Paul
Software manager
‘I run a software company and I have regular coaching sessions with Sally.
What I get out of the sessions:
- I get to step back and look at the bigger picture of what I’m doing and where I’m going. It also gives me the opportunity to create new visions and directions, and to consolidate and reinforce existing ones.
- It gives me a safe space to look at what I may be avoiding (there’s inevitably always something!) or what is blocking me. Sally provides the support or process for me to look at why I’m avoiding it, what the cost is, (and inevitably!) to see how much easier it actually would be for me to tackle it.
I always come away from my sessions with Sally with something of value: inspired and excited, re-energised, seeing something clearly that I hadn’t seen before, or with a calmness that previously was missing.
Sally’s skills in listening would be enough to make it worth my time going to her. She gives 100% of herself to listening and being there for me. Her ability to step outside of the detail that I can get stuck in and supports me to see the bigger and often much clearer picture.
Sally provides me with the space to talk through and work out issues myself.
She never swamps me with questions or suggestions or advice. Her input is minimal, considered and precise and only offered when I’m really stuck or if I specifically ask for it. I’m reminded of a surgeon’s scalpel – sharp, clean and exact!
When I’m stuck with or in an issue, Sally has the ability to ask just the right question at just the right time that will get me thinking in an entirely new way, open a whole new view of what I’m looking at and help me to see what was blocking me.
She also has a range of short exercises that I can depend upon to open new ways of thinking, to side step dead ends, and to find new solutions that I’d never thought of. I often find myself surprised that what I thought might be hard and difficult was actually easy and even fun!
Sally is comfortable being with ‘sticky bits’, and when I’m floundering, lost or despairing of a solution, her calmness and confidence in the process and in me supports me to keep looking.
I can honestly say that the sessions I have with Sally are invaluable for the success and continued success of my company, as well as for my sanity and continued excitement and inspiration in my working life.’