What Wide Awake Leaders Say

‘Helen’s coaching has enabled me to identify and shift personal barriers to effective working with others through purposeful relationship building and thoughtful influencing of key people. A very significant turning point related to my beliefs about how other people will behave and their motives – how refreshing to be able to approach work without those complexities!
 
I think I have ‘refreshed’ my ability to build useful working relationships and remembered why they are so important and I’ve grown in personal confidence. I don’t ‘angst’ so much & take more in my stride.
 
You coached me in the way that I asked to be coached. You used models and frameworks, we worked flexibly as the agenda at work changed, and you challenged & pushed. Importantly I trust you implicitly.’

HW, Associate director of Nursing, HEFT

‘Resilience used to mean putting on my suit of armour and tin hat in the morning. Now it means taking a breath, stepping back so I can access my resourceful-ness and bring perspective and reality to the discussion. Now it’s not such hard work! It feels a pleasure, easier to do. The very challenging circumstances haven’t changed but I feel different so I act differently and the results are so much better.’

Michelle Linnane, Associate Director of Nursing

The event was very successful and useful – we have some really great information from it that we can actively take forward. Having Sharon as an external facilitator was very useful as it avoided a lot of the internal politics being played out. She was excellent at setting the ground rules and ensuring everyone felt that this was a safe and open environment with no judgement.‘

Tina Endericks, HPA

‘Just wanted to send you a quick note following yesterday’s training.  I think it is probably one of the best day’s training I have ever been on and I found it thoroughly engaging and enjoyable and I wanted to thank you. 
 
There is certainly a buzz about the place today, and individuals are even using words like “buzz”!  Our organisational challenge will be to keep the “buzz” going once your intervention has ended as I know Aileen and I are really keen not to lose the momentum that we have!‘

Anne Marie Huff, Group HR Manager, Grand Union Housing Group

‘It was a really happy, relaxed and thought provoking day and I absolutely cannot wait until the next one. Thank you!‘

Aileen Evans, Managing Director, Aragon and MacIntryre Housing Associations

‘I found these coaching sessions extremely beneficial, thought provoking and central to my personal and professional development over the year. Helen is a very intuitive, supportive and skilled coach.
I used the sessions to explore professional dilemmas and to challenge some of my behaviours and the behaviour of others that I felt hindered me in the work place. Helen skilfully accompanied me on a journey of self-exploration, offering challenge where necessary and introducing me to concepts and theories along the way. This has left me with a valuable toolkit of recourses to draw from forever. ‘

Nicola Tongue, Director of Clinical Services, John Taylor Hospice

‘As a result of my coaching with Helen I have taken as many opportunities arising as I can, definitely doing things I maybe would not have done previously, to make myself more visible.
 
The key progress I feel I have made, however, is in learning what influences me to behave the way I do and how I can use knowledge of these to change the way I behave in subtle and more direct ways to achieve what I want (and more besides).
 
I now have a certain sense of empowerment that I am in greater control of what happens to me at work and in other situations than I previously believed was the case. This has made making certain decisions involving senior managers much easier to make. With other decisions, it has enabled me to think about them in a new way.
 
This empowerment comes from having some new ‘mental tools’ at my disposal to call on whenever needed, including on a day-to-day basis. Thus, I feel different.
 
The feedback from my colleagues was very much a bonus – I will be able to call on and use this for a long time to come.
 
I feel more comfortable making important decisions as I feel a greater sense of personal ownership of them and less fear that they will concern others. As I have a stronger understanding of how others view me, I am also less concerned about expressing my views.
 
The tools and knowledge I have been given show me a future I might not have imagined before. I have been struggling to manage the workload in my job for some years. These tools provide me with an opportunity to tackle this by taking seemingly small decisions that collectively release time for more valuable work and gradually achieve the outcomes I have been seeking.
 
That there is actually little to stand in my way of doing any of them. Any constraints I feel are self-imposed. It’s down to me.
 
It has surprised me as to how effective it has been. I expected to be more resistant to change than has proved to be the case. I have learned more about myself than I expected. While I am aware I have some way to go before I fully achieve my outcomes, I had thought they were genuinely very difficult to achieve; now I know they are achievable by doing things that build on my strengths and are not difficult to practice or do.
 
It has definitely been enjoyable, informative and challenging. You have been very comfortable to work with. You create instant trust, confidence and rapport and, critically, you are not judgmental about what you hear.’

