That's a completely normal starting point. Tell us what's going on and what you're trying to achieve, and we'll help you work out whether executive coaching, Firestarter Circles, a mentoring programme, coaching supervision, or a combination of approaches makes most sense. There's no obligation.

Yes, and often that's the strongest configuration. When several leaders in the same organisation are being coached, we work with a network of associate coaches to create the right individual partnerships. Different leaders benefit from different coaches, and matching is done thoughtfully rather than by default. Kate coordinates the network to ensure consistency of quality across every engagement.

Yes. Drawdown coaching allowances are one of the most useful ways for organisations to invest in leaders without over-scoping the work upfront. The organisation buys a coaching allowance for a specific leader or population, sessions are scheduled at the pace that fits the work, and the allowance is drawn down as it's used. Ideal when you're supporting a leader through change, investing in high-potential development, or embedding coaching as an ongoing resource rather than a fixed project.

Yes, and combined programmes often deliver the most sustainable results. A programme that runs individual coaching alongside Firestarter Circles (group coaching for peer development) tends to be more embedded than either format on its own, because the peer relationships built in the group work reinforce the individual work between sessions.

When combining formats, we recommend using more than one coach across the programme, particularly where reporting lines are involved. If the team leader and members of the team are being coached in parallel, using the same coach for both creates dynamics that are difficult to navigate cleanly. Different coaches, coordinated behind the scenes, preserve the integrity of each relationship.

Yes, and it's covered separately on the Individual Coaching Services page. If you're an individual professional looking for coaching for yourself, that's where to look.

It depends on what you're commissioning. A single executive coaching engagement for one leader runs six to ten sessions across three to six months. A mentoring programme setup can be a defined three-to-six month project or a multi-year partnership. Firestarter Circles typically run over twelve months. Scoping conversations set expectations clearly at the start.

Yes, this is a service we particularly enjoy. Designing a coaching or mentoring programme well (including matching processes, sponsor engagement, evaluation, and light-touch governance) determines whether the programme thrives or fades within twelve months. We can be commissioned to design a programme from scratch, review an existing one, or advise on specific components. See the Mentoring Programmes section above for more detail on this offer.

Kate delivers many engagements personally. Where the work benefits from a broader team, or where an organisation is commissioning coaching at scale, associates from the Firestarter network are matched to leaders based on fit. All associates are selected against the same accreditation, experience and quality standards.

Yes, in the sense that we respect the scoping conversation and the organisational objectives that sit behind an engagement. But coaching itself is client-led. The coachee decides what to bring to each session, and the value of coaching depends on that autonomy. What we can commit to is that the overall engagement stays aligned with the developmental agenda you have commissioned, and that the coach involved will flag if the work has drifted meaningfully from that agenda.

Coaching engagements sit inside a three-way relationship between the coachee, the coach, and the organisation. Our standard practice is to hold a three-way contracting conversation at the start of every engagement, involving the coachee, their line manager or HR sponsor, and the coach. This sets shared expectations about goals, confidentiality, and reporting. Individual coaching sessions themselves remain confidential to the coachee, with only aggregate themes shared back to the organisation if that has been agreed.

This happens occasionally, and how it's handled matters. If the coaching relationship isn't working, or if the coachee's circumstances have shifted so that continuing doesn't serve them, our practice is to name that honestly with the coachee first, and then with the organisational sponsor. Options include pausing the engagement, changing coach, reshaping the goals, or closing the engagement early with a proper endpoint conversation. What we won't do is continue coaching sessions that have quietly stopped working, because that wastes the organisation's investment and undermines the coachee's experience of what coaching should feel like.

Coaching sessions are confidential. That confidentiality is what makes coaching work, and we protect it carefully. The exception is a small number of specific situations: where there is a risk of harm to the coachee or others, where safeguarding concerns arise, or where the coachee discloses something the organisation is legally required to know.

In those situations, our practice is to name the concern with the coachee first, and to support them in raising it themselves where possible. If the situation requires the organisation to be informed directly, we do so, and we explain to the coachee in advance that this is happening. The specific exceptions to confidentiality are named in the three-way contracting conversation at the start of every engagement, so there are no surprises later.

For less serious themes that emerge (patterns of workload, cultural friction, aspects of leadership behaviour that are affecting multiple people), aggregate reporting can be agreed at scoping stage. Individual content stays with the coachee. Themes across a population can be shared with the organisation if that has been contracted upfront.

Kate holds a Masters in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and is an EMCC Accredited Senior Practitioner. She also holds the Professional Certificate of Advanced Study in Coaching Supervision from Oxford Brookes and is an EMCC Accredited Coaching Supervisor.

Associate coaches in the We Are Firestarter network are selected against the same standards: professional coaching qualifications at postgraduate level, EMCC or ICF accreditation at Senior Practitioner or PCC level, senior commercial or organisational experience, and ongoing supervision of their own practice. We select for depth, not availability. Quality assurance is Kate's personal responsibility, and every associate engagement is overseen by her.

We work to the EMCC and ICF ethical codes, which cover confidentiality, contracting, dual relationships, professional boundaries, and the situations in which a coach may need to raise a concern. Every coach in the We Are Firestarter network holds their own accreditation with one or both of these bodies and is bound by their codes independently.

Where safeguarding concerns arise during coaching, our practice is guided by these ethical frameworks and by clear contracting at the start of every engagement about the limits of confidentiality. For organisations working in regulated sectors or with specific safeguarding requirements, we align our contracting and reporting to those requirements as part of the scoping conversation, and where a specific safeguarding lead is needed, we recommend the organisation's own safeguarding officer or an appropriate external referral.

Honestly, and with a clear-eyed view of what coaching can and can't measure. We don't claim narrow ROI calculations, because coaching impact rarely reduces cleanly to a number, and buyers who insist on that framing tend to be disappointed by any coach's answer.

What we do offer is structured evaluation across three points in an engagement. At the start, three-way contracting establishes the developmental goals and how success will be recognised. Mid-way, a review conversation checks progress and adjusts if needed. At the end, a closing review captures what shifted, what the coachee is taking forward, and, where agreed, aggregate themes are shared with the organisational sponsor. Sponsor feedback throughout the engagement forms part of this picture.

For programmes involving multiple coachees, we can also design lightweight evaluation instruments (short surveys, focus themes, aggregate reporting) that give the organisation a view of impact across the population without breaching individual confidentiality.

Reporting is scoped at the start of every engagement and respects the confidentiality of individual coaching relationships. Typical reporting may include engagement completion, aggregate themes emerging across the population being coached, never individual content from coaching sessions.