Talisman

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Creating winning organisations

Talisman People

Grounded in more than 20 years of elite sports coaching experience, The Talisman People System of Work will empower your teams to unlock their potential and redefine success. Guided by the principles of high-performance sporting culture, we use tailored approaches to instill a winning mindset that permeates all levels of your organisation.

Our unique System of Work bridges the gap between strategy and execution, bringing clarity to your business’s goals and setting a clear vision for its future. As part of this transformative journey, your team members are guided towards their career highlights, fostering an environment of engagement, ownership, and accountability.

Championship Future Offsite Box
Championship Future Logo

Hosted at a high-performance sporting venue, the Championship Future Offsite provides a tailored planning and strategy platform, defining a clear path to success with key performance indicators.

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frontline leaders program
Fontline leaders program

The Frontline Leaders Development Program is a targeted training program that equips technical professionals in leadership positions with practical skills often overlooked.

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Team Membership Program
Team Membership Program

The Match Winning Team Membership Program leverages the philosophies and principles of elite sports to develop high performance teams within organisations that achieve winning results.

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Our Expertise:

Forging the heart of your business, people.

At Talisman, we harbour a burning desire to positively impact and shape the culture of teams. It’s ceaseless, boundless – it’s competitive hunger, care for industry, and drive to deliver value for our partners where others simply cannot. 

Talisman People want to assist team members in experiencing the absolute highlight of their careers. Talisman People use winning strategies from high-performance sport and apply this to leadership, and team membership, within organisations.

We believe people are the heart of winning performance.

OUr HISTORY

Our Story

Your Journey:

High Reliability Organisations

Industry proponents are on an endless journey to becoming a High Reliability Organisation (HRO) – to relentlessly seek out blind-spots and guard against drift to failure, be predictable, to become learning and re-learning organisations and destroy any blockage that inhibits the flow of information up and down, side to side in the business. The Talisman People system of work underpins and supports this journey beyond the curriculum by helping create a culture with strengthened relationships, open and transparent communication and reporting, understanding of the plan, resilience and symbolic cultural resonance.

Meet the people behind

Talisman People

Grant Polwarth

Partner

Grant holds a Bachelor of Mining Engineering (Honours) and a Graduate Diploma in Mine Ventilation. He has held senior leadership roles throughout the mining industry, including Managing Director of Lake Coal, and co-founded Fitzroy Australia Resources in 2016 as CEO and Managing Director. In his leadership roles, he’s successfully fostered a culture of accountability, teamwork and respect. His ability to drive simplicity in complex project environments and confidence to challenge the status quo ensures clients achieve outcomes aligned with cultural improvement, stronger financial results and greater utilisation of equipment.

Nathan Sharpe

Director

With over 10 years’ experience in the mining industry, Nathan combines his passion for people leadership, operational experience and sporting accolades to drive and develop high performing teams. With over 100 matches played for the Australian Wallabies, 20 as Captain, Nathan played for over 15 years at the elite Australian level in rugby union. In 2010, Nathan transitioned out of sport and into the mining industry where he established SES Labour Solutions. Nathan brings unique capabilities in designing and delivering exceptional leadership and coaching development programs, which result in improved performance and long-standing relationships for clients.

Carl O’Hehir

Director

A mining professional with over 22 years’ experience leading teams and delivering large-scale open-cut mining projects. Carl has worked within various senior management positions for both owner-operators and contractors. His holistic understanding of the open-cut mining business lifecycle supports a delivery of safe, efficient, productive and commercially successful results for clients. As Chief Operating Officer for Macmahon, Carl led teams with a focus on continuous improvement across end-to-end mining service capabilities to achieve sustainable growth and optimised financial returns.

Our Coach Facilitators and Profile Athletes

Not trainers or facilitators. You are welcome to refer to them as such but there is a big difference. Our unique approach is business wide. Building relationships and trust, developing understanding of what you consider a win, “working around the edges” to influence and improve and when necessary, being immediate and direct. All this is what an elite sports coach does daily.

Talisman People’s Coach Facilitators are specialist content experts in addition to being former elite athletes and coaches. Our Profile Athletes bring the programs to life with their unique experiences, perspectives, and skills, built over the years dedicated to being the best in their sport. These unique people bring mental toughness and presence to their roles. They understand the unique and true essence of what a coach does and take enormous pride in developing winning outcomes for the pure benefit of our clients. Our wins are measured by your wins, and we never take credit for the work you and your people have done. Our coaches think about your performance even when they are not with you. It is what all the best coaches in sport do and we bring this philosophy to our work with you.

What can we help you achieve?

LET'S WORK TOGETHER

Where will your career take you?

JOIN THE TEAM