Executive Coaching

Coaching is one of the most powerful forms of learning and performance improvement available and can help you meet personal goals and organisational expectations. Our diverse team of coaches combine coaching expertise, business acumen and people skills to deliver coaching which makes individuals, and the organisations they work for, stronger, more capable and more adaptable.

Transformative 1:1 coaching relationships

Coaching is one of the most powerful forms of learning and performance improvement available and can help you meet personal goals and organisational expectations. Our diverse team of coaches combine coaching expertise, business acumen and people skills to deliver coaching which makes individuals, and the organisations they work for, stronger, more capable and more adaptable.

Watch our short video to find out more about how Executive Coaching can support you and your team.


The OCM approach to coaching

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At its heart, a great coaching relationship is a series of purposeful conversations, which aim to bring about change and improved performance. Working with The OCM coaches is stimulating, challenging, supportive, eye-opening and transformative. 

The OCM coaches have an enormous range of tools and approaches they can draw on, but they do not follow a set process or structure. Our coaches use an approach called “situational coach-mentoring” which means that they flex their approach according to what will help you to make as rapid progress as possible.

Your coach will ask insightful questions, listen intently, offer their perspective and bring in challenge and feedback where necessary. The feedback that clients most often give us is that “my coach really made me think” and “I made far more progress with my goals than I thought I would”.

Email our team to find out more.

I worked with my OCM Coach to help my transition to Directorship and assist me cope with an aggressive company transformation. My Coach provided a balanced approach with equipping me not only with management skills but also great coping tools which helped me both with my career and home life. I can’t express enough the impact my coach had over the 18 months, which I believe has greatly helped me make a successful transition and also a stronger person and would strongly recommend them to anyone transitioning to a new position.

Jonny Whiteside, Marine Engineering Director, Survitec

The coaching process

Choice of coach is crucial, so we start by providing you with a suitable shortlist of OCM coaches to review. You will typically have 2-3 ‘pre-contracting’ conversations with your shortlist of coaches and then you can choose the coach you’d most like to work with.

Your coach will first work with you to establish your goals for the coaching.  There can also be a tripartite conversation with your line manager – or another sponsor from your organisation – to ensure there’s alignment of expectations between you, your coach, and your wider organisation.

Coaching sessions then typically happen every 3-6 weeks, with a focus on learning, reflection, planning and action.  The coach works to ensure that the coaching achieves your goals, and ensures it retains the right balance between being a supportive and a challenging experience.

A typical coaching contract will be between 9 and 18 hours, with 12 hours’ coaching over 6-8 months being the most common.

Bridget has proved to be an exceptional coach in my view, facilitating me in crystallising my concerns and thoughts, developing an approach to solving issues and then thinking of an actual plan to do so. At no point does she ever tell me what to do, but by active listening and gentle prompting, guides me to formulating my own solutions. She has also proved very effective in helping me to put and keep some intractable issues in perspective (I have a cup half empty tendency and she has helped me to realise this also equates to cup half full). Finally, she has assisted me in formulating a much clearer picture of my potential future role (in addition to my statutory functions) within my organisation and Executive / Non-Executive Team, that sits with my particular skills and will help the Board evolve into a much more functional unit. I can wholeheartedly recommend her.

Coaching Client

Coaching Solutions for all your needs

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There are a number of variations on a standard coaching contract.  All of them are based on a series of goal-focused conversations and all of them will bring about lasting positive change – but the different emphasis means the coach will adopt a different process:

On-demand Leadership coach–mentoring – this is typically used by seasoned senior leaders who have had coaching relationships in the past.  The client works with the coach ‘on-demand’, requesting conversations on an ad-hoc basis as dictated by the needs of the business, and being able to access the coach’s services at very short notice.  This is particularly well suited to leaders who are in fast-changing environments, or who need to deliver rapid change to a business.

Coaching for onboarding – an OCM coach works with a client who is about to change roles.  This kind of coaching is best suited to someone taking on a complex, strategically important role where they need to rapidly get clarity on the job demands and the stakeholder environment, and make rapid progress.  The coach will interview key stakeholders for the role and will often undertake a competency-based assessment of the client to help focus the coaching on the areas that will be of most benefit to rapid progress in the role.

Transition coaching – coaching focused on transition to a new role, in particular where there is a transition to a different culture (organisational or geographic). The coaching will help the client understand the requirements of the role, the cultural landscape, and will focus on building resilience and strong relationships with the team.

Embedded coaching – an OCM coach works with several clients from your organisation in a single day, meaning the work is more cost-effective for you and more people can access coaching than would be typically possible.

Coaching to support leadership development – OCM coaches work with a cohort of leaders undergoing a broader leadership development programme.  The coaching sits alongside the development and helps the participants consolidate, reflect on and assimilate the knowledge they are gaining, and helps them apply it.  This means they see the programme as more practical and relevant, and means they retain the knowledge for longer.  In addition, coaching is particularly valuable in building behavioural and leadership competencies, which are often challenging to develop and embed.

Email Ed Parsloe or complete the form below, to find out more about our coaching approach.


Coaching Solutions for all your leaders

Coaching for senior leaders – for people in large roles with strategic breadth.  Typically these leaders manage a P&L or a significant function, so the coaching will focus on helping deliver results by mobilising groups of people around a vision and a strategy.  The OCM coaches delivering this work are seasoned coaches and seasoned business leaders in their own right, many of whom also hold non-Executive roles. 

Coaching for high potentials – coaching to support rapid development and growth in early to mid-career individuals who demonstrate the potential to develop rapidly into larger roles.  The coaching frequently focuses on giving leaders the skills that they will need at the next level in the company, and in roles beyond that.

Coaching for new leaders - Short, focused coaching contracts to support people who are new to leadership roles.  This ensures they develop real breadth as leaders.  The coach will often use a combination of coaching and mentoring to help the client understand the role, the stakeholder needs and what it takes to get the best from the particular team they are leading.  The coach will help the client examine their own assumptions and beliefs about what being a leader is about – helping them to become a leader who is authentic and purposeful.

“I started coaching sessions with The OCM just before Covid-19 struck and lockdown started. My coach was very useful in helping me negotiate my way through some tricky personnel and relationship issues, exacerbated by the pandemic. It was particularly useful that he was able to tailor his approach to my preferred style, and respond quickly when I needed some urgent support. I would recommend my OCM coach to any senior manager looking for a patient and challenging coach.”

Stephen Wilcox, Chief Risk Officer, Pension Protection Fund

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