘Having reviewed the previous 12 months development it is clear that coaching was an integral source of support and motivation that helped me work towards / achieve goals, both within work and in my personal life. I have always valued personal development within my career but coaching assisted me in creating a clear goal orientated structure to work towards. The regular coaching sessions also provided me with an impartial review of issues faced outside of my usual environment. I found coaching especially valuable because it is not something created for you to work on and it’s not other people’s suggestions which you may or may not want to follow. Coaching enables you to review your own problems, identify your own goals and work towards developing yourself. It’s an invaluable support tool but everything that you carry out and achieve is purely down to yourself. Using coaching does not remove ownership of your development, it just reinforces your understanding of what needs to be done and provides you with the mechanism to chat through the best ways to approach this. Cyrus was a fabulous coach who quickly built up a good rapport with myself. I’d never been coached before so was unsure about the process and indeed the value of it. However my point of view quickly changed within the first session as we clarified important goals for me to start to work on, and also put together a plan of action for a particularly sensitive problem I was facing. I cannot fault Cyrus’s coaching approach and found his style to be both motivating and stretching. Thank you Cyrus – your coaching support will definitely be missed but I’m looking forward to continuing to work hard and build upon the building blocks of my development that we’ve put together.’
– Claire, Public sector manager

‘When I embarked on the programme I was unsure what to expect and also very sceptical of how coaching would actually work for me… how wrong was I! I have learnt a lot over the last 12 months but have to say the coaching was key to my success. It has provided me with guidance on how to deal with issues (sometimes out of my control) and also how others may perceive a situation differently so being aware of this and how to identify in order to reduce the impact has been invaluable. I have thoroughly enjoyed the coaching sessions and the feedback from my managers is that my development over the last 12 months has been significant and for that I have to thank you. It is nice that they are aware of the impact of coaching and the benefits it brings not only to me as the individual but also the business. Someone once said to me that there will always be a manager you remember for their good points and a manager you remember for their bad points – even though you are not my manager, you will always fall into the category of the good manager for me, as I feel that I have achieved so much over the last 12 months and am now in a position where I can go on achieving and in years to come I will still be grateful to you. Thanks Cyrus you deserve a gold star!’
– Public sector manager