About Polly
As your coach, I’ll be here for you - and with you. My purpose is to help you discover fresh perspectives and hold a safe space for your explorations. I'm here to help you succeed, whatever that means for you - now and for the future.
With director-level experience in corporate communications and general business management, I offer:
• Whole person executive and leadership coaching (= personal + professional). Development for leaders wherever they are in the organisation
• Mentoring for Marketing, Communications and PR professionals
• Communication consultancy services
In my own work life, I was fortunate to have leadership development myself, including three coaches. Over the years, particularly in times of significant change or challenge, I found being coached very helpful. Each coach had a different approach and had different areas of expertise; I learned much from each of them to help me grow and develop as a leader.
In business, I enjoyed coaching and mentoring colleagues and came to realise I loved being able to help people develop and wanted to do this full-time – independently rather than from within a business.
Now, I’m coaching and providing Comms consultancy full-time. I combine learnings from being coached myself and my rich experiences in corporate life with learnings from ongoing professional development workshops and learnings from my clients, my network of fellow coaches and from my coach supervisors to develop my own coaching practice.
It’s a lot of learning – and it’s a privilege to be able to use it to make a positive difference, and help others driven to do the same.
Experience
With an extensive coaching, consulting and corporate background, including board-level experience, I can draw on it all and leave it aside, as serves you best.
In a nutshell, I help you make steps that make a big difference and to deliver focused and measurable outcomes.
Whether you're sponsored by your employer, or you've found me yourself, I'll help you move forward with purpose.
You can see more client testimonials here: https://www.singlestep.uk/affiliations
"I went to Polly seeking more clarity around my project, to gain insight and more self-awareness and I wanted help dealing with my fear of criticism, to stop thinking of other people’s opinions. I wanted to have the courage to show up, and do more talks and presentations. I found our conversations meaningful and insightful. The quality of Polly’s questions made the biggest impact on the way I was processing my thoughts and coming up with new solutions. I noticed that after every session I was motivated to take actions. My thoughts and feelings are now generating enough momentum to overcome inertia and act. With Polly, I’ve learned that a deep and meaningful conversation can lead to tangible results and now I reflect in more depth."
"Polly is natural and authentic, honest and genuinely cares for and makes time for me. I trust Polly - she provides a good mix of challenge and support. Polly asks me to question my thinking and consider why I do things and the way I do them. She helps me see different perspectives. She’s very open and warm and she’ll never just nod and agree. With Polly, I make stretching targets and I know she’s there when I need her."
"I went to Polly with concerns about my work/life balance – there wasn’t any! I was overworked and very tired, trying to juggle everything. I took on weight for everyone, was working all the time and looking after everyone all the time. I became ill as a result. When I talked it all through with Polly, I noticed I was holding everything for everyone, emotionally too, and understood for the first time why I was doing this. This realisation is a big breakthrough for me. I haven’t really had to stop before getting ill and now, exploring things with Polly, it’s given me time to think, reprioritise and try out ways to do things differently. I’m noticing that I now make time for myself and I’m starting to take better care of myself – so I can keep well and help others. I’m now able to relax more and let others help and share responsibility. This is big for me!"
Coaching style
My style is wholehearted, whole person and collaborative - we are both invested in the process. My approach is professional + personal - the challenges we face are never purely personal or purely professional. And, my coaching is for all leaders - wherever they are in their organisation.
To achieve this, I carefully researched professional diploma coaching courses available in the UK to be done in person, accredited by recognised coaching bodies. Some were too 'life' focussed and some were too 'executive' - and then I discovered two, which when combined, were Goldilocks! One is certified by the EMCC and the other by APECS. The former is coach-mentoring and business-focussed, the latter is psychological and based in developing awareness for leadership mastery (of the self, of impact on others, of systems dynamics, of using will and asking for help).
I find these work well together, along with my own life and business experience, to help me provide a rounded, integral coaching style - for people who want to make a difference for themselves and those who rely on them, at home and at work.