What is your true calling?

How could you live and lead more sustainably, inclusively and purposefully? How could you make a bigger difference with your strengths and influence?

If these questions excite, intrigue or agitate you, I would love to work with you as your coach. I partner with leaders and emerging leaders who want to bring about change in themselves, their organisations and the world to help address our biggest challenges, including climate change, poverty, exclusion, and inequity. I provide a safe environment for you to delve deep into the being of leadership, connect with what matters most to you, and determine how best to make the impact you are capable of.

Together we’ll tackle challenges you’re experiencing, such as:

• Stepping into the demands of a bigger role
• Feeling overwhelmed by competing priorities
• Influencing systemic change
• Finding it hard to slow down when needed
• Having a noisy inner critic
• Lacking clarity about what’s next for you
• Unsure how to make your biggest contribution

Coaching is an adventure involving deep insights, courageous effort, and inspiring new perspectives. I offer you space to breathe. To experiment, have fun. To explore your feelings, including the ones you find most difficult. To play to your strengths. To clarify your real priorities. To plan your next steps confidently. To move into making a difference with focus and intention.

I encourage, challenge and support you in the choices you make to achieve your aspirations and find fulfilment in being your best ‘you’, in service of the world. To discover the benefits of a coaching partnership with me, read the Client Testimonials on this page.

Contact me for a free introductory call, for you to explore more about coaching and how it can help you, to see if we’d work well together, and to discuss logistics such as how often you want to meet, where (online, phone, in person), and fees.

What’s involved in coaching you?

I coach clients around the world by video call, phone or in person. I often coach outdoors, in the natural environment, where people find calm, inspiration and fresh perspectives. Moving or being still in nature, we can feel most connected to the Earth, our stake in it, and our biggest fears, hopes and dreams for our future here. We are part of nature, and nature offers us teaching for our human struggles, and evokes awareness of our responsibility to the living world around us.

My one-to-one coaching packages are flexible, designed with you to suit your needs and goals. A typical package consists of one-hour sessions every two weeks over a number of months. We’ll work with what your body is telling you as well as what’s going on in your head. The coaching may include exercises in visualisation, perspective and other creative tools, as well as my support between sessions as needed.

Team coaching: I also work with teams and groups in organisations, especially those involved in vital sustainability work. Coaching can facilitate trusting relationships and inclusive ways to collaborate, co-create and influence for success. It meets the team’s needs and agenda, taking account of the wider organisational system.

Fees: Please contact me directly for information about fees and payment options. I also offer some pro bono coaching if people are not in a position to pay for coaching to pursue their goal of making a difference.

About me

Like many people, I’ve experienced significant transitions in my career. I worked for nearly 30 years as a journalist with Reuters and the Financial Times, latterly writing about leadership, management, and change in the business world. My job involved asking incisive, challenging questions, typically of people in positions of power, to throw light on what was not visible and to get to the heart of the ‘story’.

I loved journalism, but I also wanted to do more. So I created my own ‘portfolio’ career: writing books (on gender-balanced leadership, the future of work and inclusive work environments), public speaking, advisory work, and facilitating group conversations and leadership programmes. These are described in more detail elsewhere on this website. Through much of this time, I experienced the joy and challenge of juggling career and family, and finding the right balance for me and my loved ones.

I came to coaching via my interest in inclusive leadership. Experiencing the transformative power of  ‘Collective Leadership’ (through three discovery retreats in a beautiful Dutch forest), I was drawn to enabling others to increase their impact through deep personal insights and more profound connections with others.

I work with established and emerging leaders – some of whom don’t yet see themselves as ‘leaders’. I draw on my knowledge of how to build positive relationships, communicate effectively, and facilitate inclusive and sustainable environments. The powerful questions I ask in coaching elucidate the client’s world and serve their growth and fulfilment as leaders.

I’m collaborative, curious, driven and optimistic. My core values are caring, connection, courage, exploration, fairness, inclusion, integrity, perseverance, reliability and respect.

Qualifications and training

I hold the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) Credential from the International Coach Federation, which sets and upholds the highest standards and ethics for the coaching profession. You can view my credential here.

I am a Co-Active® Coach, having completed CTI’s renowned, 104-hour Coach Training Programme.

I completed a 12-week training course with Climate Change Coaches in 2021, learning how to apply my coaching skills to support people who are active, or want to become more active, in addressing the climate crisis. I am an active member and volunteer in the Climate Coaching Alliance. As a climate-conscious coach, I work to uphold the Joint Global Statement on Climate Change, which states that coaches “have a significant role to play in fostering new ways of being in service to a healthy human society and a healthy planet.”

Also in 2021, I took a UK ICF Team Coaching programme, developing skills and techniques for coaching teams, in particular those working in virtual and hybrid settings.

I have added to my eco-conscious coaching and facilitation by completing the Active Hope Foundations training and the Circles of Active Hope Facilitator Training. Active Hope is a process and practice, developed by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, to find, and offer, our best response to the ecological and social crises we’re in. I use a coaching-style of facilitation when bringing this into organisations, community groups and individuals working for a fair and healthy future for planet and people.

In addition, I am trained as an Enhanced Skills Practitioner in Conversational Intelligence® for Coaches, having been through the C-IQ immersion programme led by Judith E Glaser.

My ongoing learning, together with regular coaching supervision, gives me a wide range of resources and insights. I use these, combined with my professional and life experience and my intuition, to serve you in the best way I can.

Coaching for environmental and social progress

The Flow Country, a precious expanse of blanket bog

As part of my commitment to do what I can personally to address the climate and biodiversity crisis, I donate 10% of the fees I receive from coaching clients to nature conservation and regeneration charities. These include WWF,  World Land Trust,  Tree Sisters and the Earth Community Trust, which endorses and raises awareness of the Stop Ecocide campaign. So the work we do together has an impact that will hopefully long outlast us!

I take part in the annual ‘Coachathon’ day, offering free coaching in exchange for donations to the Microloan Foundation, which provides loans and training to women facing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. I am also a volunteer mentor for SheChangesClimate and the International Women’s Forum UK Racial Equity Mentoring Programme.

Getting in touch

Please contact me via the Contact Me page or send me a direct request on LinkedIn.