Coaching is a powerful approach to help you develop skills and maximise your performance.

It is a practical, problem-solving approach to help you and your teams overcome personal and professional challenges. It works by helping you find positive solutions to problems and challenges and set practical actions to overcome these.

Ever felt stuck or bogged down in a situation? This is something everyone faces at some point in their personal or working life.

Your coach works with you to identify the blocks that are preventing you from moving forward and set out new goals and vision for the future. They then support you to set out actions to make this a reality.

The basic premise behind coaching is that everyone has the ability to achieve their potential. Coaches use a variety of tools and approaches, but mainly incisive coaching questions to help you explore and challenge your self-limiting beliefs and ground yourself in reality. Using these coaching questions, we can then help you work out the best solution.

We won’t tell you what to do – instead we use a variety of coaching questions and approaches to help you work out what’s best for you.

Ever felt stuck or bogged down in a situation? This is something everyone faces at some point in their personal or working life.

Your coach works with you to identify the blocks that are preventing you from moving forward and set out new goals and vision for the future. They then support you to set out actions to make this a reality.

Prior to coaching commencing, we will arrange a discovery meeting with you to explore what you’re looking for from coaching and whether we’re the right fit for you. There’s no charge and no obligation from this meeting. If we don’t think we’re the right coaches for you, we’ll discuss this with you and may be able to recommend an associate who we feel can help.

If you would like to go ahead with coaching, we will hold a contracting meeting with you. This is to set out what you want to achieve from the coaching and also important issues such as confidentiality agreements and how long your coaching programme will be. If you have a sponsor or line-manager, they would be involved at this stage. It’s important we are able to hold open, honest conversations at all levels, so everyone is clear on their roles and expectations.

We will usually meet with you every 2-6 weeks for a 1 1/2 – 2 hour 1-to-1 coaching session. We will use a variety of coaching questions, leadership and other tools to help you explore and understand the challenges you are facing and support you to set out clear actions to address these. This is your time and an excellent opportunity to ‘think out loud’ in a safe and supportive environment.

Our coaching programmes are usually 6 session and we build in a review period at mid-point and also the end. If you have a sponsor, they will also be involved in these reviews. These meetings are included in the cost of your coaching programme and are an opportunity to review progress so far and also re-set any goals if necessary.

Coaching is perfect for busy organisations and professionals, including:

• Giving you a confidential sounding board
• Scheduled time to reflect on yours and others’ performance
• Improved leadership performance
• Generates a positive, problem-solving mindset
• Builds skills, knowledge and motivation
• Increased self-awareness and clarity of thinking
• Improved communication skills and relationships
• Builds confidence
• Improved wellbeing and reduced stress
• Increased personal responsibility and accountability
• Better decision-making
• Improved recruitment and retention
• Meeting targets and organisational outcomes

At BrightBird, we offer both online and in-person coaching. The majority of our clients prefer online, but here’s a quick overview of the pros and cons of both:
In-person:
Put simply, some people just prefer that face-to-face interaction and it can give you opportunity to get out of the office – e.g. ‘walking coaching’. On the flip side, it is usually more expensive and time consuming, requiring at least one party to travel and ensure a suitable venue is available.

Online:
At first glance online coaching would seem to be lacking something by not being face-to-face, but we work with many people whom we have only met online. Indeed some of our clients feel they have ‘met’ us in person, as we are able to quickly form a mutually trusting relationship.

Online coaching is less costly and doesn’t involve travelling time, or arranging a venue. This means it’s much easier to slot into your busy working schedule. We use exactly the same tools and approaches in our online coaching and find that we’re able to have just the same amount of rapport and intuitive insights as we do with our face-to-face clients. Check out our testimonies!

If you’re not sure which is the right approach for you, let’s have a chat and you can find out for yourself with an informal, no-obligation Discovery Zoom call.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR FREE 15 MIN DISCOVERY CALL

Executive Coaching:
Executive coaching is used by leaders around the world to support them to achieve outstanding results, both personally and professionally.

