More About Coaching
Coaching is an investment in you - your present and future self. Coaching gives you time, space and tools to live the life you want to lead, and become the person you want to be - in your personal and/or professional life.
Coaching can supercharge you, and the difference you make in the world.
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Learn more on this page about what coaching is, the process, and what I do: executive/ leadership and lifestyle coaching.
What is coaching?
Coaching is a process of intellectual exploration and enquiry. Coaching sessions provide a safe, confidential and 'nicely challenging' space to openly discuss and explore your 'hot topics', the issues or problems you're facing, or goals you're working towards.
Coaching is solutions focused.
Coaching is future focused.
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Coaching is often energising, galvanising and practical.
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Coaching allows 'the answers' to come from you.
Coaching improves your understanding of your situation / context / issue - which usually or eventually leads to a change in behaviour, attitude, outcome.
Why Get Coaching?
Coaching enables you to flourish:
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Press the pause button, and explore your toughest challenges in a confidential, safe and highly supportive space.
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Better understand yourself, your thoughts, your strengths, your goals, and your current challenges or issues.
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Engage creatively with your own innate knowledge, to deploy your best ideas, abilities and energy to the full.
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Identify, reduce, remove and overcome the blocks and challenges that hold you back from being your best self in your best life.
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Learn about and through new 'thinking tools' - that you can return to time and again.
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Take and maintain action. Have accountability.
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Consider your contribution in the round, and how the different parts of your life interact.
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Identify and act in ways that best promote your wellbeing and build resilience.
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Interact and relate better to others.
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Have a witness, a partner, a ‘critical and cheerleading friend’, to walk alongside you on the tough parts of the journey.
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I personally value the depth of understanding, accountability and the 'held space' coaching gives me to work through various issues and challenges in my life.
Who is Coaching for?
Coaching is suitable for:
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Anyone who wishes to explore how to create the change they wish to see in themselves, their own lives (personal or professional) and perhaps also in the wider world.
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Individuals, at any age, who wants to engage in the coaching process. The coaching process requires an enquiring mind and a willingness to reflect honestly on your own thoughts, assumptions, goals, attitudes, behaviours and actions.​
I give coaching to social impact leaders, placemakers, peers, friends and others recommended to connect with me.
As an Award winning social entrepreneur, I love to work with leaders and entrepreneurs who put purpose at the heart of their work, so that I can help them achieve their social mission. But not everyone I coach would consider themselves an ‘Impact Leader’.
Whomever I am coaching, and for whatever purpose they come to me for coaching, my intention is to enable people to access a rich path to personal development; and to make an impact that they may not have otherwise.
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I have a strong belief in people and their ability to grow, develop, have agency and make a contribution to our world. I have also learned that personal behavioural change and development only ‘sticks’ for people if they take true ownership of shaping their own path and destiny.
We all hold our own 'answers' - if only we craft a way to listen!
What areas of my life can I talk about?
Coaching is your time for you to explore the issues of most importance to you at this moment in your life. You decide the goals you want to pursue and we work to your agenda and pace
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You may choose to focus primarily on your work life, or equally you are welcome to talk about the other different aspects of your life and how these interact.
What sorts of topics might we cover in Coaching?
The topics that we could discuss are endless and varied.
Example 'headline topics' include: planning for & navigating career transitions, advancement or changing professions; pursuing personal/ professional goals; overcoming personal challenges; relating better to colleagues, friends or family; improving performance; or just getting more sleep…
For example, if I was coaching someone in a leadership position on work related subjects, I could support them to:
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Generate potential solutions to difficult issues they are facing.
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Consider how they might improve or maximise particular relationships.
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Improve their self-awareness and understanding of their leadership style.
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Develop strategies for enhancing their wellbeing and promoting their resilience.
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Consider how they balance their leadership role with other aspects of their life.
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Example topics for someone looking at coaching to enhance their personal life includes:
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Generating understanding of 'the components of my best life' - and how to get started on making it a reality
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Getting a grip on 'money issues' and fears around managing money
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Navigating family dynamics
I’m at a turning point. How can I use coaching to help me move forward?
