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But when my colleague at the time, Brian Middlemiss, a contracts director for Robseal Roofing and the chairman of Surrey CIOB, asked me if I was up for a makeover, courtesy of Construction Manager, I thought 'why not?'. I take every opportunity to improve myself. I am working towards being a member of the CIOB at the moment; I'm doing it via the DMX route. I want other professionals to recognise that I do know what I am talking about, and that I'm not just a hairy-arsed roofer.

What I didn't realise back then was that the start of the six-week programme, which covered things like life planning, stress and nutrition as well as image, would coincide almost exactly with the start of a new job.I am trying to put some of the things I have learnt about myself to practice in my new role .

And there were some personal things I wanted to sort out. I am ambitious, a bit like my Dad, who I followed into the building business. What worries me is that I could end up being an absent father like he was. But my son Farrell, five, who my wife and I adopted 14 months ago is so important, I want to have time for him too.

The course that Construction Manager sent me on was called 'Peak Performance'. The idea is that you hone body and mind to get the best out of yourself. I was relieved to find out that I wasn't the only one. There were eight of us, with a range of jobs from headmistress to City Suit to internet homeworker.

Each Friday there was a dedicated group session, with optional individual sessions. The subjects were life assessment, image and style, communication skills, stress management and optimum nutrition.

As I discovered pretty soon after, I am open to change. A sixth element to the course was a form of psychometric testing, which reveals your personality profile. I was quite chuffed with my results. The test revealed that I prefer to make decisions consultatively, that I prefer logic-based decisions and objectivity and that I am open to new experiences. 'He seeks and welcomes change' it said.

I suppose, looking back, I have been through some changes in my working life. I've worked for my dad, run my own business, worked as contracts manager for a builder and a specialist roofing firm. And now, at 35, I'm manager of the Dorking branch of roofing contractor Breyer.

My current job is quite a step up from the previous one both in salary and responsibility. The branch turns over 拢3m, and my task is to grow this part of the business. I am looking forward to the challenge.

I do dress more smartly now, although not ultra-smart. The image makeover session has given me more confidence in how I look. And if you have confidence that you are looking your best, other people respond to that.

I was absolutely amazed when consultant Mandy Sansom of Absolute Image showed me the effect of the wrong sort of colour next to my face. Wintry greens and bright colours made me look like I had three chins. Horrible!

Mandy pronounced me a 'cool summer', which basically means that pinks, dusty navy, charcoal grey and silver colours suit me best. I've now got a swatch of colours that I can carry around with me when I'm shopping.

HELLO GORGEOUS
I also got some good tips on how to hide my beer belly. It's all about optical illusions. For example, tucking in your suit pocket flaps makes you look slimmer. And for when I'm not wearing a tie, a V-neck top is much more flattering than a round-neck one.

I was so impressed with the whole process that I booked a four-hour session for my wife as a mothers' day present from our son.

Of course, another way to tackle the belly problem would be to lose a few pounds. Nutritionalist Alan Jackson reckons that a target of losing a stone over 12 months is reasonable.

He pointed out that being overweight and my lack of activity both increased my chance of heart problems; I knew already that I was at risk since my Dad had a heart attack, so we do make an effort to eat healthily.

Alan suggested that I cut back on saturated fats, by changing from butter to a monounsaturated spread and making sure we cut or drain the fat off meat.

I now know to sit back and think about how I project myself

Darren Taylor

I don't drink coffee, but he recommended that I trim my six daily cups of tea down to four. I've taken that to heart, bringing a water cooler into the office so that everyone can benefit.

But my main problem is that I like big portions, so I'll have to try and cut that back.

THE EYES HAVE IT
As for exercise, I'm not sure how I am going to manage the two 20 minute sessions of high heart-rate exercise. I'll definitely go swimming and cycling more with the family. You won't catch me down the gym. I think it's pointless.

One of the problems I managed to tackle with Gill Kellard, who taught us about communication skills, was the issue of eye contact: I tend to feel uncomfortable doing it and as a result, avoid people's eye. My perception was that looking straight into someone's eye while you are talking can be aggressive or confrontational. The last thing I want to be is a bully.

Gill explained that making eye contact from time to time was a good option. I've been practising that and it does work.

The other thing which Gill taught us was how to create rapport with someone, say if a conversation isn't going well. Things like mirroring someone's body posture or movement, or breathing in time with them and using similar voice tones really work. We did an exercise where we tried to disagree on a subject with another person, while that person was matching my voice tone and behaviour. It was almost impossible not to start agreeing. Try it!

It's made me much more aware. My wife and I went out to dinner the other weekend and spotted couples who were obviously getting on well, mirroring each other with body language.

I now sit back and watch for others' reactions, give myself a bit more time to think about how I want to project myself and my thoughts.

One area where I realised I was perhaps luckier than some other people on the course was stress. I was amazed how many people suffered from insomnia. I am the sort of person who needs a bit of stress to work. There's a buzz in being busy, you get more done. So I suppose stress is a positive thing for me at the moment.

Perhaps the most revealing module for me was the life coaching sessions. Mainly I wanted to improve my relationship with my son. What Len Goss, the life coach, explained was that our reactions to all situations are subconscious behaviours that have been pre-programmed into the recesses while we were growing up. Our 'wiring' was determined by how we had subconsciously interpreted events.

During our one-to-one session, Len showed me that my problems at home were actually due to my management style at work. I have to admit it was a bit of a surprise.

HOME TRUTHS
My natural management style is to lead from the front. I tend to show people how to do something by actually doing it for them, rather than explaining to them how it should be done and leaving them to do it themselves.

It's all to do with my dad. He was incredibly ambitious and hard-working. Len explained that I was hard-wired to believe that this was the only way to be.

It all made sense. I am always trying to cram as many things as possible into the day. I realised why my time-management was poor: if I can fit one more task in before I head off to a meeting, I will. I am now trying to resist that temptation, leave it and set off in plenty of time.

I've also made a conscious decision to get home by 6:30 at the latest so I can be with my family. I still get up between 5:30 and 6:00 and get an early start, because they're in bed anyway so it's 'dead time'. But this course has really made me more relaxed about other people's time-keeping too. Without what I have learnt, I would have been really irritated by people leaving early or arriving late. But now I am more laid back: it doesn't matter as long as they are doing their job properly.

This course has definitely improved my confidence. It has given me the chance to look at myself, how I am feeling, how I am functioning within the rest of the world. That's something that you never do normally, you are so busy focusing on what's going on around you.