When it comes to identifying our strengths or areas in which we sabotage our best efforts, outsiders often have a perfect view.

The preferences and biases in our thoughts, feelings and behaviours affect our judgement… and we don’t always get it right. Coaching is a way of helping improving the odds of making more of the right decisions more of the time, not least through giving us feedback, challenging our thinking and creating insights.

We believe that having a coach is more than ‘being coached’; it is like having a log fire in your home. You may not light it every day, or even for a season, but over time you find that it enhances your life!

Leadership coaching is a personal and unique experience. It can range from hard-edged business mentoring through to discussion about personal attributes, all in one session. Our coaches move along a continuum from non-directive coaching to more directive coaching as appropriate. We help clients to become more self-aware by providing feedback and making observations ‘in the moment’ when we are with them.

Many of our clients have asked us to be their coaches through long periods of their careers. Others have a specific goal in mind for which they need challenge and a sounding board. We also coach teams; creating a structured process and an environment in which they are able to have honest and often difficult conversations and commit the time, energy and desire to think and explore ways to move forward with the challenges they face. Some of our clients have asked us to train them to be coaches and develop a Coaching Culture in their organisation.

Our coaches employ a range of styles and bring their own qualities as practitioners to each coaching situation. However, we all work within in over-arching methodology that we believe promotes excellence in all aspects of coaching interventions. This can be summarised as follows:

1. Values

We espouse and live the following values as coaches

  • Being the best – we encourage excellence in ourselves and those we coach
  • Being fully yourself – we recognise we’re coaching the ‘whole person’
  • Excitement – we seek to energise our coaching clients about the future
  • Flexibility – we adapt our coaching style and methods to meet the needs and nature of those we coach
  • Systemic thinking – we work ‘ecologically’ through problems and solutions

2. Approach

We bring three ‘ingredients’ to coaching conversations:

  • Support
  • Challenge
  • Feedback

The mix, degree and nature of each of these we judge in each conversation so that those we coach get precisely what they need.

3. Dependency-free leadership

Our outcome from coaching is that those with whom we work are better equipped and more capable as a result of our coaching interventions. Those we coach never become dependent upon us in the long term.

4. Rigour and precision

Our coaches can draw on a wide-range of tools, models and techniques. These may originate in the academic world, or be adapted from mental health practice, or consultancy. With any of these, we seek to achieve the highest levels of professional application. Reference points for our coaching methodology, and the processes surrounding our coaching, are drawn from:

  • The latest best practice from the world of NLP, Emotional Intelligence & models of leadership
  • Peer research through the Association for Coaching, European Coaching and Mentoring Council and relevant journals
  • The Institute of Leadership and Management’s Level 7 qualification in coaching
  • Commissioning and quality assurance of coaching using our rigorous internal quality management system.

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