Amanda is a qualified coach and mentor (and published author on mentoring) with 12 years in professional practice providing professional executive coaching and mentoring for chief executives and people who hold leadership or senior positions in their organisation. She specialises in working with people in the public and VCSE sectors and is the IOEE National Trainer for Government-supported UK-wide capacity-building programmes that include mentoring skills, resilience building and apprenticeship support. Current and recent coaching clients come from the Cabinet Office, Home Office, One Housing Group, HM Treasury, Department for Health, Gaia Lifestyle, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Maxwell Batley Solicitors, etc.

Coaching style

For Amanda, coaching is a powerful way to help someone deal with their current situation and then work out where they want to be in the future and how to get there. This approach to coaching improves confidence and interpersonal skills, the ability to communicate more effectively, build positive relationships that count and up-skill leadership and management capabilities across the board.

Amanda makes sure every session is highly tailored to the client in the context of their role and organisation and the specific challenges they face. It’s a participative, joint learning experience over a period of time, allowing someone to work on challenges and issues with the support and challenge to make changes and improvements. Work begins with identifying aims and goals and then working together on a regular basis, meeting face to face, or by video Skype/FaceTime or telephone.

Clients and outcomes

Amanda works mainly with people in senior leadership positions, such as CEOs of third-sector organisations or senior heads of service in central and local government. Her coaching is based around the four premises of:

• room to think – space to gain perspective and give generative attention that frees up the client’s ability to think more creatively and deeply
• realising goals – listening, asking questions, providing feedback and acting as a sounding board to help create options and choices
• tools to help – business models, actionable ideas, practical help and support to address specific needs
• concrete actions – every session results in the client taking away a new mindset for tackling their work situations that are practical and doable.

Qualifications, training and professional memberships

• Level 4 Award, Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice
• Post-graduate Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring Practice
• A1 Award
• Fellow IOEE
• Certificate in Positive Therapies (BPS)
• Chartered Fellow CIPD
• Certified NLP Business Practitioner
• NVQ Level 4 Training and Development (Learning and Development)
• L2 Certificate in Counselling Skills
• Certificate in TESOL

Publications

• Leaders’ Guide – A tool for Youth Workers, Managers and Volunteers, NACYP Publications, 1999
• Baseline – Handbook and Toolkit: Setting up and Running a Youth Club, CYP Publications, 2010
• An Introduction to Enterprise Mentoring, Essential Enterprise Series, SFEDI Group and Essential Business, Ashford Colour Press, 2011 (co-authors Peter Stevens, Ruth Lowbridge)
• Get Mentoring and the Get Mentoring Pocket Book, SFEDI Group and Essential Business, Ashford Colour Press, 2012 (co-author Ruth Lowbridge)