Current coaching and past professional experience
The description of my coaching niche, and the clients with whom I work best, is captured in the phrase
‘I can coach anyone who wants to be coached by me’. This observation expresses my truth that I can, and will, coach anyone who is open to exploring their thinking and feeling, and who is prepared to experience vulnerability as they explore what perhaps has been taken for granted for too long. My ‘niche phrase’ references the truth that coaching will not work if you, the client, are compelled to do it.
It must be done because you want to try it, because you are prepared to commit. Implicit in my ‘niche phrase’ is that there will be people who do not want to be coached by me, and that is just fine. Life would be dull for us if we were all able to be ‘all things to all people.’
​
I am fascinated by co-creating a partnership to meet the needs of individuals who come to me both professionally and privately. To give you the time and space to think of solutions to the challenges you face is a privilege. Applying my coaching approach of trust support challenge and change has led to many transformational outcomes that have had long lasting consequences for my coachees.
​
While I hold the view that I am able to be a good coach to anyone, whatever their personal and professional background, I am aware that you as the client might feel reassured by knowing that there was some connection between our professional journeys. While I don’t believe that is necessary for me to be able to coach you, I do understand it may be important in giving me credibility in your eyes, credibility that will encourage you to partner with me. The information below makes connections with the stakeholder groups that I have worked with at various stages of my career. You will also see details of the range of experience levels that I coach at, and a selection of the much wider range of topics that come up in my coaching partnerships.
Level of Experience
Senior and executive staff
Middle towards senior leaders
Students and early careers staff
Sector Subject Skills
Higher Education
Secondary Education
SME and social sector
Pharmaceutial research
STEM subjects
Medicine and Healthcare
Student Residences
Research management
Customer Service
Personal Development
Self-awareness
Working with others
Leadership
Influence
Thriving during change
Managing stress
Career Management
Resilience
Wellbeing
Secondary & Higher Education
With 10 years leading an industrial schools outreach programme and 17 years as a senior academic in chemistry education I have a profound understanding of challenges being faced by staff and the student community they provide with academic and pastoral support, as well as the challenges of balancing research, teaching and management. I have experience of coaching academics and secondary teachers. In the latter community I have a great deal of experience through working at the interface between both industry and schools and then HE and schools while promoting science and the value of degree study to all communities. My appreciation of the challenges in secondary education comes from my wife how is a Deputy Head of many years standing. I am committed to supporting students too and do probono work in this area when I am able to do so.
SME & Social Sector
Although SMEs and the Social Sector are distinguished with what they do with their profits they face the same challenge of having limited resources. With relatively low development budgets and time concentrated on business as usual it is difficult to focus on staff wellbeing and development. Perhaps working with such a small number of colleagues fosters a view that development is implicit in their working together. Of course this is true, to a degree, and something that I am keen to foster by promoting coaching skills to support a self-reflection (self coaching if you will allow me that) and peer to peer coaching. It's part of my Thinking about your Thinking (TAYT) approach that encourages SME and social sector staff to think about the value of external coaching while developing their own coaching muscles! Have a look at more about TAYT through this link.
STEM Subjects, Medicine
& Healthcare
Having spent 13 years as a research chemist and 17 years as a teaching academic in chemistry I have a love of science at my core. While I no longer practice the subject I understand the intellectual tools required to thrive in it and the challenges and opportunities for those who are studying STEM subject as well as those who are actively teaching and researching them. More recently I have returned to applying my skills in the National Institute of Health Research in change management and continuous improvement. My combined experience of research in the pharmaceutical sector, STEM research in general and an appreciation of clinical and public health research means I have a lot to offer in coaching in these areas.
Customer Service & Meeting Stakeholder Need
Meeting stakeholder needs is a key objective. An obvious statement perhaps yet one that can only be achieved by understanding what that need is in the first place, as well as responding to how it changes. I influenced, through effective leadership, several teams where setting, managing and meeting expectations have needed enhancement. I remain committed to helping staff to understand their customers and my experience in this enhances my personal coaching practice as well as makes my coaching offer a particular asset.
