Spotlight Interviews
Recommendation
It’s been great having Karen working with us at the 3 Shires Coaching Group. We have been using her to carry out Interviews with the Coaches in our group, for the ‘Coach-in-the-Spotlight’ feature that we offer our full members. These articles have featured in our newsletters, on the website and all coaches can use them for their own marketing, etc. I’d highly recommend Karen for many reasons, including her professionalism, lovely approachable nature, communication skills, and her excellent organisation! She’s really easy to talk to and listens really well, asking pertinent questions to help get the job done to our specifications. I will definitely use Karen’s excellent services again.
Debbie Inglish
Square 2 Development / Debbie Inglis Associates / AQR International
Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire
Coach in the Spot Light Interviews
How well to you know someone you work with or frequently see?
This is a business support service where I Interview members of your group, network or business.The choice of questions is up to you if they are generic or questions with a twist!
Insight & information gained is written into a document which can be used for your website, newsletter or personal profile.
Here are some of the examples from ‘Coach in the Spotlight’ that I did for the 3 Shires Coaching Group:
www.3shirescoaching.org/coach-in-the-spotlight
I also have a blog post on my website which explores a further insight into questions techniques:
https://bit.ly/2HRnvc0
‘Coach-in-the-Spotlight’
Nikki Alderson
Specialist Corporate and Executive Coach for Female lawyers
Nikki Alderson now uses her expertise from her previous career as a Barrister, where she wrestled with some of the most complex legal issues – as a Death Row Attorney in Jamaica through to being a Prosecutor on serious Rape and Sexual Offences. She left this behind in 2017 and launched her career as a Specialist Corporate and Executive Coach for female lawyers.
Whilst working in New Zealand, she managed to take a Bungee jump off the Kawaru Bridge and an amazing tandem skydive over Mount Cook, both of which she found breath-taking and inspirational. Working for the Maori people, she was made aware of Koru which later she adopted as her business logo. Koru symbolizes positive change, personal growth, new beginnings and this reflects accurately her own core beliefs around coaching.
Nikki has three children aged three, five and six who are also her passion. Her daughter, out of the three, is perhaps the most similar to Nikki as she is already becoming a leader, increasingly confident and not letting any knocks in life affect her.
Nikki draws on her successful career as a barrister, having gained an insight into the conflicting pressures and responsibilities that her clients experience on a daily basis. Despite serious cynicism within the legal profession, Nikki is ensuring her coaching is making a positive impact by addressing the imbalance in female lawyers who don’t progress further during their careers in comparison to their male counterparts. Her coaching is assisting female talent to be retained in the legal profession and enabling them to achieve their career ambitions. One of three aspects of her specialism is enhancing support for career break returners as well as those in career transition.
As Nikki is Yorkshire based if her clients are within this county she will usually work with them at their law premises. Across the UK and further afield, such as America, she uses Zoom. New clients seek Nikki out through her website and the fantastic blogs she writes both there, guest blogging and on LinkedIn. She has also generated new business for herself through building trust and rapport whilst networking in legal circles, especially with HR professionals and Partners.
Advice Nikki would give to anyone considering a career in coaching include: getting a credible coaching qualification whilst ‘doing their day job’; have planned financial support and find your niche and stick with it – ‘The riches are in the niches.’
One of the books that has influenced Nikki’s business and service delivery is ‘Eat that Frog!’ written by Brian Tracy. This book has had a huge influence upon her own approach in overcoming procrastination and to increase personal performance at work. Nikki also uses aspects of the book to inform workshop content as it gives great hints and tips.
Her coaching business and career means that not only does she get to see the most amazing transformation in her client’s personal confidence and motivation to excel in their future career decisions, but also she gets to see her three children grow up. This would never have been possible if she had continued in her previous role (as a criminal barrister of nearly 20 years experience).
Nikki says: ‘A coaching conversation is a great way to start moving forward and out of the treacle.’
‘Coach-in-the-Spotlight’
Kevin Hill.
Life coach for children and teenagers / Suicide intervention Coach
Kevin’s career has always been associated with working with children and teenagers. The early part of his career was spent teaching English in Taiwan to children of all ages. Whilst there, he met and married his wife Camille and became father to three of his four children. One of the greatest pressures he found whilst living there was the importance that society placed on perfection in all things.
Three years after he returned, Kevin decided to attend a two-day training event with the Coaching Academy. This reaffirmed the direction his career would now take with young people, as it was a natural progression from what he had done previously. The course ignited a passion in him to develop his coaching expertise further. Kevin has a love of learning and found the transition great fun. Kevin is now a highly successful coach with a passion for working with children and teenagers.
