Coaching is a professional partnership between the coach and the client, that inspires the client to maximise their personal and professional potential.

Through a series of structured conversations, the coach uses thought-provoking questions to help the client in gain awareness and clarity about the goal they want to achieve and what could be holding them back.  From there, they support the client to generate a set of meaningful actions that they can work on, motivating and supporting them to work towards their ideal new state.

Coaching can help clients move beyond their own limiting beliefs to achieve things they never thought possible.

• Working towards that important promotion, or ensuring you ace that new leadership role
• Supporting you in building and developing high-performing teams
• Managing the challenges of redundancy, and developing a way forward that excites you
• Building resilience to better manage life’s complexity, and reducing overwhelm
• Understanding your unique strengths and how these can support you in meeting your goals
• Brainstorming how to move when you’re feeling stuck, or the best way to proceed isn’t clear

Much has been written about this, and a quick search on the internet will bring up many definitions.  Here’s a short explanation that might help, put in the context of learning a new skill.

A mentor already has the skill and has been using it for a long time.  They can give advice and share with the mentee how they learned it.  Their role is often longer term, mentee driven and focused on helping the mentee become proficient by giving guidance when required.  Typically, they will work with the mentee for this skill only, as they are known for their mastery.

A trainer will teach the client the new skill.  Through a series of lessons, often with a defined syllabus, they will tap into the client’s preferred way of learning to help them gain the skill over time.  This will be through a series of activities that help the client to build their knowledge.  The role can be short term or long term, depending on how complex the new skills is to learn.

A counsellor will work with their client to understand issues from their past that may impact them learning the new skill.  They are highly qualified in working with the client to uncover physical and / or psychological issues and using a variety of methods to remedy these and bring the client lasting relief.  The process tends to be longer term and may require a range of professionals to support the client in getting back to a space where they are able to learn the skill successfully.

A coach will use a series of questions to help the client understand why learning this new skill is important to them, so that they can retain the motivation to get started.   They will help the client build awareness around the best way to learn the skill and support them when the learning process gets tough.  This can either be in the short term when the client needs to brainstorm learning options, or in the long term, helping them to break down the goal of learning the skill into manageable pieces.  The coach will work with the client to questions limiting beliefs as to their ability to learn the skill and be a cheerleader for the client’s success.

There will be an initial discovery session where we discuss your goals, get to know each other and you can ask any questions you may have about next steps.  It’s important that you feel comfortable working with me as your coach.

We may agree that you would like to take an assessment to help gain greater insights into your preferences.  These are particularly useful when seeking to build resilience, working towards a challenging goal, or want a greater understanding of your behavioural preferences and how you can use these insights towards building a better future.

We will also agree the schedule for our meetings.  Normally coaching will last 3-6 months, depending on what you would like to focus on and when you would like to meet your goal, but can sometimes stretch to 12 months, depending on your personal timeline.

And then we get started.  We will have a series of conversations, sometimes challenging, often humorous and always focused on what you would like to achieve.  We will be forward thinking, helping you gain clarity, and understand what you want your future to look like, and defining the steps that will take you there.  There will be some accountability built in to help you take those steps, and also support for those times when moving forwards isn’t quite so easy.

Trust is a key part of the coaching process, and everything about our coaching remains confidential – before, during and after.  I am bound by the International Coach Federation Code of Ethics, more details of which can be found here.

Yes, all coaching packages start with a free 20 minute discovery session, where we discuss your goals, get to know each other and feel comfortable working together.  You can sign up for this here.

This depends of the type and length of coaching package you require.  Please contact me here with your requirements to learn more.

I am based in the UK and coaching can take place face to face, by telephone or over Skype or Zoom.  The Lumina and MTQ Mental Toughness assessments are online, so can be completed from anywhere in the globe. 

Please sign up for a free 20 minute discovery session here.