We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘It’s lonely at the top.’ Executive coaching gives senior leaders the opportunity and safe space to explore and address their performance, organisational and personal issues in a confidential, non-judgemental way.

Executive coaching deals with the complex environments encountered by senior leadersand works transformationally to give you that step up and accountability that is often hard to find in senior leadership roles. We work to build the strategic, critical thinking and personal resilience necessary to thrive in a fast-paced, pressured, modern organisation and work environment.

We work on a wide-range of issues from strategic thinking and problem-solving, to ‘soft’ interpersonal skills and leadership styles.

Professional Development Coaching:
At BrightBird, we work with professionals in an organisational context. With this in mind, we work hard to maximise and balance professional performance, personal wellbeing and resilience and organisational outcomes.

Our aim is to achieve the best results for you in your work role. This always takes into account the organisational context, but we take an ethical approach to our work to ensure your personal wellbeing is supported too.

Life Coaching:
We’re often asked, ‘Do you do life coaching?’  In short, no we don’t.  Life coaching is a different discipline for individuals to explore and overcome personal challenges in their life in general, whether that’s around relationships, self-management, life goals and direction. Life coaches work privately with clients and are directed by them alone, so don’t contract with a ‘sponsor’ as you would find with our work providing professional development coaching.

We believe everyone has the ability to achieve their potential, BUT we keep our coaching grounded in reality! We don’t believe in woo-woo or magical thinking. We’re all about straight-talking and practical action.

We know the only way things will change for you is if you DO something differerently.

That could be a change in mindset, new habits or a new approach to work.

We offer a perfect balance between SUPPORT and CHALLENGE.

We’re with you every step of the way in your journey, but our job is to check and question to ensure you hold yourself accountable for your own personal and professional development.

We operate in the field of professional development coaching, so all our coaching takes place in the context of work and how to obtain the best outcomes for you and your organisation.

Coaching is:
• Action and future focussed
• A problem-solving approach
• Led by the client
• Challenging
• A way to learn, grow and develop
• A great way to gain new insights, perspectives and understanding

Coaching isn’t:
• Teaching, mentoring, advising or telling people what to do
• Counselling or therapy
• A talking shop
• Easy
• A magic wand or a quick fix

Coaching is used world-wide by thousands of individuals, businesses and organisations.

It is suitable for people working at all levels, from front-line staff to executives and directors and in all sectors.

Check out the links below to find out more about how we support your sector:
• Business
• Education
• Charities

How much does coaching cost?

The cost of our coaching depends on the type – i.e. whether it’s Executive/Leadership, Professional Development or Team Coaching.

Information on our current prices can be found in our brochures on our Coaching page.

How do I book coaching?

We’re always happy to have an informal discussion with you about your coaching requirements.  That way, we can ensure our coaching is right for you and we can meet your needs.  We can give you an outline cost of the sessions at this point.

Should you wish to proceed, we will arrange a contracting/chemistry meeting free of charge.  This will involve meeting with you and if appropriate, the sponsor – e.g. line manager responsible for booking the coaching.  This is an essential part of the process to ensure everyone is clear about expectations and outcomes for the coaching and equally importantly, that the coachee and coach feel they can work together.  Should they decide this isn’t the case, we will end the process there and if possible, suggest alternative approaches or professionals who may be able to help.

If you would like to proceed with coaching at this point, we would agree a contract regarding outcomes, number of sessions and reporting/confidentiality arrangements and set a date to commence the first session.

Should you have any other questions about any aspect of our coaching, please don’t hesitate to contact us for a no-obligation chat, either by phone or email.

We believe it is important to ensure we’re the right fit for you before commencing coaching. This is why we don’t book coaching programmes direct from our website.

Coaching discovery meetings are informal, no-obligation meetings that allow us to meet you and discuss your requirements and expectations from coaching. This also allows us to have a ‘chemistry check’ and see if we all feel we can comfortably work together.

