Executive Coaching
Coaching that gets senior leaders on the front foot and their teams delivering.
When leadership needs something new
The leaders I coach are capable people. That's why they were promoted, and it's why their organisation is investing in them. What brings them to coaching is usually the point where what got them here stops being enough: the role has grown, or the team needs something different from them. Coaching gives them the space to work out what that is, and the support to act on it.
The driver for change usually shows up as something specific:
Stepping up into an executive team or a first CEO role
A team that isn't performing, for reasons no one can pin down
Difficult relationships with a boss, peers or stakeholders
A decision about direction, including whether to stay or go
Working flat out and still feeling behind on every front
How coaching works
01
Perspective
Make room, away from the meetings and the politics, to look at the whole situation, including the parts that are easy to avoid.
02
Test
Your values are one reference point. The people who know you best, at work and at home, are the others. Checking your view against several of them is what makes it reliable.
03
Prioritise and Commit
You choose the next moves. It needs to be an your team can follow, in the conditions you're actually facing, with agreed points along the way to check it's working.
04
Review & Embed
We come back to those points and check what's actually changing, using your own view and feedback from the people around you. Where something isn't landing, we adjust it. Over time, the new approach becomes part of your leadership DNA.
Experience behind the coaching
I've led teams in small firms, mid-sized businesses and global groups, across banking, lending, wealth, pensions and fintech. Each one broke in a different way. These are some of the moments I draw on most.
Strategy through to exit. As a CEO, I set the strategy and saw it through, growing the business, including by acquisition, to deliver the exit its founder had planned.
Eight weeks to eight hours. At BNP Paribas Personal Finance I reorganised a siloed function into teams built around customer outcomes and brought compliance into the process. Campaign cycle time fell from eight weeks to eight hours.
Two teams, one target. At MPA, sales and marketing had stopped working together. With shared visibility and joint accountability, cross-sell grew from around 1% to 20% in twelve months.
Rebuilding trust. More than once I've taken on a team after a period of conflict. Getting people working together again comes before any plan.
Knowing when to go. I once stayed too long inside a system that was structurally broken. Staying isn't always loyalty, and I can help you see your own situation clearly enough to decide.
Where I've worked: Abbey National · Merrill Lynch · Lightstone Interactive · The Share Centre · RS Components · BNP Paribas · MPA
Qualifications: Cranfield MBA · HEC Paris Senior Leadership Programme · University of Oxford Saïd Business School AI programme · Community rugby coaching qualification
Working Together
Flexible approach to breakthrough performance
Coaching Programme
A set programme of sessions over 4-6 weeks, starting with a longer first session to agree what you want from the work and how we'll know it's working.
Monthly sessions after the programme, for leaders who want a regular sounding board.
Ongoing Coaching
In person anywhere in the UK, or online. Some leaders prefer to talk on a walk, because thinking comes more easily away from a desk. Getting outside in nature usually leads to much more creative solutions
Location
For organisations
If you’re selecting coaches from a panel or sponsoring a leader, this is my approach
Contracting
At the start, the leader, their sponsor and I agree the aims, how progress will be reviewed and what will be shared.
Reviews
A mid-point and a final review against the aims agreed at the start.
What's said in sessions stays there, within limits I set out in writing at the start. Sponsors hear about progress against the agreed aims, in a review the leader attends.
Confidentiality
Each leader has a free introductory conversation before anything is agreed, so they choose a coach they'll work well with.
Fit First
The first call is free and takes about 30 minutes. We'll talk about what's going on and whether working together makes sense. If I'm not the right coach for you, I'll say so.