Our Coaches
My career started as a trainee in a national retail chain, and at the age of 21, I was promoted to a Retail Manager position (food and clothing). By making many mistakes, as a novice manager, I truly started to learn life and leadership skills. I also learnt my first business principle – leadership by example. Cleaning the store with my team became standard practice.
Wanting to work alongside people, and still in my twenties, I transitioned into the corporate world as Human Resources Manager at Xerox. My then boss taught me my second business principle (by way of a humbling experience): adopt a solutions focused mindset to problems and opportunities.
Later, as Commercial HR Director in a global business, my learning expanded, and I understood how leadership drives culture and culture drives performance…. including how values drive leadership. I applied these principles to complex business decisions; (through Mergers, Acquisitions and Outsourcing agreements), strategic initiatives, change management and leading teams.
As Regional CEO of a Not-for-Profit, reporting to a Board of Directors, I was relentless on focusing in maintaining a balance between working ‘on’ versus working ‘in’ the business. Having mentors on the board was invaluable. The importance of developing a vision for the company, and translating that into a strategic narrative and subsequently an executable business plan (with regular reviews), became my modus operandi.
With a passion for helping shape effective leadership, and supporting leader development, I wanted to coach business owners. I completed a Masters in Coaching Psychology, and established my coaching practice. My singular purpose as a business coach is to facilitate leaders, teams and professionals, to flourish in their personal and professional lives. When these outcomes are realised, businesses and communities are significantly and positively impacted.
Expertise
Business Coaching
Career Transition Coaching
Retirement Coaching
Leadership Team Alignment Consultation and Facilitation
Business Planning Consultation and Facilitation
Leadership Development Coaching
Designations & Certifications
Hogan Personality Assessments (HPI; HDS; MVPI; HBRI)
Hogan 360 feedback
Resilience at Work (RAW)
TLC: The Leadership Circle
Member: USCMA
Member: IOC
Education
MSc, Coaching Psychology, University of Sydney
Bachelor of Arts (double major: Psych, Sociology), UNISA
Advanced Diploma HRM, IPM
Advanced Diploma OD, IPM
A change in career and country presented me with both challenges and opportunities, vulnerabilities, and strengths. With an ongoing interest in people, the experience of navigating change in my personal and professional life acted as a catalyst to support others through their change journey. I have enjoyed over 20 years’ experience as a consultant, coach and facilitator – optimising capability, performance, and culture across a range of industries in the Private, Public and Non For Profit sectors in Australia, Europe, SE Asia and South Africa.
After consulting in Organisational Change for Price Waterhouse for a few years, I was fortunate to work with and be mentored by Audrey Page in 1995 – beginning my journey into business and career transition coaching. It has been immensely rewarding and a privilege over the years, to walk alongside my clients, identifying their motivations and constraints, their skills, preferences, priorities and values in their context and life stage – to address underlying issues and optimise their responses, choices, and performance. This has at times required deep and challenging conversations with transformative results.
My experience includes identifying and addressing strategic issues relating to Organisational Change, particularly the impact on culture, team building and dynamics, business processes, performance, and development. I consult with a broad range of key stakeholders and SMEs to understand business and development needs and coordinate relevant programs and projects, tailoring content to diverse company cultures and audiences including financial institutions, universities, and the Health and Aged-care sector.
I have found the combination of Psychology & Change Management useful as a means of exploring and addressing organisational & business challenges and initiatives from both systemic and interpersonal perspectives. My objective, as a coach, is to understand individual goals and how these might (or might not) align with their current roles and choices, the impact this has on performance, productivity and well-being. Then exploring opportunities for them to thrive personally and professionally.
Expertise
Career Transition Coaching
Business Coaching
Organisational Development
Consultation and facilitation
Leadership and Team Assessment, consultation and facilitation
Resilience and Well-being
Learning and Development
Innovation and Creative Thinking
Designations & Certifications
Hogan Personality Assessments (HPI; HDS; MVPI; HBRI)
FourSight Thinking Profile
Lego Serious Play
Member: AHRI
Member: IECL
Member: Resolution Institute (Formerly LEADR)
Education
MBA, Macquarie Business School (Formerly Macquarie Graduate School of Management)
Bachelor of Arts (Psychology & Sociology), University of Witwatersrand
Master’s in Counselling & Psychotherapy (current), ACAP
My expertise as a business coach developed from my 23 years of coaching, teaching, and researching, with particular focus on leadership and coaching research.
Students often commented that the theories they studied (leadership, management development, organisational behaviour, etc.) were too disconnected from the real world of business, i.e., time, pressure, stress, and uncertainty of leading and managing.
In response to their concerns of this disconnect, I developed and taught the executive coaching MBA program at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, for 20 years. I am proud to see many of these graduates having tremendous success in the business world.
The course provided various perspectives through which students could develop a practical and proactive approach to the real time experience of pressure, stress, and uncertainty. Consequently I now always ask my clients: ‘Are you the “captain of your ship” or are you being dragged along by stress, pressure, and uncertainty?’ Coaching conversations then provide leaders with the opportunity to move beyond the feeling they are being held ‘captive’ by these constraints, to a space where they can develop their practical wisdom.
My deep understanding and passion of psychology and philosophy make me believe an essential part of leadership is turning situations around when issues become unmanageable, incomprehensible, or looks like it is falling apart in or around oneself. I also believe that business coaching is essential for developing the ‘soft skills’ of leadership. This includes effective decision making, forming judgments, taking responsibility and being accountable. These two factors (‘things falling apart’ and ‘soft skills’) are connected insofar that we need to recognise, and then develop or improve, our own unique ‘soft skills’. Which ‘soft skill’ we lack often become evident by recognising what has emerged or happened to us when things were falling apart or when we find ourselves in difficult situations. This is where I put emphasis on how coaching enables clients to develop the practical wisdom required of themselves around all manners of leadership.
Expertise
Leadership Coaching
Business Coaching
Coaching for developing a Diversity & Inclusion mindset
Team Coaching
Coaching for turning disruptions into opportunities
Legacy Coaching
Coaching for Mental Health Mindset
Coaching for Sustainability Mindset
Designations & Certifications
Registered Psychologist
Philosophical Counsellor
Education
PhD, University of Witwatersrand
MA, University of Witwatersrand
BA Honours (Psychology), University Johannesburg
BA Honours (Philosophy), University of Witwatersrand
BA, (Double major in Philosophy and Psychology) University of Witwatersrand
After two rewarding decades in high finance, where as Treasurer and MD for Société Générale Australia I managed a $50 billion balance sheet, a desire to focus on helping others within business motivated me to undertake a Master of Business Coaching.
I went on to establish Game Changer Consulting – a coaching and consulting services business that draws on evidence based coaching processes to improve individual, team and business performance. This morphed into Business Coach Sydney, a partnership with other leading business coaches that offers a wide range of coaching experience within a single hub, capable of meeting all the needs of medium size businesses.
I have spent the past decade mentoring, consulting, and coaching businesses, from small to large, across numerous industries. I have seen, and know, how overwhelming and challenging managing a business is, specifically, when there are limited resources available to deal with unlimited issues.
As a business coach, I passionately believe that providing a sounding board and broadening perspective leads to insight and options for new strategies and behaviours, congruent with our own personal desires. A sense of being and feeling purposeful, energetic, and productive (PEP) makes obstacles surmountable, progress sustainable and goals achievable. My coaching aims to put the “pep” back in your step’.
