Executive Leadership Coaching

Because outstanding leadership doesn’t just happen

Leaders are reported to be the single-biggest factor in an organisation’s success

(Gallup, 2019).

We offer world-class executive leadership coaching in London and the UK to C-suite executives, senior leaders and entrepreneurs who are ready to take their leadership to the next level. Delivered face-to-face or virtually.

Why coaching?

As a leader or C-Suite executive, you face with relentless challenges that stretch you to your limits and require you to bring your very best. Leaders are expected to be ‘always on’, delivering outstanding strategic and operational results whilst being able to switch tasks and deliver on multiple complex projects at once.

Often, a leader has few trusted people they can turn to, but a lot of people who want something from them. In short, leadership can be incredibly lonely.

Coaching takes leaders out of the busyness of their day-to-day roles and offers invaluable time and space to pause, reflect and think deeply and strategically about their behaviour, motives and impact.

Our coaches work with every leader and team at a psychologically deep level to create sustainable, meaningful change for the better.

MEET THE TEAM

Who we work with

We work with executives like you in London and across the UK, both face to face and online, to tackle a range of complex, demanding issues, including:

Your vision, values and ability to create meaningful, sustainable results

How to lead effectively in an increasingly volatile, uncertain and complex world

How to get the very best out of your people

The competing demands on your time, attention and skillset

The skills needed to be an innovative, strategic, adaptable, resilient and genuinely inspiring leader.

READ OUR TESTIMONIALS

Typically, organisations approach us for leadership coaching for four reasons:

1. Leaders who are valuable but at risk of derailing

Many operationally brilliant leaders we work with need specialised support to lessen the impact of their dark side tendencies or build key leadership skills such as feedback, how to nurture high potentials, or leading through a climate of fear and control. We understand the psychology underpinning a lot of poor leadership behaviours and tackle the root, not just the outward symptoms.

2. Those who are high potentials

Coaching offers high-potential individuals space and support to develop the skills required to make the transition from being a great contributor to being an effective leader of others.

3. Newly hired or promoted leaders

Coaching can help new leaders navigate the initial learning curve and the psychologically daunting task of working at the next level.

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4. To support leaders who are managing change

Change is inevitable, but it’s also incredibly stressful. Intense stress – whether because of a restructure, the pressures of balancing work and home or a global pandemic – takes its toll on our psychological, physical and emotional wellbeing and resilience. Coaching gives you space to decompress and process so you can bring your very best.

CASE STUDIES

Mark was struggling with feeling overstretched in his new role and feeling exhausted because of the pandemic. With the support and challenge of one of our expert coaches, he explored his drive to be liked and the impact this had on his leadership effectiveness and personal resilience.

In three months, he developed a laser-focus on the three key areas where he knew he could make the biggest impact on the business, and after six he was getting more done in less time, giving him back his evenings and weekends.

Adam had stepped up into a C-Suite role and wanted coaching to help him through the transition. In less than 12 months, he had led his team through the various crises brought about because of the pandemic and had secured the future of the business.

8 ways we are different

01.
We look beyond the individual to the system
Organisations often want to send a ‘troubling’ individual for coaching, without considering that the culture of the organisational system might be troubled itself. We won’t agree to coaching an individual executive or leader if we feel that it’s being requested as a substitute for a systemic intervention – but we may offer both coaching and consultancy side by side.
02.
We run an initial diagnostic phase before any coaching happens
You cannot simply buy our coaching; it’s a two-way commitment, and we won’t agree to coaching one of your leaders if we feel the root of the issue lies elsewhere or if the leader isn’t ready to be coached.
03.
We assess for readiness to change
Coaching will challenge and stretch you. Because of that, sometimes it isn’t the right intervention at the right time. We apply what the scientific research shows, which is that readiness to change is a critical component of successful coaching, and assess for this in every initial Chemistry Session.
04.
We make it clear from the offset that one outcome of the coaching might be that people leave.
Coaching is ultimately about change and transformation. That can mean internal shifts in how people perceive the challenges they’re facing – and it can also mean decisions are made that change the course of people’s lives.

If you send one of your leaders to us for coaching, you need to be prepared for both outcomes. Our business leadership development and leadership performance coaching programmes are tried, tested and deliver proven results, some of which might be unexpected. We believe that if a decision is right for the individual, it’s ultimately right for the business too.
05.
We resist the ‘quick fix’ culture and the lure of easy answers
In a world of same-day delivery, it’s tempting to look for easy answers and ways to change as effortlessly as possible. We believe in the power good coaching has to create massive results, but we will never tell you this can be achieved overnight. That’s why our minimum length of commitment is 6 months (although in most cases, we recommend a 12 month commitment).

Real change comes from within: from reflecting, processing, taking personal responsibility and deeply understanding the root cause of why you operate in the way you do.
06.
We work at a deep psychological level – and our coaches have been trained to do so.
Coaching is an unregulated industry. Anyone can do a two-day certificate and call themselves a coach, but that doesn’t mean they have the skills or expertise to lead coachees into and through challenging psychological and emotional territory that real change demands. Too often this results in surface-level interventions that do not tackle the psychology that drives human behaviour.

Our coaches are either trained psychologists or psychotherapists and have been through rigorous training that enables them to hold the space with professionalism and skill.
07.
We bring business expertise alongside psychological and emotional understanding.
In coaching, you’ll explore the feelings, fears, drivers and unconscious assumptions that shape who you are as a leader – but your coach will also be able to offer you practical, applicable insight and support to help you achieve high-performance on a day-to-day basis.
08.
We respect you and we respect our role
We know we are not neutral. To coach is a highly privileged position that comes with its own form of power and influence. Because our coaches are clinically trained, they’ve been through the rigorous process of self-reflection required to make sense of their own hidden drivers, motivations and potential to exploit their role. Confidentiality forms the backbone of every coach-coachee relationship, and we undertake regular supervision in order to provide a rigorous, world-class service.