Coaching

Recognising every person’s unique individuality, I offer tailor-made 1:1 coaching packages that flexibly adjust to your needs. After an initial conversation we will decide how many or few sessions to have together. 

If you have a corporate backer, before starting our work I offer a three-way meeting to ensure goals and expectations are aligned. 

What sort of topics come up in coaching?

Goals typically revolve around the challenges organisational life brings, for example:

  • Constant change;
  • Uncertainty;
  • Integration of globally mobile talent;
  • Internal and external conflicts;
  • The need for adaptive leadership in increasingly matrixed organisations;
  • Aligning with “purpose”.

Your takeaways from coaching:

  • Clarity on your goals.
  • Clarified pathway to your goals.
  • Increased self-awareness.
  • Skills that you can use to self-coach, long after the formal coaching is over. 

Get in touch
What is coaching?
It’s a dialogue where one person listens exceptionally attentively, and expertly facilitates the other in their solution-oriented thinking.

“Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn, rather than teaching them.” (John Whitmore).

“A form of conversation with unspoken ground rules of certain qualities that must be present: respect, openness, compassion and rigour, our commitment to speaking the truth.” (Laura Whitworth).

Executive coaching is about personalised learning and change, with a focus on organisational performance.

What coaching is not

I start every engagement by checking we are on the same page on what coaching is and isn’t.  As a general matter, coaching is not therapy, management consultancy, or a remedial intervention. Coaching is about maximising personal and professional potential.

Slightly more nuanced,  is the coaching versus mentoring question.  What we each mean by these two concepts, and how we want to draw the line between them, is something we can clarify and agree together as we start our work.   

If it seems I am not the appropriate practitioner for a conversation, I will say so.  If you would like to know more about the ethical rules I follow, do take a look at the Code of Ethics of the International Coach Federation: https://coachfederation.org/code-of-ethics

Credentials

Emma Jelley is:

  • a certified executive coach (ICF to ACC level, as well as Henley Business School, Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching),
  • a member of both the International Coaching Federation, and the European Coaching and Mentoring Council.

Emma has completed coaching assignments with a number of senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. The profile of people she has coached range from 1-20 years of managerial experience, as well as individual performers with leadership potential.

Some further biographic factoids:

  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Inspired by the arts, nature, eclectic reading, metaphysics.
  • Professional background as a General Counsel (lawyer-leader) in the technology industry.
  • Corporate history at Google, Onfido, Hogan Lovells, Fondia.
  • International background: 
    • Lived in England, France, Finland, Spain;
    • Home languages English (mother tongue), Finnish and French.
  • Member of:
    • International Coaching Federation (“ICF”), 
    • European Mentoring and Coaching Council (“EMCC”),
    • Law Society of England and Wales;
    • Law Society of Ireland;
    • Law Society of Finland (“Lakimiesliitto”)
  • In addition to coaching, former studies also in:
    • Sustainable development (University of Surrey)
    • Law (King’s College London, University of Paris: Sorbonne-Pantheon, and University of Bristol)
Coaching philosophy

There is a Chinese proverb: “The banks of the Yangtse give it depth, drive and direction”.  So it is with coaching conversations: my approach is to build a solid container within which an individual’s thought can powerfully flow.  Ultimately I believe that bringing your whole self to work enhances personal wellbeing and organisational performance.

I adapt my coaching approach depending on the learning preferences of the individual, and the nature of their goal.  I offer a safe space for all thinkers, including those who may want to bring up spiritual dimensions to their thinking.  I only bring out experience from my own corporate history in law and technology if this is truly in service of the individual’s goals, and even then only with their specific consent. 

A large part of my practice is conducted over Zoom, or by phone. For in-person sessions, I will consider with individuals what environment will most support them in reaching their goals.  This means the coaching could take place in the office, at an art gallery, in a park, or other.

My style is warm, creative, and focused on the client and their needs.

A more detailed coaching philosophy can be provided on request.