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COACHING AND MENTORING

How I work

Coaching at the core, with evidence and experience when you need them, and always clear which is which.

You know your business better than anyone. What you often don't have is time to step back from it, an independent person to think with, or a reference point for the parts of the business you have never run before. That is what I bring.

Coach and mentor

Two ways of working, and you always know which

As a coach

Most of the time. The answers about your business, your goals and how you lead are yours to find. I bring questions, careful listening and honest challenge, so you reach better answers than you would alone.

As a mentor

Where I have been there. Thirty years in frontline commercial roles, and three businesses of my own, mean I have seen a great deal work and fail. I share it when it adds something, as one perspective to test, not an answer to adopt.

And I always name the source. You will know whether you are hearing a question, the evidence, or my experience:

  • "What do you think?"

  • "Here's what the evidence says good looks like."

  • "Here's what I've seen."

You make every decision about your business. My job is to help you make better ones.

Where my input comes from

Honest about where my input comes from

In some areas I often mentor from my own experience. In others I mostly coach, and when you need a reference point I bring well-established practice from well-run businesses that sell expertise. Either way, I tell you which.
Not all advice is equal, so I tell you how strong the evidence is. Some practice is well researched. Some is long-established and widely used. Some is benchmark data, useful only where the businesses match yours. And some is a popular framework: a good prompt for questions, never proof. Your own numbers always beat a generic benchmark, and very little research looks at businesses your size, which I say openly.

When a specialist takes over

When a specialist takes over

Some questions need a specialist, not a coach. Where advice has legal, regulatory or financial consequences, I help you think about the question, and the answer comes from the right expert:

Handing over is part of the service. I help you choose the right specialist, brief them well, and test what they tell you. We agree where the line sits at the start, so you know before we reach it. You contract with specialists directly, and I do not take referral fees.

  • Legal advice on contracts, disputes and terms of business.

  • Employment matters such as dismissals, disciplinaries and redundancy.

  • Tax, accounting treatment and regulated financial advice.

  • Selling the business, valuation, investment and shareholder agreements.

  • Data protection, cyber incidents, and health and safety.

How an engagement runs

How an engagement runs

  1. A Discovery Call. Forty-five minutes to an hour, free, on Zoom. We both decide whether there is something worth doing.

  2. A short written agreement. In plain English, before any paid work starts: what we will do, what it costs, and how confidentiality works.

  3. A look at the whole business. The ten key areas, to find the two or three that would make the biggest difference.

  4. Goals you set. Clear enough to act on and to measure, agreed before the real work starts.

  5. Regular sessions. Explore, challenge, decide, act, review. You make the decisions and take the action between sessions.

  6. Progress by day 90. You will know which areas matter most, have goals and a plan for them, and see measured progress. If not, we talk about why, and you decide whether to carry on.

  7. A closing review. Against the goals you set, and a plan for carrying on without me.

What you can count on

What you can count on

  • What you tell me stays confidential.

  • The tools, practice cards and plans we use are yours to keep using in your business.

  • If a manager joins, we agree up front what you will be told and what stays private.

  • I work to the Global Code of Ethics for coaches and mentors, signed by the Association of Business Mentors and the EMCC, and my work is professionally supervised.

  • When we finish, you leave with a plan for carrying on.

  • No referral fees, ever, so my advice is never coloured by commission.

THE PRACTICALITIES

The practical details

  • All sessions are on Zoom, so there is no travel and scheduling is easier.

  • Sessions last 90 minutes, with short check-ins between them.

  • Confidentiality has one exception: professional supervision, where cases are discussed without names, as the Global Code of Ethics expects.

  • The work that makes the difference happens between sessions, in your business.

Direct, but on your side

I will tell you what I see, including the uncomfortable parts, because that is more useful than reassurance. If it sounds like the way you would like to work, let's talk.

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