Coaching Services for Organisations
Space to think. Support to grow. Development that lasts
The organisations that get the best out of their leaders don't leave development to chance. They invest in it deliberately, at the level of the individual, the team, and the culture.
We Are Firestarter partners with organisations who take that investment seriously. Kate Smith and her associate network deliver executive coaching, group coaching, mentoring programme design, and coaching supervision for internal practitioners. The through line across all of it is the same: honest, direct development work grounded in twenty-five years of senior commercial experience, delivered by practitioners who understand the systems and politics your leaders are actually navigating.
This page covers four services and one signpost. Scroll to whichever fits your situation, or get in touch if you're not sure where to start.
Executive Coaching for Organisations
For organisations investing in their leaders and managers
Executive coaching is one of the highest-return investments an organisation can make in its leadership. Done well, it changes how a leader thinks, decides, and shows up. Done badly, it becomes an expensive coffee catch-up with no organisational return.
We Are Firestarter delivers executive coaching in three configurations:
Individual leaders, commissioned on a drawdown model. Your organisation buys a coaching allowance for a specific leader, we scope the work with them, and the sessions run at the pace that fits. Ideal when you're investing in a high-potential leader, supporting someone through a transition, or providing developmental support after a promotion.
Coaching across a team, where several members of a leadership team receive coaching in parallel. Useful when a team is going through significant change, when there's a specific developmental agenda across the group, or when the organisation is investing in coaching as a cohort experience without the shared-room dynamics of team coaching.
Coaching across the whole organisation, where Firestarter partners with you to embed coaching as a leadership development approach at scale. This includes scoping the population, matching leaders to coaches from the associate network, coordinating logistics and reporting, and ensuring the work is delivered to a consistent quality standard.
Kate holds a Masters in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University and is an ICF (PCC) and EMCC Accredited Senior Practitioner. She brings twenty-five years of senior commercial leadership, an MBA, and postgraduate training in psychology and human resources.
Engagements are scoped to the work involved. For scoping conversations, get in touch.
Firestarter Circles: Group Coaching for Managers and Leaders
Because leadership development shouldn't be a solo sport.
Some of the most powerful development happens not in a room with a coach, but in a room with peers who are navigating the same challenges, and honest enough to say so.
Firestarter Circles are structured group coaching for managers and leaders, delivered internally within an organisation. Small groups of three to four leaders meet every six weeks with a skilled facilitator. Each session creates space to share challenges, build skills, and hold each other accountable in a way that individual coaching rarely replicates.
The format is deliberately intimate; small enough that everyone has a voice and frequent enough that relationships build and trust develops. They are semi-structured so that real work gets done, flexible enough to go where the group needs to go.
Firestarter Circles are particularly well suited to:
Emerging managers who are new to leading people and navigating that transition
Rising leaders who want peer support as they take on more responsibility
Organisations that want to invest in their leadership pipeline at scale, without the cost of individual coaching for every person
A Firestarter Circle costs significantly less per participant than individual coaching, and often delivers more, because the peer learning and relationships that develop are assets that outlast the programme itself.
Mentoring Programmes
Building a culture of knowledge-sharing that sustains itself.
Mentoring works best when it's properly structured. When mentors know what's expected of them, mentees know how to make the most of the relationship, and the organisation has the infrastructure to make it sustainable over time. Without those foundations, mentoring becomes another well-intentioned initiative that fades within a year.
Firestarter designs and delivers mentoring programmes in four stages, and organisations can commission any combination depending on where they are.
Mentoring audit. Where are you now? What's already happening informally, what's working, what isn't? A short diagnostic engagement that gives you a clear picture of your current mentoring culture before you invest in changing it.
Programme design and set-up. The infrastructure that makes mentoring work: the matching process, the mentor and mentee agreements, the reporting cadence, the light-touch governance that keeps it alive. Designed to your organisation's size, culture, and ambition.
Workshops and masterclasses. Training for mentors on how to mentor well, and for mentees on how to be mentored effectively. Delivered as workshops for cohorts, or as masterclasses on specific topics (mentoring across difference, mentoring for career progression, mentoring conversations that stretch without breaking).
Ongoing programme facilitation. Community sessions that keep the programme alive beyond the initial launch, plus resource development and support for the mentoring community as it grows.
Engagements can be scoped as full end-to-end programmes or as individual pieces of work.
Get in touch to discuss what fits.
Coaching Supervision for Internal Coaches
For organsiations wtih internal coaching communities
Organisations investing in internal coaching capability need to invest in supervision alongside it. Without supervision, internal coaches operate without the reflective space that keeps their practice ethical, sustainable, and effective. Supervision protects the coach, the client, and the organisation.
We Are Firestarter offers one-to-one supervision for internal coaches, commissioned by their organisation. Kate holds the Professional Certificate of Advanced Study in Coaching Supervision from Oxford Brookes University and is an EMCC Accredited Coaching Supervisor. She is currently working toward the ICF Coaching Supervisor Specialization credential.
Supervision runs as regular one-to-one sessions, typically monthly, with frequency agreed based on the coach's caseload. Sessions are ninety minutes and delivered online. Kate supervises coaches internationally.
For scoping conversations, get in touch.
“Working with Kate as my coach supervisor has been a genuinely valuable experience. Her supervision provides a reflective, thoughtful, and supportive space while offering the right level of challenge to deepen my practice. Her insight, skilful questioning, and ability to surface blind spots have significantly enhanced my confidence and helped me grow as a coach”
Paul Mosson, Executive Coach
Looking for mediation support? When workplace relationships need careful, impartial resolution, our network of CMC-accredited mediators can help. Explore Mediation →
Not sure which of these is right for you?
That's a completely normal starting point. Tell us what's going on for your leaders and what you're trying to achieve — we'll help you work out whether coaching, a Firestarter Circle, mentoring, or supervision is the right fit, or whether a combination of approaches makes more sense.
Frequently asked questions
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Still have queries?
Use the contact form, or drop us a line at hello@wearefirestarter.com
