Enabling Accountants and Finance Professionals to develop and flourish through coaching and online courses
Are you stuck? Has your career stalled? Have you lost engagement or purpose? Are you ready for more? Or for something new?
I helped him grow into his role & acknowledge future choices open to him. He’s now thriving in this role, as well as looking forward and beyond it.
I helped her consider options she’d not previously imagined & empowered her to create a parallel journey. Now she’s addressing the gaps identified to achieve her longer-term goals.
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!
Director of Finance and Governance at Hospiscare
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.
Emily Faulkner-Boyd
Director of Financial Inclusion
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.
Peter is a finance manager in Financial Services.
Coming from an audit background, his initial corporate experience was in Financial Accounting where he added significant value to the team and secured a great reputation.
He’s subsequently worked in several other roles, building up knowledge, experience, and credibility across different functions. Yet this isn’t hasn’t resulted in a promotion, making him feel undervalued and frustrated.
Through the Authentic You session, we identified how he wants to be perceived and how this contrasts to his current reputation. Through our monthly coaching sessions he’s identifying ways to showcase his refined brand in order to get the recognition and reward he deserves. His promotion is now imminent!
Lisa is an experienced finance and operations leader. After her last big project, she decided to take some time out to enjoy her young family. She was planning to embark on her next assignment when the pandemic hit.
While she remains highly competent, being out of the workplace for a period has understandably knocked her confidence.
Through the Career Compass session, she’s refined focus on what she really wants from her next role. From the Authentic You session, she’s gained clarity on who she is and how best to present this for optimal impact.
These sessions combined have given her the support and encouragement required to position herself with confidence and credibility.
Claire is a senior director in an accounting firm.
Through competence and diligence, she has built up a considerable client base for the practice. Yet her efforts were not always rewarded, or even fully recognised by the partners.
Her work was having a negative impact on her health and well-being and was not sustainable.
Through the Career Compass, I opened her eyes to what really matters to her as well as showing what’s possible by making some changes she hadn’t previously been aware of.
Now she has clarity on where she’s aiming, we’re working together to implement the infrastructure she’s identified to allow her career success and fulfilment in a much more enjoyable and sustainable way.
Joanne is an emerging finance leader working in Financial Services.
She had enjoyed some great recognition and was being fast tracked into a leadership position. However, there were some people-related elements that were proving frustrating and holding her back from realising her true potential.
The Career Compass session allowed us to identify what’s really important to Joanne and to understand why the current situation was frustrating. Her hard work and great relationships catapulted her into a new leadership position.
Our monthly coaching sessions focus partly on charting her ongoing career direction as well as providing time and space for her to iron out challenges as they arise in her current position.
Sarah was a senior compliance manager in a large bank. Her background in finance and project management equipped her well for the role, but it really didn’t flick her switch. Furthermore, she found herself frequently getting tired and on the verge of burn-out due to the demands of the job.
Sarah had already decided she needed a change when she came to me. Through my Do Something Different programme, she was able to identify what was truly important to her. Furthermore, I helped her to identify her transferrable skills and strengths that will prove invaluable to her in the future.
She’s now in the process of re-training to incorporate her prior experience into something that feels much more fulfilling and enriching for her. She’s also enjoying greater balance that this enables to her life.
Andrew is a successful Tax Director working for one of the Big Four.
Last year he was approached by a competitor and ultimately offered partnership. Whilst this was flattering, exciting (and very tempting), he wasn’t sure how best to proceed.
Through the Career Compass session, we explored what’s really important to him and how this could look with either of his options. Some honest talks with his employer opened further doors including a pay rise and enrolment on the partner development programme.
Our monthly coaching sessions support his ongoing career progression as well as giving him time and space to discuss any relevant situations and how best to tackle these.
Marion has worked for a global corporation for over 15 years. She’s built up a deep business knowledge and has an amazing reputation and internal network, through different roles that she’s performed. However, she’s experienced near burn-out on several occasions due to her desire to perform at her best, combined with working across different timezones.
Through our coaching, I’ve helped her to clarify what she wants to achieve in the remaining 10 years or so of her working life. I helped her to change her mindset about her current position and she that she is choosing to be there, for now anyway.
Most importantly I’m helping her to plan the chapter beyond corporate life. She’s building up a plan together with the necessary experience she needs to realise her goals.
Paul was a corporate accountant. He’d worked for several large corporations career to date and had enjoyed some good opportunities. However, a long commute and time away from his family was getting to him. He also couldn’t see where his career was going.
Through our coaching, I helped him to understand where he wanted his career to go and the steps required to bridge the gap from where he was.
After significant planning, Paul took a calculated risk by resigning from his comfortable role without anything concrete lined up. Within several months, he started work as a finance contractor, giving him the experience needed to support his long-term career goals, more quality time with his family and more money too!
Carolyn worked in a large corporation as a product manager. She was pretty good at it, was well compensated and was grateful to be able to work a 4-day week. However, overall it just didn’t feel right. It wasn’t aligned with her personal interests and aspirations.
Through our coaching, Carolyn identified what she really wanted to do – to follow her heart! She decided to pursue her interest in healthy eating by training as a nutritional therapist. A year later she’s qualified and is running her own business.
Carolyn’s new work satisfies her from a passion and fulfilment perspective, as well as bringing much more flexibility to support to her young family.
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