Practical leadership coaching for difficult situations.
Leadership can become complicated quite quickly.
You might be dealing with a team member who isn’t performing, preparing for a conversation you’ve been avoiding, or trying to make a decision when none of the options feels quite right.
These are the sorts of situations we can work through in coaching.
You can bring a live problem to our first session. We’ll look at what is happening, what may be getting in the way and how you want to handle it.
My coaching can help you make better decisions, communicate more clearly and deal with difficult leadership situations in a way that feels right for you.
Book a free 30-minute conversation to see whether coaching might be useful.
Sometimes you need space to think.
Leadership problems are rarely as straightforward as they appear from the outside.
There may be competing priorities, history between the people involved or pressure coming from elsewhere in the organisation. You might already have a reasonable idea of what to do, but want to test your thinking before acting.
At other times, you may feel stuck because you are too close to the situation.
Coaching gives you a confidential place to talk things through with someone who is not caught up in the day-to-day dynamics of your workplace.
I’ll listen, ask questions and challenge your thinking when it is useful. We’ll work towards an approach you can actually use, rather than finishing with an interesting conversation that changes nothing.
Coaching that starts with the work in front of you.
I don’t use a fixed programme that requires us to spend the first few sessions working through standard topics.
If an important conversation is coming up next week, we can prepare for it. If you’re struggling with a decision, we can examine the options and what is making the decision difficult. If something has gone badly, we can work out what happened and what you might do differently.
As we work together, we’ll probably notice broader patterns too.
You might be taking on too much responsibility, avoiding situations that could create conflict or making assumptions that are limiting your options. We can explore these patterns without losing sight of the practical situations that brought you to coaching in the first place.
The aim is to help you handle your role more effectively. It isn’t to turn you into a louder, tougher or more polished version of somebody else.
Through coaching, we can work together to:
About me.
I’m Ben Brearley, a leadership coach, facilitator and the creator of Thoughtful Leader.
Before becoming a coach, I worked in software development, business analysis, project and programme management, consulting and organisational leadership.
That experience taught me that leadership problems rarely exist in isolation. Decisions are affected by organisational pressure, workplace relationships and all the other work that needs to be done at the same time.
My coaching style is calm and practical. I’ll give you space to think, but I won’t simply agree with everything you say. When I think an assumption needs to be questioned or an issue is being avoided, I’ll raise it.
I hold an MBA and am an ICF-accredited coach. I am also certified to use EQ-i 2.0, PRINT and a range of leadership and team development tools.
These tools can provide useful information, but they are not the centre of the coaching. Your situation is.
What clients say
Laura Baker, Regional Manager, Social Services, UK
Gunbir Sandhoo, Manager, Business Engagement, Utilities Industry, AustraliaWhat could we work on?
The focus depends on what is happening in your role.
You might want help preparing for a difficult conversation, holding somebody accountable or working out how to deal with a challenging manager.
Some clients are adjusting to a more senior role. Others are struggling with workload, boundaries or competing demands. Sometimes the issue is less clearly defined. Something about the role isn’t working, but it is difficult to identify exactly what needs to change.
You don’t need a perfectly written coaching goal before we begin. Part of the work may be clarifying what would make the greatest difference.
How the coaching process works
We’ll start by discussing what you want help with and what you would like to be different as a result of the coaching.
From there, each session can focus on the issue that is most important at the time. That may be something we identified at the beginning, or it may be a new situation that has emerged since our last conversation.
During a session, we’ll usually spend some time understanding the situation properly before jumping to solutions. We may look at the people involved, the assumptions you are making and the options available to you.
You should leave with a clearer idea of what you want to do next.
At later sessions, we can review what happened. If an approach worked, we can look at why. If it didn’t, we can learn from that and adjust.
When it would add something useful, we can use EQ-i 2.0, PRINT or personal values tools to explore how you understand and manage yourself, relate to other people, make decisions and respond to pressure.
What more clients are saying
Marie Pillay, Project Manager, Thermomix, Australia
Dom Mitchell, Deputy Director, DOAJ, Sweden