John Carr Profile

Originally from Ireland John Carr has called Cairns home for the past twenty one years. Married to Kate McCreery-Carr and father to two boys Dylan and Jordan, his passion is the ability to balance a successful rewarding career with the joys of family and personal life.

John grew up with an entrepreneurial father who after getting a break in the music industry managed to turn this break into a number of successful businesses. John’s early years were spent learning skills in every role he could including cooking in restaurants, running different shops, laboring on numerous projects, bookwork and advertising. Most of all, it was the skills of effective communication and leadership that was passed down, unbeknown to John or his father at the time.
Upon leaving school having completed his leaving certificate John choose to follow one of his passions to become a motor mechanic/manager. Four years and numerous awards (mechanic of the year, SIMI Student manager off the year award to name but a few) later, John packed his bags to spend a year in Australia to gain some further management experience.

After a short stint in Sydney, John and his now wife Kate headed north and liked Cairns so much that they decided to settle here. From this point his employment varied in the motor industry from service manager to owning and running his own workshop. Cumulating in a teaching role within the TAFE system which required studying a Bachelor of Teaching and Further Education at the University of Southern Queensland.

Twelve years ago John opted for a change of career path and joined Qantas as a Ramp Services Operator. A brief introduction to a heavily unionised workforce quickly left John with some choices. Leave the workplace, adapt to the workplace or change the workplace, guess which one he chose. A short time later Qantas put the Cairns operations out to tender giving the staff an opportunity to bid. John became involved with the Leadership Team and drove the change management side as the Forward Planning Unit Coordinator. This involved the introduction and building of teams within the business to implement a sustainable, continuously improving business. Cairns won the contract and many more that have come since. The net result over a ten year period was a much happier workplace, no industrial action and a decrease in expenditure of approx 50%. Core to all this change was a blend of experiential training, The Team Management Profile and ongoing individual and team coaching.

Three years ago John decided to acquire the necessary skills to turn a natural gift into a science. He enrolled in the cert IV in life coaching and gained accreditation in The Team Management Profile, Linking Leader Profile, Strategic Team Development Profile, Myer’s Briggs Type Profile, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Time Line Therapy along with the study of many, many books and theories. John has successfully blended the best of each to create a system of business coaching that will set the business up for sustained success.

John set up a coaching practice called “Coach Central”, an all in one approach to deliver coaching needs to all aspects of the business. He regognised that the progression of business improvement involved leadership development at the top, team development through the business and process improvement skills as we move down the management structure. Traditionally this has involved the use of several consultants which tends to fragment the business into groups based on who believes in which approach. John has brought on board some key partners to ensure the whole approach is seamless. An integration of Work (Systems and Processes) and People (Team and Leadership capability) to create an environment where the needs of the people, the shareholders, the business and the customer are all met in a balanced way.

John now operates this successful business model and has found his place as a skilled coach and facilitator delivering

• Top down team, process and leadership development
• Executive one on one coaching
• Delivery of the following profile programs (Team Management Profile, Linking skills 360 profile, Strategic Team Development Profile, Myers Briggs Type Indicator)
• Change Management
• Teambuilding
• Coaching for Leaders
• Lifestyle coaching
• Strategic planning
• Communication skills
• Rapport building
• Sales innovation
• Defining the customer
• Key note speaking