The step from doing the work to leading it

Most of my work is with people taking a step up: managers who were very good at the job that earned the promotion and now lead the people doing it, directors on their way to partner, and new partners. The gap is rarely ability. Nobody has said what stepping up looks like here, and there’s been no time to practise it.

So I build that layer: designed programmes running over months, so a whole tier of leaders learns the same habits at the same time. The rest is coaching senior teams at their own turning points (a merger, a new chief executive, a succession) and the individuals carrying the most weight in them.

I’m a former HR Director, OD consultant and executive coach, trained in humanistic counselling and Gestalt psychotherapy. I’ve built leadership programmes for new managers in national and healthcare charities, and for future and newly made partners in accountancy, each running multiple cohorts over several years. I’ve also worked with leaders and their teams in financial services, membership bodies, consumer and retail, engineering, energy and technology. Twenty years of this, mostly with professional partnerships and organisations that answer to a mission rather than a market.

Most people either understand organisations or understand people. I do both.

I’ve led change inside complex organisations, and I work with what sits beneath performance: patterns, power dynamics, avoidance, conflict, and the emotional load of leadership.

That’s why clients bring me in when the stakes are high and change needs to land properly.