Coaching can be particularly useful to help you to:
Uncover what you really enjoy and explore your values and purpose in life.
Build your resilience so that you can weather life’s storms more effectively.
Take practical steps towards a new job, career or building a new business.
Prepare to return to work if you’ve not been working, or prepare to start a new role.
Recover from a set back or move on from behaviour or an experience that’s holding you back.
Plan for leaving a job or leaving work altogether.
My employer or a sponsor is supporting me to do this coaching. How does that work?
Before we start our coaching sessions, I will arrange a three-way meeting between myself, you and your sponsor organisation to ensure there is alignment on the objectives for coaching between all parties.
As we progress through your coaching programme, we will build in a feedback loop to your sponsor organisation so that everyone can reflect on the value that coaching is bringing to your development.
How deep does coaching go?
Coaching is not counselling.
I am comfortable to explore difficult challenges and relationships with you, to sit with you if difficult feelings arise such as sadness, frustration or anger. Our coaching sessions are a safe, non-judgemental space for you to explore your thoughts and feelings - positive and negative thoughts and feelings are okay.
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I have rich and varied experience of leading and developing people from all walks of life and at all levels. I have walked beside many who have faced tough challenges and I have experienced significant highs and lows myself. Often the biggest learning and progress follows the toughest times or situations. I am not afraid to go with you on the hard parts of the journey and to help you dig down to the fundamentals - if that’s what you want to do.
Equally, if we touch on ground that is beyond my experience and I think that a different type of support may benefit you, I will let you know the limits of what I can offer and make suggestions of what or who else might help.
What coaching isn't
In my role as coach, I avoid giving advice as this can get in the way of your intuition and you finding your own solutions. Coaching is not consultancy, nor is it mentoring. To understand more about the difference between coaching and mentoring, read this excellent blog: https://elitebusinessmagazine.co.uk/people/item/what-is-coaching-and-does-your-business-need-it
When you come to coaching, you should not expect to receive my direct advice. If, on occasions, you are stuck in a session and a suggestion from me might move you forwards helpfully, I will ask if you’d like 'my advice'.
Coaching is not counselling, which deals mainly with resolving psychological problems and difficulties. In contrast, coaching generally works in a more positive and developmental space and is focussed on moving forwards and on you taking positive action.
How long are coaching sessions?
Sessions are generally either 1 or 1.5 hours long, but longer sessions are also possible.
Is there a minimum number of coaching sessions that I have to book?
No - but Rome wasn't built in a day...
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If you just need one-off or ad-hoc support, then that option is available to you. It's like emergency first aid rather than fine-tuning your engine.
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If one session is all you feel you need, then you are welcome to book just one session. You can then decide if you’d like to spend more time on the same, or another topic, through the coaching process.
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From experience, most people going through 'a tough time' or 'facing up to obstacles and making a plan' need roughly 4-6 sessions, over about 6+ months.
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Individuals may then choose to have an occasional regroup through a single one-off session, or have an hour's session every quarter.
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It's all up to you...
How are coaching sessions structured?
We start each session by working to identify a goal or topic of importance to you.
I then ask you a series of open questions, which provide a framework for you to explore a particular challenge or opportunity, and then generate options and new ways of thinking that you might apply to the goal you have identified.
Alongside asking questions, the key thing I will do is to listen - and ask ‘open, insightful questions’. You will most likely bathe in the luxury of having time and space to talk and having someone listen to you with their full attention.
On occasions, I may suggest using tools and models to help you increase your self-awareness and generate new ways of seeing yourself and the world.
We will close each session by setting out actions you intend to take in pursuit of your goal. I will work with you to create accountability between sessions to help you move forward.
How often will we meet?
Coaching is all about your agenda, so we will schedule sessions to meet your needs. This may be a one-off session, or you may want to have something more regular.
Some people like to set up a run of sessions to help them navigate a change such as taking on a new role or to work on a particular area of their development. A couple of examples include:
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Once a month for 4 months
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6 sessions over 4 months
Others prefer to have regular ongoing coaching to support them in their leadership role, e.g. every other month for one year.