Ian Gross, Head of Internal Audit, HEFCE

'I was really grateful as usual for the time we spent last Thursday.  Just what I needed.   It is always such an uplifting (and surprising) experience! 
Inspiring, Enlivening, Broadening, Illuminating, Nurturing, Encouraging, Guiding, Animating and    Instructive   - All of these words from the Thesaurus combine to express what make the sessions  “Uplifting” for me.  You have a brilliant talent for putting one at ease and feeling relaxed and “safe”  . Now I know as the individual at the receiving end I need to want to be there and fully participate but unless you feel safe and at ease then you’re not going to get the best out of the session.    In certain environments that’s no easy task and your skill shouldn’t be underestimated!
I sense you put a great deal of preparation into planning these sessions which shows in that I have thought a couple of time how did she know that just what I needed/or that that was a great topic to discuss!  To get me “the subject” back on-track.  I don’t see that it can just be a lucky guess!
I also sense you are very practiced at dissecting the information you glean both from the information provided by a client in advance and also from the first session and build up a structure to the areas you then guide/work through with them.   You give of and provide sufficient time….You never rush though anything (it never ceases to amaze me that we fill all of the time we set aside).  You have a very warm and engaging approach, building rapport with ease and maintaining a steady state of calm throughout just seems to enable one to step “outside” of one environment into a different place for that whole time span.'

Mark Houghton, Head of Operations, HEFT

‘Key words to describe Helen’s coaching of me : Open, honest, frank, balanced, constructive, safe environment, thought provoking, relevant, quality time, reflection ,focused, learning, understanding oneself and others, tangible actions.’

John Burr, CEO – Commercial Services, Kent County Council

‘I’ve been coached now for about a year.  I find the experience both challenging and rewarding at the same time.  I’ve had the opportunity to tackle several issues that had previously been obstacles at work and by working with Helen have found ways round them that have helped me in the way I do my job; this is what I had expected from my coaching. 

The surprise about my coaching is that I’ve also found ways of doing things I already thought I did well, better, and that I look forward to the sessions.  It is refreshing to find someone who can challenge, motivate and inspire you and makes the effort to really understand the organisation within which you work.  I believe that everyone has the potential to go as far as they want in life, Helen has helped me unlock a bit more of my potential and I’m looking forward to continuing my coaching with Helen and for her to be my sounding board for many years to come.’

AS, CFO Large NHS Foundation Trust

‘I have never seen the Senior Management Team so energised, relaxed and positive. Our desire to enable the team to function more fruitfully has only just begun, I hope! I wish we could bottle that and pop the lid each month at our meetings. Helen it was a pleasure to see how you enabled us to blossom and I hope we can work with you again in the future.’

SC, Head of HR, Health Protection Agency

 
‘My biggest sense of achievement is that my department has gone from being what I used to describe a the ‘problem child’ in the family to being seen as the most ambitious department with a proven record of delivery and a clear plan for tackling the financial challenges ahead, which the Councillors get. And I thought I’d share with you what has helped achieve this:

Learning to receive and seek out feedback and to hear it in a neutral way;
Learning to appreciate the positions of others and the needs/motivations of others;
Holding a clean position in my dealings with the corporate team and with that, being open and honest about what’s good and what needs to improve;
Retaining authenticity with staff and encouraging them to be bold. 

All of that has come out of the training course and it’s good to reflect on that and to say thanks for helping me grow and learn.’

Attendee on prior Leadership course - AM, County Council Director

‘The coaching sessions have changed everything for me from being frantic to having a clear and flexible approach that works with my direct reports and chairman.  I think differently now about the impact that I have and how to develop the business results.  I enthusiastically tell people about your fantastic coaching that has and is making such a difference to my life. ‘

 Natalie Gunson, Managing Director AYMT

‘Extremely effective, the ability to challenge without judgment and ask insightful questions that lead to light-bulb moments was so useful. And it felt everything was done with love, trust and honesty.’

Nicci Piggot, World Vision

‘I worked with Sharon for 4 months, at a time when I was at a very low point. We used the resilience model and I found Sharon's coaching to be greatly supportive and with the right balance of challenge and mirror holding.
 
Working with Sharon I was able to step back and understand how I wanted to change certain aspects of how I view the world and I discovered my 'gentle wisdom' and how I can be kinder on myself when needed.
 
It was due to Sharon and her ability to understand what I needed in each moment and how the resilience model would work for me and how I could use it to gain more knowledge about myself, that I was able to think clearly about what was going on for me.  With Sharon I have discovered much more about myself and feel more confident going forward that I have a added a new set of skills and understanding that will help me in the future.  One of the main aspects for me was to understand my strength and how I can use it without needing to be fierce with myself which came back to knowing my gentle wisdom and what this really meant for me.
 
Sharon's coaching was exactly what I needed and I would look to Sharon in the future and always highly recommend her to others’

Annie Page, Director, Essentii

‘Thank you for last week it was a truly inspirational 2 hours and has made things much clearer!  Thank you also for these great handouts - they'll be very useful!’

Sarah Williams, INT Works

 
‘The session last week was brilliant, thank you.I saw real value in getting everyone together, discussing how we work together and hope that even more value comes from the actions we agreed!’

Alex Bec, Director, INT Works