My approach to executive coaching
My philosophy
Most executive development stops at insight. You leave the session knowing something about yourself you didn’t know before — and then Monday arrives, and you do exactly what you always did.
Insight is where coaching starts, not where it ends. What changes a leader isn’t understanding the problem more clearly. It’s doing something different, consistently, until it becomes who they are.
I don’t coach for insights. I coach for behaviour that changes and stays changed.
It’s the same principle that runs through my communication work — stop informing, start influencing, because information alone moves no one. The same is true of change itself: knowing isn’t doing.
Why some change sticks — and some quietly reverses
Most people don’t fail to change because they lack willpower or information. They fail for reasons that are well understood — and that good coaching is built to address:
The thinking underneath the behaviour — behaviour follows the beliefs and interpretations that drive it, so lasting change means working at that level, not just at the level of technique.
Seeing the pattern — you can’t change what you can’t notice; real change starts with becoming aware, in the moment, of what you’re actually doing.
Building on what already works — change is faster and more durable when it grows from your existing strengths and the times you already get it right, not from cataloguing what’s wrong.
Rewiring, not just deciding — new behaviour is physical; it has to be repeated until the brain makes it the default, which is exactly why change quietly reverses when the effort stops too soon.
Where communication comes in
For senior leaders, communication is where all of this becomes visible. How you’re experienced in a room; whether people actually act on what you say, is the most immediate, measurable expression of your leadership.
That’s why communication is my specialism: not a separate skill bolted on, but the arena where behavioural change shows up fastest and matters most.
The psychology behind it
My approach is grounded in the evidence on how behaviour actually shifts and draws on four complementary schools:
Cognitive Behavioural Coaching — working with the thoughts, beliefs and interpretations that drive behaviour, and reframing the ones that get in the way.
Gestalt Coaching — heightening awareness in the present moment, so you can see the patterns you’re caught inside and make a different choice.
Solution-Focused Coaching — building change on what already works — your strengths, and the moments you already get it right — rather than dwelling on the problem.
Neuroscience-informed Coaching — using how the brain forms, holds and rewires habits to make new behaviour stick rather than slide back.
So the work isn’t just experience and instinct. It’s built on why change sticks.
Coaching with a destination
Coaching with me has a clear destination.
We agree, at the outset, what needs to be different — in specific, observable terms — and how we’ll both know we’ve got there. KPIs, set together, before we start. Then we work toward them at your pace, but always toward them.
That structure is deliberate. It’s what separates coaching that produces a nice conversation from coaching that produces a changed leader — and it’s what makes the work accountable to the organisation investing in it, not just satisfying to the person in the room.