I was introduced to Elizabeth when preparing to leave a multi-national energy company, with 25 years of senior Corporate Communications management experience under my belt. I was keen to pursue a freelance career, but also keen to change my work/life balance and develop personal interests. Elizabeth provided wise, perceptive and humorous counsel, encouraging the exploration of personal dreams, whilst also ensuring that future options and plans were built on the firm foundations of experience, self-knowledge and reality. As a result of her strategic approach and guidance, I have developed a successful corporate communications consultancy, providing services to government, industry and schools.
I was given the opportunity to work with Elizabeth after I had left a senior position in the music industry and at a time where I was looking to change career direction. Being a cynic, I wondered what anyone else could possibly tell me about myself. How wrong can one be? Elizabeth explored numerous facets of my personality and abilities which allowed me to accept who I was and stop trying to be a square peg in a round hole. It worked and I secured a role in a completely different sector (fashion retail) which plays to my skills, personality and outlook on life. I consider Elizabeth to be one of the most sensible talking, professional and intelligent people I have ever met, with the warmest of personalities. She really helps you see the wood from the trees!
I met Elizabeth at a time when I had taken a break from my regular career to join a different international organisation – just to try something new – but this was not working out and was sapping my confidence. This is where Elizabeth’s background as a psychoanalyst proved so useful. We worked together to analyse the issues I was facing and identify the realistic options. I put myself back into the market and ended up in a position -which I still hold two years on – which is a perfect match for me. I am very grateful to Elizabeth for the important role she played in my life at that time, which proved to be a turning point. I am still in contact with her for ongoing career advice of course.A Senior Executive in a global retail company had reached a fork in his career path and was finding it impossible to choose between two possible options. Focussed discussion raised some significant issues about his personal life which reframed the way this client had been thinking about the problem and explained his ‘procrastination’. The new perspective made the decision very clear.
A Legal and Commercial Director of a leading automotive company had been promoted to a Department Directorship, his first Board-level role. His objectives in coaching were to look at unsatisfactory working relationships. Only a slight shift of perspective, which required him to do some ‘letting go’, was necessary for him to successfully raise his game. This also freed him to clarify his mid and long-term strategies for professional development.
A Senior Civil Servant in a high-profile government department was anxious that he had been over-promoted to his recent role, manifesting in his feeling ill-equipped in terms of knowledge and experience. Focussed analysis allowed him to pinpoint the precise issues that were generating concern and enabled him to recover his equilibrium and play to his strengths.
An Ambassador in his mid-50s needed to translate his experience in diplomacy and negotiation into ‘non-governmental’ language, in order to move into the ‘outside world’. The process of carefully identifying and clarifying his ‘offer’ resulted in an exciting senior role at a world-class centre of learning. From here he was also able to negotiate two much-wanted Non-Executive Directorships.