Your team isn't performing as you'd hoped
You're successful, but something doesn't feel right
You're working harder than your team
Who you're trusting with your thinking
I've been in the room. I know what leadership feels like.
Leadership can look very different from the outside than it feels from the inside. I've experienced the pressure, uncertainty, difficult decisions and responsibility that come with leading people and organisations.
Today, I use that experience alongside professional coaching to help leaders think more clearly, challenge their assumptions and find their own way forward.
I didn't become a coach because I wanted to tell people how to lead.
Throughout my career I've worked in leadership roles across the public, charity and commercial sectors. I've led people, managed change, dealt with organisational pressure and made decisions when there wasn't an obvious right answer. And I've learned something important.
Leadership can be lonely.
Even when you have colleagues, teams, mentors and people around you, there aren't many places where you can say exactly what you're thinking without worrying about what someone else thinks.
That's one of the reasons I became a coach.
What I bring to coaching...
Leadership experience
I've actually led people and organisations. I understand the realities rather than simply the theory.
Professional coaching
I'm trained to coach rather than advise, using evidence-based coaching approaches and positive psychology.
A willingness to challenge
I'll support you, but I won't simply agree with you. If I think there's something worth exploring, I'll say so.
You don't need another person telling you what to do.
You need someone who understands the context, can see things from the outside and isn't afraid to ask the question you might be avoiding.
You've got the answers. You just need some space to find them.
Book a confidential discovery call and let's see whether coaching could help you find a clearer way forward.
My career
I've spent more than 25 years working with people and organisations
I've worked across the public sector, charities and commercial organisations taking on roles that have given me a pretty broad view of what leadership looks like across a range of different contexts.
I've been responsible for teams, led organisational change , worked with senior leaders, and experienced the highs and frustrations that come with trying to get things done through other people.
I've also spent more than 25 years helping other people develop, which eventually led me to professional coaching.
So when we sit down together, I'm not bringing a textbook view of leadership. I'm bringing experience of what it is actually like to be responsible for people, decisions and outcomes.
Every role has taught me something about leadership.
Sometimes through getting it right. Sometimes through getting it wrong. And often through watching what happens when the two collide.
That's why I believe good coaching needs to understand the reality of leadership, not just the theory.
And more recently, I've spent my time in leadership development running national training programmes for leaders and supporting and training leaders and overseeing coaches working with leaders in the public sector.
Qualifications
Learning is a key part of developing as a leader and the same is true of developing as a coach. I've combined the study of leadership, psychology and coaching to ensure I bring the best evidence-based practice to the way that I work with clients. Some of my key qualifications include:
MSc Applied Positive Psychology
I've studied the psychology of what makes people perform at their best, how to develop people's strengths, the essential ingredients of building organisations where people thrive and the components of successful working relationships. But more importantly I've applied what I've learnt in real work contexts, so I know what works in practice where it matters.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE NEW UNIVERSITY
ILM Level 7 Diploma in Executive and Senior Level Coaching and Mentoring
I've had extensive training at Masters' level in coaching specifically for Executives and Senior Leaders. I've learnt how to work with people to help them find the answers, but I've also had a significant amount of supervision from expert coaches to help me hone my craft. As part of the training I coached leaders in a number of sectors.
INSTITUTE OF LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
Post Graudate Certificate in Business Leadership
My PGCert in Business Leadership gave me the opportunity to step back from my own experience and explore what makes leadership effective.
It developed my understanding of leadership theory, organisational behaviour, strategy, talent development at an organisational level, change management and the challenges of leading people and organisations.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE NEW UNIVERSITY
Post Graudate Certificate in Educational Leadership
My PGCert in Educational Leadership allowed me to spend some time looking at the role that reflection plays in learning, the psychology required to be a successful leader and the role of ethics and values in leadership. It gave me a deeper appreciation of the importance of creating space for leaders to reflect, challenge their thinking and understand what really matters to them.
UNIVERSITY OF CHESTER
You've got the answers. You just need some space to find them.
Book a confidential discovery call and let's see whether coaching could help you find a clearer way forward.
How I work
No judgement
You can say what you're really thinking.
Leadership isn't always pretty. You can be frustrated with your team, resentful about a colleague, unsure about a decision, worried you've got something wrong or simply fed up with the whole thing.
Our sessions are a space where you can say the things you might not feel able to say elsewhere — without worrying about how they sound or what I might think of you. Then we'll explore it together.
No agenda
This is your time, not mine.
We'll start where you are. Sometimes we'll spend an entire session working through one difficult conversation. Sometimes we'll uncover something that you hadn't realised was bothering you. And sometimes the thing you thought you needed to talk about turns out not to be the thing that matters most.
I don't need to steer you towards a particular outcome.
No easy answers
I'll help you think harder, not tell you what to think.
I'm supportive, but I'm not here simply to make you feel better about a difficult situation. Sometimes the most useful thing I can do is ask a question you don't really want to answer. I'll challenge the assumptions you're making. I'll help you look at things from a different perspective.
The aim is for you to leave seeing something differently, and knowing what you're going to do.
The person behind the coaching
I've always been curious about people — what makes them tick, what motivates them, why they sometimes do things that don't make much sense, and what happens when they see a situation differently.
Outside of coaching, I'm usually doing something that involves learning, creating or exploring something new. I am often travelling to places which don't make it onto people's list of tourist destinations, so I'm comfortable with uncertainty, taking risks and figuring things out as I go.
I'm also a huge wine enthusiast, which has led me down the rather enjoyable rabbit hole of studying wine, writing about it and spending far too much time thinking about what we're going to drink next.
I don't think you have to leave your personality at the door when you become a leader.
So while I take the work we do together seriously, I don't believe coaching has to be stiff, formal or overly corporate. There will be serious conversations, difficult questions and moments that make you think.
There'll probably be some laughter too.
Ultimately, I want you to feel that you can turn up as yourself — because that's the person I'm here to coach.
Thinking about coaching? Let's talk.
You don't need to have everything figured out before you get in touch. That's the point.
Book a confidential, no-obligation discovery call and let's talk about what's going on and whether I could help.