SUCCESS STORIES

Steve Johnson, CEO

NBrown Group, Manchester

I am a CEO of a retail business.

Sandra helped bring together a team at the early stages of my tenure.  I was initially appointed the Interim CEO and I needed to pull together the existing team, accelerate strong relationships and create an environment of trust to enable us to perform in challenging circumstances.  Sandra did that brilliantly through workshops and 121 coaching. Thanks to Sandra’s early intervention, my team have gone from strength to strength, we have a cohesive unit who are collectively aiming for the same goal.

If anyone was working with Sandra, I would encourage them to have open and honest discussions about how they feel, what they are trying to achieve and what they want from the workplace.  Sandra provides significant insight and has a clear communication style when its needed.  She really helps you embrace and move forward if you adopt the most open and productive perspective. 

I would also add that Sandra is a keen advocate of gender diversity in the workplace, something I personally believe creates better cultures and more productive working environments.  It was great to work with someone who has a clear and very well-articulated passion.

Overall, Sandra is fantastic to work with and will add value to any organisation.

Paula Chadwick, CEO, Roy Castle Lung Foundation

This new CEO wanted to get rid of the chaos…..

Despite being a CEO of an inspired charity, Paula knew she had to get clarity back and create a clear focus and vision for her organisation. She reached the point where she knew she could no longer continue on her own. I hear a similar story from many senior executives.

Read her story here:

I must admit when I first started thinking about having coaching I was a little unsure. I felt that this would be seen as a weakness and I was concerned about what my colleagues and Board would think? Would this look like I was not capable of undertaking my role as CEO? However, I decided to take the plunge and investigate further, and it was one of the best decisions I have taken.

I felt Sandra was a really easy person to relate to and her way of working fitted into my busy schedule. The first face to face meeting at the start was very useful in setting out a productive plan and vision, on where I personally wanted to be as well as my aspirations for my organisation. Regular Skype chats fitted in with my diary commitments, and again helped me to focus on what we had previously discussed and what I needed to achieve by our next meeting.

The operational on-line tools that I had access to with this programme were excellent and I am still using them now. At the end of the programme when I looked back on where I was I am amazed. I definitely feel that having the coaching with Sandra made sense of the chaos that surrounds a newly appointed executive. It enabled me to really take a step back and look at the bigger picture, and how to achieve my goals. I know this sounds simple, but when you are pushing yourself to be everything to everyone, it helps to discuss things through (in a non-judgmental setting) and actually allow yourself thinking time.

My biggest acknowledgement of the difference that this coaching has had on me was during my appraisal when the change in my decision making, management style and confidence were highlighted. One of the comments I received back was that “I was the most inspirational leader they had ever worked with” – to receive feedback like that from my colleagues was priceless.

Ralph Tucker, Executive, NBrown plc

From Director to CEO

As the Chief Product & Trading Officer at NBrown plc my role is to lead the product team and ecommerce & trading functions. I’ve been at the business for 5 years performing a series of different executive roles, in the main delivering transformation of the business’ approach in each area.

Before I embarked on a programme of executive coaching, my time was limited, somewhat chaotic because of the pace I moved with and poorly organised. Also due to the relentless pressure, my resilience and future outlook wasn’t great. I needed to be better and push myself to develop, not just in delivering the business’ strategy but my whole approach to leadership.

Sandra had previously worked with a member of my team and building her from a nearly ran to the best buying director I’ve worked with.

Since having coaching, there have been many clear and measurable results:

• I’m a better leader and person.
• I now operate in a totally different way utilising an incredible toolkit including – timeboxing, structured meeting preparation, meditation, 90 day planning, reading and learning approach, work / home planning, personal values, free writing exercises, and tons more…
• There has been a clear improvement in performance with my team and in their performance, defined values and reason to be, clearer goal setting, disciplined time management, significantly improved resilience under extreme pressure and they’re genuinely happier.
• And perhaps the strongest of all is that I have landed the role of CEO for a retail business and I am looking forward to beginning this exciting challenge.

My work with Sandra has not only benefited my business and team with a substantially improved and focused approach to leadership but she has helped me excel in times of extreme stress and worked with me to focus on my inner belief and strength to thrive in all aspects of my life, truly transformational. You can’t fail to improve in all aspects of your leadership and life. Sandra isn’t a miracle worker but she’s not far off!

Jane McCall, Transformation Director, The Co-operative

As I start to write,  I reflect on the fact that the coaching sessions held with Sandra have been the most profound and valuable that I have ever experienced across my 26 year career. As a result I could not be a stronger advocate of Sandra and the coaching services that she offers.  She is able to strike the right balance of support and challenge , tailoring her approach to match mood, matters of the moment and face in to the fact that I am often time poor from a diary perspective. Sandra has a very broad and flexible toolkit that stretches and facilitates thinking in a non-onerous way. She has a strong ability to not only listen but hear the emotion, belief or motivation that sits behind the words.
 
The coaching objectives pursued with Sandra had three very different focuses ranging from short term tactical easily deployed techniques in the workplace through to long term career and personal visioning.
 
