Executive & leadership coaching
Be more
human.
Executive and leadership coaching for people who want to build stronger human connection and bring more out of the people around them.
Most people have more to give than they’re currently showing. More ideas. More courage. More honesty. More creativity.
And if you lead people, you have more influence over whether that shows up than you probably realise. Because people respond to people. The conversations you have, the questions you ask, whether you listen, challenge, interrupt, encourage or jump straight in with the answer. It all leaves something behind.
That’s the bit of leadership I’m interested in.
People respond to people
Every interaction changes something.
A leader can make someone think bigger or play smaller. Speak up or stay quiet. Have a go or decide it isn’t worth the hassle.
Often, that doesn’t come from the big leadership moments. It comes from the ordinary interactions nobody thinks much about afterwards.
- A conversation where you really listened.
- A question that made someone think.
- A challenge that showed someone you expected more from them.
- Or the meeting where you already knew the answer, talked over everyone and wondered afterwards why nobody contributed.
Every contact leaves a trace.
Multiply that across a team, a year, a career, and it shapes what people are willing to bring and what they can achieve.
the messy bit is the good bitWhy “be more human”
The more technology does, the more the human stuff matters.
I use AI every day. I like it. It helps me think, create, challenge ideas and get things done faster. I’m not interested in pretending we’d all be better off without it.
But there is a tension in all of this that I can’t stop thinking about. The more technology does for us, the fewer reasons we have to interact with another person. Questions get answered without asking someone. Problems get solved without sitting down together. Work gets produced without the messy back and forth that used to come with it.
A lot of that is progress. But some of that mess was where we connected. It’s how we learn. It’s how we grow.
People still need to feel heard. We still need people who challenge us because they give a shit. We still need conversations where we don’t know exactly where they’re going.
I passionately believe good human interaction is going to become more valuable as it becomes less necessary.
And if you lead people, that matters.
Be more human.
What I believe
People have more to give than they're currently showing.
Most people want to do well. Most people can do better. Sometimes they just haven't had the person, conversation or opportunity that helps them get there.
Every interaction changes something.
You never leave someone exactly as you found them. A little more confident or a little less. More willing to speak or more likely to stay quiet. More energy or less.
Honest conversations change people.
Being nice isn't the same as being kind. Sometimes caring about someone means challenging them, saying the thing other people won't and expecting more from them.
Leadership is earned every day.
Your team is experiencing your leadership every time they interact with you. Every conversation is a tiny performance review. The difference is they're reviewing you.
Better people build better outcomes.
The point isn't better relationships for the sake of better relationships. Great leaders help people grow, perform and make cool shit happen.
The coaching
This is where coaching comes in.
I’ve spent more than ten years coaching and developing leaders, and I still think there’s something pretty special about giving one person your complete attention for an hour.
No team to manage. No meeting to run. No need to have the answer. Just somewhere to think properly.
I work one-to-one with leaders who want to get better. Sometimes something is stuck. Sometimes the team isn’t giving them what they need. Sometimes the pressure has become enormous. Sometimes everything is actually going really well and they want to make sure they keep growing with it.
The starting point doesn’t matter that much. Wanting to get better does.
When we’re talking, I want you to feel like you’re the only person in the room and the only thing on my mind. I’ll listen properly. I’ll ask questions that might take us somewhere neither of us expected. I’ll challenge you when I think it will help. And sometimes I’ll tell you what I think, because pretending I don’t have an opinion just because I’m the coach seems a bit daft.
The training and coaching models I’ve used over the years absolutely sit underneath how I work. It’s just not what matters most. It should feel like a good conversation. One that leaves you thinking:
“Shit. I need to approach that differently.”
The give back
Paid coaching creates more coaching.
There’s something slightly backwards about coaching. The people most likely to get access to it are usually the people who’ve already progressed far enough for their company to pay for it. I want to use the commercial side of this business to change that, even if only in a small way.
As paid coaching grows, it will create free coaching places for people much earlier in their careers, particularly young professionals from less privileged backgrounds who may have had less access to professional networks, mentors and opportunities.
I don’t intend to decide who “deserves” one from an application form. The aim is to partner with universities, social mobility organisations and other organisations already working with talented people at the start of their careers.
More paid coaching. More free coaching. More people getting someone properly in their corner.
You can probably lead better. So can I. That’s sort of the point.
If you’re curious enough to find out what better looks like, let’s have a conversation.