My time with Kate became a little bit of a guilty pleasure. The sessions meant switching off all my devices and for the duration and focus on one thing – me! It is a rare opportunity for anyone with a busy lifestyle and a demanding job. I found the introspective nature of these sessions and how Kate pulled the conversation back to what mattered incredibly useful. I also felt compelled to try to change some behaviours I was not brave enough to approach alone, such as networking and have more direct conversations with challenging people to set me up for my long-term career plan.

Kate listened to my challenges and asked insightful questions to help guide my decisions and challenge my next steps. I see Kate as a “business partner” who assists in influencing the path towards your career aspirations. Coaching is not getting advice from someone but guiding you in order to achieve the goals you set by taking your own decisions. It’s like in a professional sport – you get the fuel, support, and challenge from the coach towards performing in your role, but at the end of the day it’s you who gets the work done and determines your future.

Kate designed and facilitated a full day session specifically for our team, based on our personalised needs. She clearly dedicated a lot of thought into the preparation beforehand and utilised a wide range of tools and techniques during the session itself. Everyone really enjoyed the day and left feeling better connected as a team and well equipped to move forward towards our goals.

Working with Kate was extremely valuable and enlightening. I found Kate to be very patient and kind while being willing to challenge and ask thought-provoking questions. We focused on identifying my strengths and values which has really helped me put into focus what matters for me at work and how I would like to develop. Working with Kate has enabled me to develop a vision for my career. Since our coaching, I have gone on to move roles within my company and I'm taking on a new challenge that will make better use of the skills we identified in our sessions.

Kate helped me to see my career journey as a story and to learn to tell compelling stories about professional achievements. She helped me to understand the value of work I had already done and develop a vocabulary with which to talk about it. I gained confidence and noticed I learnt to communicate more successfully with senior stakeholders and in job interviews.

Coaching helped me overcome numerous issues, most notably my issues with confidence in the workplace. I felt less self-conscious about doing things at work, and more comfortable outside of my comfort zone. Coaching really helped me understand myself more, and gave me the time and space to stop and think about what I wanted out of my career, and how I could go about managing difficult situations with my colleagues or bosses.

Kate led the preparation and subsequent activities for my 20-person team, bringing together a distributed and international group. We focused largely on the outputs of our strengths assessments and Kate proactively guided the subsequent conversations. In particular, we looked to understand what these personal strengths meant for us as individuals and also how we make the most of these when working as a team. This led us to identify improvement opportunities in how we work together. Six months after the session the team still reference our ‘top strengths’ and talk of these innate abilities when planning our team projects and development activities.

I don't see myself as a very open person but Kate helped me to open up and this allowed for a free-flowing discussion and less fear of saying something I maybe wouldn't normally say. Coaching is a good way to talk about what sort of strengths you might not realise you have and to think about why you might be unhappy in a job you thought you would enjoy. It helped me reflect on how I could either change my thinking or change aspects of my job/life. I found Kate to be very honest and understanding.

Kate was great at listening, encouraging me to talk AND think, and just generally giving a supportive shoulder. Through our conversations, I was able to identify my development areas, and together we discussed steps for improvement. Kate helped me develop some really useful ideas of how to solve problems at work and move on in my career. Her support helped me go through a challenging period and come out with a clear understanding of what to do going forward. I was able to develop some strategies for tackling some workplace challenges and this helped me build my resilience and confidence.