About Us

Applied Strengths is built on a foundation of over 45 years’ partner experience in using LIFO® behavioural profiling here in the UK and around the world through a variety of applications.

Mark Erskine – Founding Partner

Mark has used LIFO® over the last 12 years primarily as a Sales Application alongside Leadership programs in the corporate B2B market. He has a strong understanding of how the LIFO® tool can be applied to the sales world. He has written a number of articles and presented at Seminars and Exhibitions in the UK featuring the LIFO® process and developed new LIFO® sales materials. He is a Senior LIFO® Master Trainer & Coach and has run his own Sales Consultancy business, incorporating LIFO® for the last 9 years across a multitude of prestige B2B businesses. Before becoming the UK joint Licensee Partner in October 2022.

Bruce Rowling has used LIFO® for 25 years and is a Senior LIFO® Master Trainer & Coach. He is an expert trainer and facilitator using a range of visual and participative group facilitation techniques that enable workshops to be more effective by adapting to all learning styles. This approach is routinely applied to all LIFO® workshops and training. Bruce has worked extensively in the public sector including local and national government and the NHS. He has run his own consultancy business incorporating LIFO® for over 25 years. Before becoming the UK joint Licensee Partner in October 2022.

Strategic Partners

Whilst Bruce Rowling and Mark Erskine, the founders of Applied Strengths, are Master Trainers and Coaches in the use of Life Orientations Behavioural profiling, we recognise that Life Orientations offers, unlike many other tools, a wide range of multi-faceted specialist applications, for example:

Leadership; Change Management; Team Styles; Teaching and Learning Styles; Sales; Negotiation; Customer Styles; Organisational Culture; Time Management; Stress Management

As a result, we have aligned with a series of trusted Strategic Partners featured here who offer specialist skills in either niche organisational sectors or indeed focus areas such as Leadership or Change Management from the list above. We are committed to giving our clients access to the best possible strategic partners available so they can achieve optimal outcomes. All of our Strategic Partners are Licensed Practitioners using Life Orientations.

Lucy Marder is a consultant, coach and facilitator working with non-profit leaders and organisations to help them: find their focus; embrace change; compete in their sector today and into the future. Her consulting specialisms are in charity and social enterprise leadership, change and collaboration.

Lucy’s extensive consultancy experience includes a decade in as a publicly-funded advisor to non profits in the culture and heritage sectors and internal change agent experience in local government. Alongside her independent consultancy and coaching practice, Lucy holds a senior part time role as Head of Business Development for a leading youth arts charity.

Lucy hold Chartered Management Consultant status, the the highest accreditation in management consulting, based on rigorous assessment of positive impact in the field, upholding the highest standards of ethics and client focus. Lucy’s qualifications include an MBA from Lancaster University and the ILM Level 7 Diploma in Leadership Mentoring and Executive Coaching and she is a SFEDI-recognised Social Enterprise Advisor. She is the author of the South East Museum Development Programme’s Cultural Partnership Toolkit.

Iain Erskine – Consulting Partner (Education)

As a former Principal of the Fulbridge Academy in Peterborough for 20 years, Iain oversaw the amalgamation of the Infant and Junior schools and led the school from Special Measures (2000) to Outstanding (2012). Fulbridge became a National School of Creativity in 2008 and converted to Academy Trust status in 2013. After a two year phased retirement, Iain retired from Headship in 2017. He was then a part- time Leadership Coach/Mentor and Trustee for the 4Cs Multi-Academy Trust, for which Fulbridge is the primary lead school. He has now been fully retired for over a year but still takes an active interest in leadership issues and research and has been instrumental in guiding the creation of the Elevate Leadership programme.

My long experience assisting other professionals to manage change has led me to see that sustainability practitioners face similar issues and conundrums. Especially so where there is a need to understand or change the organisational culture, engage with people who hold differing points of view blocking progress, or when tackling ‘Wicked Problems’ having a measure of uncertainty whereby the only way forward is through transdisciplinary collaboration. LIFO is a key and practical tool towards achieving these outcomes.

A LIFO® practitioner since 2001 I have a professional training in experiential learning and leadership development. My practice is multi-disciplinary, drawing on experiential, person centred, and existential humanistic development methodologies. I have a passion for understanding how new ideas and practices can be applied to solve practical problems faced by people working together in a fast changing and often disrupted world. My hybrid flexible approach to makes for time and cost-effective delivery.

Martin Peterson – Successfactory™ Team Development, Behavioural Safety and Running Effective Meetings

Martin joined the team at Successfactory in 2006, running team development programmes for clients across all sectors. He trained as a Life Orientations practitioner in 2010 and has used it extensively since. Applications include development high performance teams, building trust and developing effective communication strategies across teams of all sizes in many types of organisations.

For much of the time he has also used LIFO® to help organisations look at Risk Propensity and behaviours in safety critical environments. More recently Martin has used the methodology when helping clients to make their meetings more effective and has started matching LIFO® with LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) in developing strategy making more inclusive decisions.

My skillset enables me to utilise management tools, techniques and processes and have the behavioral and communication flexibility to make them work.

20 years of experience working with the NHS spread across all sectors – Acute, Care Services, Integrated Care Systems, General Practice and Specialised Services. Delivering Team Development, Executive Coaching, Management Consultancy/Troubleshooting, Programme/Project Management and Training to teams at all levels within these organisations.

A LIFO® practitioner for 25 years.

Graham Wilson – Strategic Partner (Leadership)

Graham specialises in helping the world’s best business leaders achieve their maximum potential through advanced leadership techniques. Through his Bespoke Leadership Programmes, leaders can craft new world strategies, make great change happen and deliver extraordinary results.

He works in the areas of leadership, strategy, innovation, change, resilience, projects and elite teams. He is the author of Leadership Laid Bare, The New Leadership Manifesto and wabisugi – the art of resilience for everyday warriors.

Graham helps leaders understand the need for change, what great leadership looks like, and how to change. He has developed a tried, tested, and proven leadership toolkit that simplifies the complex, and makes it easy for leaders to improve results.

His toolkit of leadership development strategies has been carefully honed over decades of working in business, sport and the military, and is now being used to help global companies achieve massive success.

Mike Erskine – Consulting Partner (Marketing)

For over 15 years, Mike has been delivering marketing and communication strategies across the private, public and third sector for UK and international clients. Mike has played an instrumental role in the launch of Applied Strengths, the formation of the first LIFO® UK Community of Practice, and is currently on course to complete his LIFO® accreditation.

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What convinces people to utilise LIFO™ is ultimately to see first hand how it works and the results it gives. So get in touch and we will set up a free Profile Survey with you and talk you thorugh your results online.