“Being co-founder and Director of a successful business is both challenging and invigorating. You mentor and develop those you manage but who does the same for you and your senior team? That is why we started working with Robyn.”

It’s the whole piece. She is not coming in to fix us. We’re not broken per se. We do not need some kind of instant fix. What we do need is help for us to help ourselves to that next level. That’s because there is much more growth in the business. And there are new challenges ahead. We have an ambitious growth plan and know we need to grow together if we are going to continue to be a success.

It’s about helping us to help each other to be the best that we can be.

Know why you’re engaging an Executive Coach

Within the sessions with Robyn I know there’s a purpose and I am clear about why I’m there. Above all, it’s a safe place where confidences are maintained and anything can be said.

Having experienced time with Robyn in her role as an Executive Coach; in no way does she give opinions or tell you how things should be done. She asks probing questions that actually get you to reflect. And you think ‘actually, maybe if I’d done that in a different way I would have realised a different outcome.’

It’s a self-revelation; a light-bulb moment and it’s non-threatening. And you couldn’t teach it. You couldn’t teach it because it’s not prescriptive at all. It’s not ‘this is how you should manage people’. Or, ‘you should speak to them a certain way’. And ‘you should use that tone and mirror the body language’. And ‘don’t fold your arms because it’s a barrier’. There’s none of that. Robyn’s approach as an Executive Coach is intuitive.

Furthermore, Robyn is very respectful. She works with senior managers across the counties who are doing good jobs and running big businesses. So whatever they’re doing they need to carry on doing. And there is something about being able to be open and honest about the things that aren’t working at work (or at home). Hence you can get your thoughts in order again to think ‘okay, what do I need to do in order to put that right?’

It’s very disarming actually and I did get a huge amount from the Coaching with Robyn.

Helen Broughton, Director of People and Standards, DANBRO