Looking at the people who keep the wheels of commerce turning on the Island;
features, profiles, achievements and stories with a human dimension.
DEALING WITH
STRESS AND BURNOUT
Brought up in Peel, Phil was a pupil at the QE11
High School. He spent time in the Marines and
the RAF. During his time in the Air Force he
attended many courses, which ultimately set him
on his current career path: “I am very grateful to
the RAF for the support they gave me,” said Phil.
Being back on the Island and addressing Manx
audiences is there a detectable difference: “The
Isle of Man is different there’s no doubt about
it. It has its own eco-system, hierarchy and
structure. It’s unusual in the way that it produces
entrepreneurs. As in sport such as cycling it
punches above its weight in the number of
successful entrepreneurs it nurtures.”
Top performance coach briefs
Manx Business Network
I nternationally renowned high-performance
coach and award winning trainer Phil Quirk,
provided a fascinating presentation for
members of the Manx Business Network at a
recent event at the Palace Hotel in Douglas.
Manxman Phil is the head of the Pro-Noctis
Performance Academy and one of the most
widely respected Human Performance
Coaches in the UK. He is a TED presenter
and sought after speaker as well as an
accomplished presenting coach. His
current and former clients span the world
of business, sport & entrepreneurship. Phil
has a fascination with Human Performance
and has spent much of his professional
life understanding how to help his clients
achieve and surpass their goals. Phil’s time
now is spent developing the new wave of
Performance Coaches.
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In his presentation Phil explored stress and
its effect on humans. Taking an evolutionary
perspective to understand what our stress
response system was evolved for, and how a
highly adaptive system has become maladaptive
in the modern world. Forty five percent of
working professionals are in a state of chronic
stress, facing burnout. Phil also explained simple
stress relieving strategies which when used daily
can prevent the build-up of stress and prevent
chronic stress & burnout.
Phil, who is now based in Shropshire, also hosted
a six-day residential course at the Nunnery during
his latest visit to the Island. Business365 caught
up with him during a break from lectures. He
explained his busy schedule: “My new business is
based here in the Nunnery, though a huge amount
of my work is off Island in the UK and Barcelona,
where we hire a large villa for residential courses.
One area in which the Island is no different is the
need to address issues of stress, burnout and
resilience: “These are the icebergs threatening
our Titanic,” explained Phil. “The variable factor
is how we teach our people to deal with the
workload. There is a huge opportunity to help
people deal with it.”
He recalled leaving the Isle of Man for the first
time to join the Marines: “I didn’t know what to
do. My fight and flight response was in full flow.
I had the same feelings when I started my first
business. When your brain is in an emotional
state you always think of the worst-case scenario.
You can teach people resilience and how to get
out of that response area and connect with a
different part of their brain.”
What I do now is
my passion. To help
somebody achieve
something they thought
was not possible is
incredibly satisfying.
www.pro-noctis.com
