European Coaching Foundation Accreditation
Since gaining my accreditation with the European Coaching Federation, now Rivas Palmer (RP), I have graduated as an Advanced Coach with RP.  I am now working towards accreditation with the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

Background
After a period working within both the travel and financial services industries, I entered the fast moving pharmaceutical industry in 1991, spending most of the years since then engaged in project and people management, including working at director level.  Having experienced issues with work life balance, and having seen dysfunctional teams and new managers not accustomed to the challenges of managing people for the first time, I am very interested in the use of coaching to assist in these situations.  I am also currently studying ways to measure progress made by coaching within the corporate setting in order to be able to demonstrate the benefits in a more scientific way.

Alignment
The alignment of the goals of a company with those of the individuals is also a challenge which coaching can help with, as is the increase in motivation which is evident in those who adopt a coaching management style and their direct reports.  Underperformance too may be addressed with the use of coaching.  Another interest I have is in helping high performing executives who may find it difficult to talk to work colleagues due to their position, but who often find it helpful to use a coach as a sounding board.

Time Out
In October 2001, I took a year out, and my husband and I drove a Land Rover Defender from Johannesburg to Cape Town, and then through Africa all the way to Tunisia.  The drive was approximately 35,000 km, and took a total of 9 months.  The experience was certainly life changing - we had a crash in South Africa which necessitated me having an operation on my shoulder, at one campsite in Zambia a large bull elephant grazed around the land rover for 2 hours before leaving, the clutch gave out in Kenya, and we were held up at gunpoint in western Sudan.  Undeterred by all these incidents, we ploughed on and achieved our aim to travel overland from the southernmost to the northernmost point in Africa.  It was following these experiences that I decided I wanted to change the way I worked.  After settling back in the UK, I decided on coaching, partly because it is such a wonderfully optimistic area in which to work, but more importantly because I felt I could help to make a difference to people and organisations.

Bushcamping in the Sahara, 2002