'Currently, I am leading the ProActive programme for the Learning & Skills Council, which is helping around 100 managers with the challenges of transforming the LSC into a new set of learning and skills organisations. I also manage a programme of coach development and supervision for about 110 coaches in the West Midlands Coaching Pool, a consortium of local authorities providing each other with an independent coaching capability.
I know from my own experience as a senior manager in further education that the most effective leadership learning comes from development activities that focus on the real-life challenges managers actually face.
I am a passionate believer in the benefits of coaching. With the challenges facing public services coaching might be seen as a bit of a luxury. Working with a diverse range of public services, however, I see how developing a coaching culture can increase motivation, develop capability, spread learning and good practice, and enhance performance – in these difficult times coaching might just have become even more vital for personal and organisational success.'