How do I know if this is right for me?

The lines can be a little blurry between coaching and other forms of support:

• If you feel a pull towards exploring your past first, before looking towards the future, then that may be a sign that therapy may be more suitable.

• If you would like advice and top tips, this might be a sign that training or mentoring may be more appropriate.

• If you’re ready for change, and either have a goal in mind or would like support working out what you want, and are willing to be introspective, then coaching could be for you. I have included below some definitions of coaching to help you see if they strike a chord with you.

I can be flexible depending on what you want, so we can agree this up front. I’m a coach who also offers training. For example, as a certified Positive Intelligence coach, I offer the mental fitness programme as part of my broader coaching/training packages. This app-based programme, combined with regular calls, helps you tackle the root causes of your behaviour. It helps you understand how your mind works and build your mental fitness. It is a fantastic way to lay a solid foundation for coaching.

For example:

A recent client admitted she was hoping I would tell her what to do. How to behave in certain situations at work. Instead, I explained I would train her in mental fitness and coach her around this challenge. She was a little disappointed in the moment, and realised she was going to have to put the work in herself.

However, a few months later, she concluded that this work had changed her life. She had learned to trust her own intuition. She realised she didn’t need to “perform” at work - she could just trust herself. That’s actually much easier in the long run, and it yields better results in all areas of your life.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious,

it will direct your life and you will call it fate”

(Carl Jung)

Some definitions to help you decide if coaching is for you:

• “Coaches do not act as experts or analysts even when they have relevant experience and education. Coaches are essentially thinking partners focused on helping clients use their creativity and resources to see beyond their blocks and solve their own problems.” (Marcia Reynolds, “Coach the person not the problem”)

• Coaching is “Unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them” (Whitmore 2003).

• It is also “about enabling individuals to make conscious decisions and empowering them to become leaders in their own lives” (Wise 2010).

• And it is “partnering with clients in a creative and thought-provoking process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential” (International Coaching Federation - ICF).

What if, deep down, you already knew the answers to your most important questions? My job is to help them up to the surface, and to accompany you on your journey.

How do your offerings all fit together?

Here’s a Gantt-chart-style picture to help people who prefer a visual. Get in touch if you would like to discuss the details and explore a tailor-made approach.

What is the time commitment?

Everything I offer can be fitted in around a busy job and home life if needs be.

• A typical coaching contract is 10 hours over a 3-6 month period.

• The “deep dive”/career coaching process typically takes 3-6 months if you are in full-time employment. It includes 12 hours’ coaching plus some powerful exercises for you to do by yourself and bring to our meetings to discuss.

• The mental fitness foundation training is a 6 week intensive, with 7 videos to watch at the weekend and a weekly call, followed by 4 months non-intensive work to explore work and life applications. More details here.

We will agree how frequently we’ll meet in a way which accommodates your schedule and any time-specific goals you might have. Some sessions may only require an hour or less, and others may require longer, if we are doing certain exercises together. Sometimes you might prefer a shorter check-in and other times you might want to carve out 2 or 3 hours.

I work remotely (Zoom/Teams) and face-to-face (Brighton, London and further afield as required).

If you’re hesitating, ponder this:

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.

The second best time is today!

If I do career coaching, does that imply that I want to leave my job?

No!

It shows that you are ready to take things to the next level, and that may well be a “win win” for you and your employer.

One of the best bosses I ever had used to say “If you get contacted by a headhunter and are curious, I want you to follow up. That way, if you choose to stay in my team, you know why you are choosing to stay. I don’t want people just staying here by default.” I respected him for that openness and honesty, and it’s one of the reasons I stayed in his team.

The same applies here… my career coaching programme helps you explore what is really important to you and identify your options. You’ll choose a path and be confident about your choice. You may decide to leave, or you may decide to stay where you are and harness your energy, passion, network and influence to help your current employer raise their game.

What do you charge?

My standard rates are in line with the market for executive coaching.

I also offer a sliding scale model with reduced rates (e.g. for social enterprises and not-for-profits), because I don’t want money to be the reason someone decides not to work with me.

I recommend that if you like what you’ve seen so far on here, you book a discovery session and we take it from there. We can discuss why you are seeking coaching, understand whether there’s a mutual fit, and scope out the type of work we are likely to do together and for how long.

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