The first objective centred around how I could navigate the dynamic environment of a forming Executive Board, adding value without compromising the leader I know I am and want to be. Sandra very quickly grasped the circumstances at play and helped me to consider the presence I have within the team, enabled  me to identify any trigger moments and the reasons I get gripped  and then supported me to face into that. To help with this process Sandra asked me to use a heart-beat monitor which gave me some fascinating insight into the impact my work was having on my body, which situations manifested as physical stress and what activity “recharged by batteries” …. Totally innovative in approach and has profoundly affected how I now structure my working day and approach to wellbeing in the workplace. In addition , with tremendous support and challenge from Sandra I have been able to establish absolute clarity on the values I hold dear and would be unwilling to compromise on and how to honour those in a challenging environment, whilst operating as an effective team player. The success of this coaching is clearly evident in the latest 360 degree feedback that I have received.
 
The second objective focused on developing a much greater sense of understanding around my personal belief systems and how they drive and shape my behaviour as a  leader, team player, mother, daughter and friend. Sandra has deployed a combination of tools to help me name the deep rooted beliefs I hold, helped me to understand the value and constraints those beliefs give me and helped me face into those that no longer serve me well. This work has left me with a greater level of self- awareness than I thought possible and has given me a sense of personal liberation and authenticity that is serving me well in every aspect of my life.
 
The third objective has been focused around long term life and career planning, built from the deep level of personal understanding gained to date. A fascinating thought journey to date and still very much work in progress but an activity that I know will serve me well for my future based on my experience of Sandra’s coaching to date.
 
I would not hesitate to recommend Sandra as a coach and feel very blessed to have encountered her at this pivotal point in both my working and personal life. I have always believed in the power of coaching but am still surprised and delighted at the added value my sessions with Sandra has given me and of course delivered back to the business because I am now far more skilled within my leadership role.”

Emma Ford, Senior Director for Online Grocery Development, Asda

I reached out for executive coaching as there were a couple of things I was finding challenging; managing my work life balance, confidence, and a desire to prove myself sometimes to the detriment of my preferred leadership and work life balance. This was very draining, and I wasn’t able to lead my team in the way I wanted to because I was tired and stressed. I also struggled to bring my authentic self to work as I felt I needed to play a ‘role’.

I was looking for someone independent and challenging to get me to identify the elements holding me back. I chose Sandra because I really liked her relaxed style, that she also had a lot of great tools to really identify what we should be concentrating on and we built rapport quickly.

So many things have happened since I started.

I would not be the leader I am now without Sandra. One of the biggest elements that made a difference was a session we had on NLP which really changed how I perceived myself, career and enabled me to start to implement a work life balance. This then enabled me to step back and become more confident in my ability and bring myself to work. This has had a positive impact on my relationships both with my team, peers and exec.

I am now on the accelerate scheme at work to VP and I have had really high leadership and engagement scores on our internal surveys. I am also influencing at a much broader level successfully and built stronger relationships

Sandra is fantastic, challenging but in a way that makes you question yourself and your previous approaches. She has really changed my outlook and made me feel more comfortable in myself and my leadership. I highly recommend her and I miss her now our sessions have come to an end.  

Emma Ford, Senior Director for Online Grocery Development at Asda

Peter Ratcliffe, Head of IT, Sharp Business Systems UK Plc

 “I am an IT professional with 29 years’ experience in the industry, having developed my career from a hardware engineer to the Head of IT. In my current role I am responsible for the IT systems, application development, Information Security (ISO27001& GDPR), buildings facilities for 12 UK locations, environmental management (ISO14001), health and safety and the car fleet.

Coaching was offered to all members of the leadership team as part of their ongoing personal development programme, as I am always willing to learn new skills I embraced the opportunity.

My own perception prior to starting the coaching program was that I was a good leader but lacked confidence and assertiveness in certain interactions with my peers in the leadership team. There was also a question mark over the effectiveness of my relationship with my line manager, the managing director.

Sandra was recommended to me by our HR Director, she made the initial introductions and set up a compatibility phone call between myself and Sandra. The initial steps with the coaching process were to carry out a 360 degree review of my management and personality style, strengths and weaknesses. This process was very enlightening and gave both myself and Sandra a clearer view of the perception of me as a leader.

The most interesting lesson from this review identified that by striving to be perfect, I was affecting my team members by never saying no to anyone and taking on too much work. The first lesson therefore was finding ways to say no, understanding that it is OK to not always be perfect and that getting it wrong sometimes is normal.

Through the coaching process we also established that I am able to present reasonable and assertive arguments but I had an inbuilt fear of causing offence or upset to others. Through the coaching we discussed scenarios and situations in which that had occurred and came up with methods and strategies to deal with this. As a result I was able to assert my position when challenged by my peers.

To help with the relationship with the managing director we mapped out the communication styles and personality traits of the MD against my own. We looked at ways in which I could more effectively manage communication and relationships both vertically and horizontally. The result has been improved communication and relationships at all levels.

The timings and duration of the sessions worked well for me, it can sometimes be a challenge to work on some of the objectives and targets set during the sessions but you have to make a personal and professional commitment to making it happen. Having the sessions in an offsite environment frees you from any distractions and for me it made me feel that I was going to something rather than just another meeting.

I will continue to use the lessons and strategies learned in the coaching program to build on the successful platform it has created. I would thoroughly recommend professional coaching and in particular Sandra, it may be very challenging and take you out of your comfort zone but if you see it through you will reap the benefits.”