‘A key aim of the NHS Institute Fellowship programme was to build future leaders for service improvement in the NHS. In my Fellowship, I was encouraged to undertake some leadership development alongside the technical insights and skills development.

I had six coaching sessions covering such topics as understanding and managing difficult working relationships, remaining at my best in difficult circumstances, understanding organisational context, dissemination of ideas through presenting and writing, actions for change and influence through understanding others ways of learning.

The sessions gave me the opportunity to reflect on where I direct my energies, and how to direct them to more productive activities. I am more inclined to give time and, more importantly, energy to things that yield most for personal, professional and organisational goals.

In presentations, I had very positive feedback on their engaging nature and on the distinct change from my prior approach. I changed the way I prepare my presentations, giving more consideration to a single message and how I put it message over. I am more comfortable with using high risk approaches I know I can inspire people with, telling stories and bringing ideas and insights from other fields. I now give much greater attention to my audience, their needs, capacity and expectations.

I found the coaching an interesting challenge and I got a lot more out of it than I imagined. I’m still using many of the tools and techniques today and the lasting effects have been tangible.’

NHS Institute Fellow / Consultant Specialised Services Public Health England
 

The Director of Highways was asked to take on a dual role and bring his project and delivery focus to the major transformations required by the County Council. This role brought with it the need to understand and work with the diversity of services and staff within them from Director and Member level down. He and his Director identified coaching as a suitable support to him to ‘step into’ this new role as effectively as his well-known Highways function. 
 

‘Executive coaching has helped me to take a moment out of my busy schedule and spend some constructive considering my style and performance and thinking what if anything could I do differently or better.

My coaching sessions have been extremely valuable to me, I have been able to be completely open in honest in the safe environment and as a result have been able to review and understand issues from a different perspective. This has then allowed me to develop a plan for widening my executive management toolkit and be more effective in the future.

I now understand some additional theory concerning work place behaviours and as a result I can better understand my own behaviours and preferences and those of others. This has allowed subsequent development to increase effectiveness and results with all my stakeholders.

I have enjoyed my Executive coaching sessions as they have always been constructive and thought provoking. Being able to sit down away from the office and proactively consider various management issues is a small luxury, but it is one that that has provided me with a significant return on my invested time, and one that I would encourage all senior Executives to afford themselves. It has supported and guided me and enabled me to build on my already successful career. This is an ideal tool for those who wish to continue to learn and develop, and is relevant to today’s modern workplace.

Having a time where you can be completely open and honest and have no fear of being judged or criticised is extremely powerful and invigorating. The sessions are tailored around my needs and deals with me as an individual rather than a faceless manager.
Key words to describe Helen’s coaching of me : Open, honest, frank, balanced, constructive, safe environment, thought provoking, relevant, quality time, reflection ,focused, learning, understanding oneself and others, tangible actions.’
 

Coaching was offered as part of an outplacement offer with redundancy – the Director had a period off with Stress-related illness and wanting to avoid this in future.

 

 
‘I have challenged who I am, how I operate and what impact that has on me as a person’

‘The coaching has helped me to focus on who I am and how I want to feel when I get to the end of my career – thinking about my work, life outside of work and myself as a whole that needs planning, paying attention to and reviewing in equal measure’ 

‘Helen has opened my eyes to the need to re-focus and challenge the way I approach my new role. ‘

‘You have enabled me to see myself in a different light’ 

‘I can now maximise my energy levels and wellbeing whilst delivering realistic goals at work and supporting a happy and thriving family.’ 

‘I now regularly look in the mirror and take a helicopter view to honestly appraise where I am at’

‘Now I am clear about my direction, I need to establish clarity of purpose and identity for my developing organisation and be clear about the objectives and outcomes for our key business areas’

Helen was asked to support the new Finance Director of the Trust. This was his first substantive Executive post representing a big jump for him in responsibility and scale. The coaching was set up to support this ‘jump’ and to identify gaps in his leadership style and the impact he wanted to have. This phase took him through being appointed Deputy Chief Executive and then Acting Chief Executive.

He was then appointed as CEO and continued the coaching as a place in which he could develop his internal and external presence as CEO, working with the challenges of being the Accountable officer and developing his Executive team and Board.
 

‘Through Helen’s coaching, I have developed and applied new approaches to the everyday meetings, interactions and issues that arise at this level as well as for specific challenges that I have faced. I have changed my reactions to issues and been able to apply different styles of thinking and acting to those in my comfort zone.  This has enabled the development of broader thinking as an Executive and Board member to parallel my on-going experiences.’

‘Her work with the Executive Team has moved this to another level – having got ‘the right people on the bus’ I needed to develop the team to work together better. It is now the best Chief Officers Group that I have ever worked in.’

‘The biggest difference to me has been in how Helen has helped me to see situations and people differently, to respond to things in different ways. I understand more the differences in people’s style and thinking and can adapt myself accordingly to get the best from them.’

‘Helen’s ‘steerage’ has provided me with models to help me think flexibly and she challenges me to see situations from different angles.’

‘The coaching has also given me huge secondary gains beyond the coaching contract as such – at home, inside and outside of work I have learnt to listen and plan more which has benefitted me and those around me.’