Are you the leader you wish you would have had?

The people I work with have usually built successful careers. They're leading bigger teams, carrying greater responsibility and trying to create organisations where other people can thrive.

They come with questions like:

• Why is my job more "people" than "expertise"?

• Why is this harder than I expected?

• How do I get my team to make more decisions without me?

• Would I want to work for me?

The conversation that brings us together is rarely where we end up. My coaching superpower is hearing the story underneath the story.

Every coaching engagement with me is unique, but we almost always start with an assessment or two. This gives us a shared starting point and a common language.

From there, we’ll start to connect the patterns, relationships and assumptions that are shaping your experience. We’ll agree on what success looks like, track progress, and keep you accountable while leaving plenty of flexibility for the unexpected.

I draw on a combination of my own corporate leadership experience, traditional coaching, systems thinking, psychology and behavioural science. Underpinning it all is an endless curiosity about how people think and work together.

Clients typically start working with me for six months and often stay for a year or more. Together we'll figure out the structure and rhythm that best supports you.

Related Leadership Story: When success isn’t the finish line

Leadership is messy. Teams are too. That’s normal.

Every team is different. Some teams are newly formed, others have worked together for years. Teams may sit around the same table each day or they might not share the same time zone. We start by understanding what’s happening in your team.

Don't expect to spend the day watching PowerPoint. We'll be talking, moving, solving problems, experimenting, reflecting and occasionally surprising ourselves. We work with real business challenges, not made-up scenarios. That's when teams start having conversations they weren't having before.

As leaders start to understand themselves and each other better, they talk more often and share more. There's more trust. And they stop being so protective of their own part of the business and start working more as one team.

How we get there will depend on where you are now. Together we’ll work out the best approach.

Related Leadership Story: Strengthening collective leadership

Sometimes my coaching engagements develop into a wider partnership.

Over time, I come to know your business, your people and your context. I know where you started and where you are now (You’ve come a long way.). We're still working together on what's next.

We don’t have to spend as much time catching up, so we spend more of our time thinking.

What we work on together varies. It might be helping you prepare before a board meeting, being a sounding board for difficult decisions, navigating uncertainty in the moment, or a quick sanity check.

As our relationship develops, I know the twists and turns, the history, the people, the relationships, the dynamics and the context behind the conversations we're having.

Our relationship evolves as you do. Sometimes we're focused on you as a leader. Sometimes it's your executive team. Sometimes it's a strategic decision, a succession plan or a difficult conversation that can't wait until next month. And sometimes it’s just… life.

Related Leadership Story: Leadership is a long game

My career has been one long series of unexpected adventures. I'm still slightly surprised by some of the places it's taken me.

I've found myself in Big Four consulting, Fortune 500 organisations, family enterprises, on factory floors, out in the African bush, and in unfamiliar countries and cultures. None of it came with a how-to manual.

These days, I'm increasingly intentional about how I spend my time and who I spend it with. I do work I care about with people I genuinely enjoy.

Outside of work, you'll usually find me trying to navigate life as an American in an English village (with varying degrees of success), walking the Surrey Hills with two ridiculous dogs, trying to keep up with my twin teenage daughters, playing tennis, singing or travelling to new places.