My leadership development work is both bespoke designed and delivered through intensive programmes with Courage and Spark. Please visit the website or contact me directly for a conversation. I have previously worked on leadership development within large organisations and as a consultant and delivered programmes for Centre for Creative Leadership and Roffey Park.  I collaborate with other experienced professionals within my network to design and deliver transformative programmes.

“Prior to working with Vanessa, I was uncertain about whether I was good enough to be considered a leader and not sure what direction I wanted my career to go in. Vanessa has enabled me to see that leaders come in many shapes, sizes and races and has given me the tools I need to grow my strengths and the confidence to take my place as a leader. On the back of working with Vanessa I have been able to prioritise what is important in my life and apply for promotion. Importantly, I have been able to re-connect and find a balance that wasn’t there before. Working with Vanessa has been transformative for me.” Senior Public Sector Lawyer

“It is surprising that Vanessa continues to help me today, more than two years after I graduated the course at which she was the mentor. How is that? By being able to change my way of thinking and acting in the work that I do day by day with my team. At first, I was skeptical that such training could lead to the improvement of the operation of any kind of team; the one I coordinate is a medical one. The change of paradigm and thinking was a serious one, and for this I have to thank Vanessa.” Dr Radu Dumirescu, Medical Director, Private Health Care

Executive coaching

I provide coaching up to board level and use a range of approaches to ensure that people are encouraged to develop and overcome challenges.  The themes I often work with are:

• Leaders in transition to new organisations, or more senior roles
• Developing and maintaining healthy resilience and healthy self-regulation
• Time to think strategically
• Developing greater emotional and social intelligence, presence, influence and impact

A common thread in my work is uncovering the underlying and often unconscious thoughts, assumptions and drivers that are getting in the way of people being at their best.

I work with leaders to build their capability and confidence in their natural style, not to become clones.  Their capacity to work in the context they are in is important and to increase their ability to tune in to what is needed and their capacity to provide what is needed for success.

Group Coaching

I am passionate about the impact of strong supportive groups to encourage and enhance the learning available through coaching, so I offer a six-month programme of group coaching.  This involves a group of up to 6 leaders from different part of an organisation committing to work together once a month for six months. During the process, the participants learn how to coach and use the group to explore real issues that they are facing in their roles.  If common themes emerge, such as dealing with conflict, influencing, or developing different styles then we include some time in the session to explore the chosen topics, in addition to the individual work.

“I used to think I was a good coach and mentor as I am generally a good listener and empathetic. After doing the Group Coaching with Vanessa, I realised that I was prone to offer ‘solutions’ and ‘good advice’ rather than guiding others to discover their own solutions.  I learnt that discovering or uncovering a solution and the way to implement it, for yourself is much more exciting that being told what could or should be the way forward.  I put that lesson into practice on an almost daily basis and I think I am a better manager, as well as mentor and coach, for it.”  Department Manager, Energy Research”

Pairs coaching

In collaboration with others, I can offer a powerful process of pairs coaching, focused on enhancing key relationships within the organisation, such as the CEO and FD, Marketing and Sales Directors. For more information visit Executive Pairs or contact me for a discussion.

Over the years, I have led and facilitated many groups and teams, so I am familiar with the recurrent themes that emerge – desire to break through politeness, space dominated by a few individuals, avoidance of difficult topics.   Many teams have the appearance of performance as they meet targets and achieve results, whilst those seeking to be high performing are prepared to go through a pain barrier, to explore difficult territory and to emerge with a greater understanding and respect for one another and greater energy and innovation in their work.  These teams are better at dealing with uncertainty and complexity, increasing participation of team members and collaborating with others. They are also more able to deal with the natural changes of people joining and leaving the team over time.

My own work over the years has included helping teams through process consultation (facilitating the process and continuous improvement of the team), understanding personality differences, analysing the behaviours, rating team performance and many other tools and techniques.  We may explore some or all the following in developing the team:

How people influence each other, the balance of support and challenge, whether interactions are strategic or operational, task focused and relational, how decisions are made and conflicts/disagreements are managed, how things are communicated and tasks are achieved, the focus of long term, short and mid-term, risk and creativity, and continuous learning and growth of the team.

I encourage breakthroughs with real time dialogue and working with teams over time to consolidate development.

I provide supervision to coaches and consultants who are working in the field of organisational and leadership development and executive coaching.  My approach is Gestalt based and incorporates the 7-eyed model of supervision. My supervision has 3 core elements:

• Developing the resourcefulness of the people I’m supervising
• Helping them with ethical standards and dilemmas
• Providing a safe space for exploration of the personal development questions that arise from the work

“Vanessa has been my supervisor for several years now and I think she is brilliant. Whether it’s personal challenges I’m experiencing, live business issues I wish to explore or broader business development discussions she always adds enormous value and is a fabulous agent of change. Working with Vanessa has been transformative and I would wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone” Theresa Colligan, Owner, The Coaching Project