If the answer is ‘yes’, we can move onto a longer discovery meeting to set out goals and explore more, or simply choose to commence coaching and set up a contracting meeting.

CLICK HERE if you would like to arrange a 15 minute discovery call to find out more.

There is a lot of confusion around the difference between coaching and mentoring, with the two terms often being used interchangeably. They are in fact, two very different approaches.

The best way to explain this is to see mentoring as a person who is more knowledgeable and experienced, sharing that knowledge and experience with someone who is less so.

Coaching on the other hand, focuses on the coach asking incisive questions to help the person understand their situation and work out their own answers and solutions.

In reality, great mentoring includes an element of coaching and vice-versa. Here at BrightBird, we incorporate mentoring into our coaching programmes with the permission of our clients. We believe there’s no point asking endless questions if the person really doesn’t know the answer! As a result, we’ll often share resources, advice and tools with our clients to help them make sense of their world. Ultimately though, we’re invested in ensuring the client has the final say in any action they wish to take.

Like coaching, there are many different approaches to counselling. Many people confuse the two, but they are two very different disciplines. At BrightBird, we occasionally refer our clients to either counselling or therapy if we feel this would benefit them more.

Here’s an easy way to differentiate between the two:
Counselling and Therapy look to the past to help someone make sense of and resolve issues there are experiencing that are causing them difficulty or distress.

Coaching does look to the past, but mainly concerns itself with the present problem or difficulty and concentrates on the future to support the person to resolve this and achieve their desired goals.

It’s important you choose the right coach for you and your situation. There are many coaches to choose from and each have their own specialisms and approach.

This is why we don’t book coaching directly, but instead offer free Discovery Coaching sessions, so we can work out whether we’re the right coach for you and your situation.

CLICK HERE if you’d like to book a no-obligation chat and find out more.

Transformational coaching moves from using basic coaching skills and tools, to helping clients take that ‘step up’ in their personal and professional development. This is a challenging, yet supportive approach and we use this at BrightBird to help us step forward ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with our clients.

Transformational coaching involves setting challenging and stretching goals and holding our clients to account for actions they set. It utilises a wide range of tools and approaches, such as psychoanalytical tools and Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques (NLP), in addition to incisive questioning and critical thinking. This brings about a step-change in performance and behaviour that would be difficult to achieve through traditional training or mentoring.

Costs of coaching can vary depending on:
• The type of coaching – e.g. executive or one-off coaching for a front-line worker
• The length of coaching programme
• Whether in-person or online

To find out more, click on the link for your sector:
• Business
• Education
• Charities

Coaching is not regulated in the UK in the same way as counselling and psychotherapy for example. Many coaches, like us at BrightBird, would very much welcome more regulation to protect clients and maintain high quality standards.

In the meantime it is important to check that any coach you engage has:
• An accredited qualification from an awarding body – e.g. ILM
• Sufficient experience to work in their chosen field/client group
• Membership/affiliation with a recognised coaching body – e.g. EMCC
• Regular supervision from an accredited coach supervisor
• Appropriate public and professional liability insurance

At BrightBird we ensure all our associate coaches have a minimum of Level 5 Management Coaching (or Level 7 if working at Executive Level) and regular supervision. Our Founder and Lead Coach Karen Amos, has an ILM Level 7 Diploma in Executive Coaching and Mentoring, and over 10 years’ experience coaching at this level. She is a member of the EMCC and ascribes to their Global Code of Conduct and Ethics. She receives regular coaching supervision and BrightBird is insured for public and professional liability. READ MORE HERE.

Our Team Coaching utilises transformational coaching approaches to provide motivation and direction for your team to achieve tangible and positive results.

Find out more by clicking on the coaching page for your sector below:

• Business
• Education
• Charities

We offer a wide range of Professional Development Coaching, including:
• Executive coaching
• Leadership/management development
• Wellbeing coaching – e.g. stress management
• Team coaching
• New to role and emerging leaders

Contact us using the form below to find out more, or visit our coaching pages:

• For Business
• For Education
• For Charities