How will I experience you as a coach?
Clients say my style is intuitive, flexible, fully-present and carefully guides a coachee to action. I’ve listed some testimonials below.
My strengths as a coach are rooted in well-developed listening and questioning skills.
My nature is future-focused, intuitive, positive, encouraging and direct.
My knowledge of leadership and learning styles has given me an awareness that people come to coaching sessions with a range of needs and preferences.
Sometimes people want to walk away from a session with a very focussed set of actions to pursue. Other times, they want to explore issues at a much more fundamental level, and would prefer to delve deeper in order to understand why they might have certain patterns of behaviour.
I have the ability to run different types of coaching sessions to meet the needs of different people at different times in their lives.
My background in developing and working with people means I am well practised in creating a coaching environment that feels genuinely safe and non-judgemental. I am adept at giving positive regard and developing high levels of trust and rapport with the people I coach.
Making this coaching safe and ethical
During our coaching sessions, I will work to create a safe environment where you feel comfortable to share what you are thinking and can take risks in developing new ideas.
Start of the Coaching Relationship
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Before starting coaching sessions, I will seek to understand your needs and your expectations of coaching.
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If an employer or sponsor is supporting you to do coaching, I will work to understand their expectations and we will agree in advance how we will feed back your progress.
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During coaching sessions, I will use a number of coaching methods and tools. I will be open about these tools and will make my methods available to you if you would like to know more at any time.
Confidentiality
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I will maintain the highest level of confidentiality with any information you share with me.
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I will uphold confidentiality at all times and would only share information we have discussed with an external party in exceptional circumstances if I was concerned there is a risk to your safety or to others.
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I will keep brief, anonymous notes about our coaching sessions to monitor your progress and to ensure our next session is of maximum value to you. I will store notes and records of our communication (e.g. emails) securely and in line with GDPR regulation.
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As a Coach working to professional standards, I will receive supervision from a qualified peer working to the same standards. During supervision, I may refer to our coaching sessions but, if I do so, I would anonymously refer to any discussions we have had. My relationship with my coach supervisor is also confidential.
Conflicts of Interest
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I will not seek to gain any inappropriate financial or non-financial advantage from our relationship.
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If a conflict of interest arises, I would seek to address this openly with you.
Ending the Coaching Relationship
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I will be open if I think a different coach or type of support may be better suited to you, and equally you can be open with me if you think this is the case.
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Without judgement, I respect your right to end our coaching relationship at any time.
Complaints
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If you are concerned about my professional conduct, you can make a complaint to the Association for Coaching via the following link: Association for Coaching - Complaints Procedure
Many thanks for reading and I very much look forward to our coaching sessions together.
Sample Coaching Goals
Thrive in a new role or when taking on increased responsibilities.
Get a new/better job.
Hardwire reflection & learning into your diary.
Be able to run a marathon…
Navigate well (and reduce messing up) significant changes in life.
Improve or maximise key relationships.
Build your wellbeing & resilience.
Lead on change in your organisation or team.
Prepare for an activity that is quite new or challenging for you, such as holding a strategy session.
Get more sleep!
Where do we meet?
I work with people across the UK and other countries, so most of my coaching takes place online via GoogleMeet or another platform. You can choose to have your camera on or off - both options work well for coaching - but being able to see your face is 'best'. If we are meeting online and have connection issues, I will call you and we will continue our session by phone.
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Meeting face to face is also an option, especially if we are located in the same vicinity.
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Please note that travel costs/ time and/or meeting room hire will be at your expense unless otherwise agreed together.
I also offer coaching whilst walking in nature, where we meet in a peaceful green space and walk alongside each other as we go through the coaching session. Again, travel costs may be associated. Lets discuss.
Design Your Own Journey - through a combination of:
Online
In Person
In Nature
What's the process?
What do you think?
Start your coaching journey now by taking action - drop me an email at Coaching@CreatingConnections.org and let's chat!