Dr Janet Curran
Lecturer
My profile
Biography
Dr Janet Curran is a part-time Lecturer on the CMDA degree apprenticeship programme for Health and Social Care. She joined the department in January 2023, having previously worked as a skills coach on the CMDA degree apprenticeship programme at Liverpool John Moores University. She teaches the Developing Self and Others module and provides provides tutor support for the final project and portfolio completion.
Janet has over 30 years’ experience in the corporate training industry, covering a range of industries and topics. In recent years she has specialised in sales coaching and continues to run her coaching consultancy business alongside her university teaching. This gives her a “foot in both camps” as she combines a unique blend of experience gathered at the frontline of commercial enterprises with her academic research and insight.
Prior to taking up her academic roles Janet worked for an international sales training organisation, travelling the world from Australia to Argentina to train salespeople and other trainers in sales methodology that she developed through her own research.
Interests and expertise
Janet’s particular interest is understanding why people behave the way that they do in organisations. Her research uses an observational technique to classify verbal behaviour in work situations in order to gain a deeper understanding, not just of the behavioural strategies in play, but also the underlying interpersonal dynamics. She is currently researching why some people engage effectively with coaching in the workplace and adopt their behaviour as a result to achieve improved performance, whilst others do not.
Impact
Janet measures the impact of what she does through the feedback she gets from students and coachees. Her purpose is to enable her learners to flourish in their chosen careers and achieve their best potential.
Projects
Janet’s recent research projects include analysing the verbal behavioural profiles of workers in the Danish construction industry, with a view to making recommendations on how to make it more inclusive and welcoming for women. She continues to work on the sales frontline, gathering data from complex selling conversations to develop strategies for how salespeople can be more effective.
Having presented a paper at the 2023 UFHRD conference on Bridge-based learning, summarising what she has learnt about effective behaviour change through her years of coaching, she is now focused on developing a theory on how to create a “learning mindset”, i.e. somebody who engages effectively with learning in the workplace and changes as a result.
Teaching
From January 2024 Janet will be the Unit Leader on the Developing Self and Others programme for Health and Social care.