I'm Emma, an Executive and Resilience Coach, Positive Psychology Practitioner, and EMCC-accredited Senior Practitioner.
I've spent much of my career helping people develop, first through HR and Talent roles and, for more than a decade, as a coach. Before setting up my coaching practice, I spent over 15 years working in organisations across financial services, insurance, technology and pharmaceuticals.
That experience matters to how I coach. I understand the reality of organisational life: competing priorities, difficult relationships, increasing responsibility, change, politics, pressure and those situations where there simply isn't a perfect answer.
Today, I work with leaders at different stages of their careers, from talented people stepping into bigger leadership roles through to experienced senior leaders navigating significant responsibility and complexity.
How I coach
My style is warm, curious and supportive, but I'm also honest and challenging. I ask a lot of questions. I listen carefully. I'll help you step back and see things from different perspectives. And if I notice something that I think might be getting in your way, I'll probably say so.
I don't believe coaching needs to feel overly formal or serious. Some of the most useful conversations involve humour, experimentation and being able to admit that we don't have everything figured out. Nor do I believe my job is simply to give you the answers. Most of the time, you know far more about yourself, your organisation and your situation than I ever will.
My role is to create the space for you to think well, challenge some of the assumptions you may be making, bring relevant ideas and evidence into the conversation and help you work out what you want to do next. And when it's useful, I'll share my own experiences, observations, psychological frameworks and practical tools. I'm a coach, not an oracle, but I'm also not going to sit silently and ask, "And how does that make you feel?" for an hour.
I work with humans, not just leaders
One thing I believe strongly is that when I coach someone, I'm working with a human being, not a job title. Of course, we might talk about leadership, performance, influence, relationships, career progression or a difficult situation at work. But none of us leaves the rest of ourselves at the door when we go to work. We bring our values, experiences, relationships, vulnerabilities, ambitions, energy, and everything else going on in our lives with us.
So while my coaching is often focused on helping people become more effective leaders, I'm interested in the whole person behind the leader. Because ultimately, I believe that understanding ourselves better helps us not only to lead better, but to live and work better too.
Professional credentials
I am an EMCC accredited Senior Practitioner, with more than a decade of executive coaching experience and over 1,000 hours of professional coaching practice. My corporate HR background includes more than 15 years working across financial services, insurance, technology and pharmaceuticals, giving me first-hand experience of the organisational environments in which many of my clients are working.
Alongside my coaching qualifications, I am a Positive Psychology Practitioner, qualified to use Hogan and MBTI assessments, and trained in a range of coaching and psychological approaches that inform my work around leadership, resilience and sustainable performance. Driven by a love of learning, I am committed to ongoing professional development and regular coaching supervision, ensuring my practice continues to develop alongside the leaders I work with.
Beyond coaching
Over the years, my work has increasingly focused on something that fascinates me: what enables people to perform well and flourish, particularly when life and work are demanding? That interest led me deeper into positive psychology and resilience and ultimately to the development of Five to Flourish®, my framework for building resilience and sustainable performance through five interconnected areas: Energy, Emotions, Mindset, Relationships and Purpose.
Today, that work sits alongside my executive coaching and leadership development work, helping individuals, teams and organisations think differently about performance and resilience.
And who am I?
Just as the people I work with are much more than their job titles, I'm much more than the coach you meet in the room. A fair amount of my life outside work is spent attending to two teenage daughters and two perpetually hungry Labradors! When I do find some time for myself, I'm happiest outside. Walking is where I do some of my best thinking and, when the British weather allows, on my paddleboard. I'm an avid reader, love going to the theatre and am endlessly curious about people, psychology and what helps us live and work well.
I'm also a Trustee of Go Make a Difference in Tanzania (GoMAD). My family and I first volunteered with the charity in Tanzania, and I now have the privilege of supporting its work as a Trustee. Visiting Musoma and spending time with the community there has become a really important part of my life.
All of these things are part of who I am and inevitably part of what I bring to my work too.
Shall we talk?
Choosing a coach is personal. Experience and qualifications matter, but so does whether you feel comfortable talking to someone, whether you trust them and whether you feel they'll challenge you in the right way. That's why I always start with a conversation.
If you're considering executive coaching, leadership development or resilience work for yourself, your team or your organisation, I'd be very happy to hear what's going on and explore whether I'm the right person to help.