Spike and Nutz, are two puppets that Kevin will sometimes use in his sessions with clients. ‘Spike,’ is a boyish, boy who always asks lots of questions, likes skateboards and actually has one! ‘Nutz’ is a coconut puppet, who is always lively getting into trouble. Kevin commented “It’s surprising how children and teenagers will open up when interacting with puppets which in other circumstances may have been difficult for them.”
A second area of coaching where Kevin is highly skilled is being a Suicide Intervention Coach. This is an extremely unique area. He found he could take personal experiences from when he was young and transform them into the skills needed to demonstrate the understanding, care and patience needed with a client in crisis. In his work, Kevin has found the two most common sets of people needing help through this are teenagers and middle-aged men. The greatest challenge for Kevin is to be able to intervene at the right time, proactively equipping clients with the skills to enable them to take their lives in a different direction. It is this aspect of his work he finds the most rewarding as a Coach.
Being a Life Coach is not being a Swimming or Sports Coach! This still surprises him along with the fact, that many in the United Kingdom perceive that your life has to be failing for anyone to require a Coach.
Kevin has learnt far more from talking and sharing expertise with other experienced Coaches compared to the rather narrow focus of some of the expensive coaching courses available. In particular they have helped him to understand the pressures and dynamics of running your own business successfully.
Did you know Kevin wrote ‘501 Things to do while on hold?’ This book emerged as a consequence of him arriving in the UK and constantly being placed on hold whilst trying to locate his luggage (which did around the world tour for ten days). The book is full of practical ideas, fun and silly things. It’s well worth a read as a dip-in book.
Lastly, Kevin has been married to his beautiful wife, Camille, three times but has never been divorced!
‘Coach-in-the-Spotlight’
Debbie Inglis. 
Leadership Coach / Coaching Skills Trainer & Coach Supervisor
Debbie Inglis is an authentic lady who has a deep understanding and care for those she coaches. She primarily had a Career in Education spanning sixteen years, in a profession where there simply wasn’t the time to be a perfectionist in everything due to the heavy workload and pressures it presented. Realising where Education Policy was heading, Debbie sought the advice of a Career’s Specialist for a new direction. Three potential careers emerged from this: Charity Manager; Creative Marketing; and Life Coach. In 2004, Life Coaching was not as widely known about as it is today. Debbie grasped the opportunity to attend a Coach Training course as an observer for a day and by lunchtime she was hooked, knowing this was definitely where her future lay. She has loved Coaching ever since.
After four years of Coaching away from the Education Sector, Debbie decided to form her niche back within it. Many School Leaders did not feel they could talk to Educational Advisers when discussing their own challenges related to time and stress management. Having a Leadership Coach sitting outside of this relationship meant they could share personal information and trust that it remained private thereby empowering them to move on.
Debbie realised that Coaching is much harder than you might think. Coaching goes far beyond excellent listening and questioning skills; it’s also about other skills, plus a unique mindset which supports the achievement of successful outcomes.
For those considering a career in Coaching, Debbie would advise that you find your niche as soon as you can. This will not only attract the right type of clients that will benefit from your guidance but also impact on the success of your business. By having a niche, you can creatively influence your marketing specifically towards your identified group using their language, the challenges they face and be known as an ‘expert’ within that specific field.
Debbie’s specialist areas are Mental Toughness and Resilience, Coaching Skills Training and Coaching Supervision. Within education especially, she has found a growing need for coaching on mental toughness and resilience. From knowing her client base exceptionally well, Debbie has carefully crafted a range of flexible options, durations of time and services to fit around busy professional’s precise needs. This is also clearly reflected in her branding ‘Square 2,’ as often people will say ‘I’m back at square one!’ Square 2 is all about moving forward.
Debbie has continued to build on the skills her career review revealed through her love of archery.
She is both a Level 1 Archery Coach and ‘Have-a-go-Officer’ at her local club as a result. Debbie enjoys this pastime immensely as it is a great opportunity to relax, empower others and see the progress they all make together. The other fun fact readers may not be aware of is the challenge she set herself to learn Russian. This started as a result of helping find a neighbour’s cat!
When it comes to inspirational people for Debbie, it is not the most famous or renowned but ordinary people who make the most of the opportunities life throws at them or who show grit and determination to succeed in difficult times. The fact that Debbie could have never known she would become an International Coach and paid to go to work in Singapore is an amazing example of this.
‘Take the leap and the net will appear.’
