Future-Focused Skills for Finance Teams in the Age of AI

I have just finished an incredible series of coaching and mentoring sessions with Melanie as part of the ICAEW National Finance Leadership course for 2022. Melanie has been an inspirational part of that course providing insights into my motivational landscape, assisting with imposter syndrome, and coaching me through a number of difficult conversations as I started my first executive career. Without Melanie's support I would not have been able to make the impact I have in the first 4 months of my new role. An inspirational coach whose approach and knowledge are second to none. Thank you!

To say that Melanie has had a transformative impact on my life would be an understatement. I have been working with her as a coach for over a year, and during that time I have achieved goals that I would hardly have dreamt were possible in several areas of my life. She is a skilled coach, facilitator and NLP practitioner and listens, questions and challenges without judgement. I trust her implicitly and find her very fun to work with - I always leave our sessions with some new piece of insight about myself and my situation. I would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone looking for a coach.

I've always evolved in my role choices to date, making decisions about how I wanted to develop and where I wanted to go next but like many people the pandemic provided me with some food for thought regarding what I did on a day to day basis. I liked being at home and it gave me extra time when the commuting was taken out of the equation but there was still something missing and I wasn't getting the flexibility that I knew I wanted. I'd never really considered using a career coach before but I knew I needed some help on where to go next if I wanted to make real changes and that's where Melanie came in. We had an initial call where we talked through where I was in my career, some of my thoughts and I instantly felt that Melanie understood my situation and more importantly how she might be able to support me. We went through an exercise on Motivational Mapping which uncovered some interesting areas for me to consider and I decided to undertake a 121 programme with Melanie called "Do something different". It took me through several stages of understanding my experience, capabilities and what I wanted from my career / life going forwards. Importantly it built on what we'd discovered in the Motivational Maps work and challenged me to think differently. So what was the outcome? I'm now working through a plan to pursue my passion for supporting individuals and teams in achieving their goals. I have a plan I'm working through, I don't have all the answers yet but the work with Melanie has given me the clarity and confidence to move forwards and take a different direction. I've thoroughly enjoyed working with Melanie and am already planning further work with her to attend masterclasses she runs to help new coaches develop their own practices. I'd encourage anyone thinking of a change of direction in their career to give her a call to see how she can support you.

There are moments and periods in life when you need to be humble and accept that as a leader of your life, work and family you have to allow someone to stand by you at the helm, being that additional light to help you navigate through difficult waters. That additional light shining in front of your ship, gives you the confidence to face into the storm, reminding you that you have the necessary tools and inner spirit to avoid the rocks, the sand banks that cannot be seen, and to trust in your judgement. Being lost is ok, being able to reset, rebuild and refocus on your journey takes clarity of thought. My additional light came in the form of Melanie, someone who was outside my friend, work and family network. Her support has directly contributed to not only helping me get back on my horse after several traumatic life experiences, she has helped me break through and achieve the goal of a better life balance, where I have built better relationships with my children, travelled and gained more memories with my wife, and found myself working outside of the UK doing good work with clients whilst starting to lay foundations in Portugal. Melanie’s approach is highly structured, based around a Motivational Framework with a number of options for career and life support. In my case I just needed a Co-pilot for a short period and was led by my own plan. However Melanie can assist through the cycle of life and career coaching and is someone I have already introduced to my network.