1:1 Executive Coaching
One-to-one coaching for a senior leader. Sessions last 60 to 90 minutes, at a rhythm agreed with you.
Executive Coaching
Coaching for senior leaders taking on a bigger job
Dr Stephen McCormac leads the practice and coaches senior leaders himself, most often in the first year of a bigger role. He has run businesses as a managing director and is a trustee on an academy trust board. We also work with experienced associate coaches, matched to the leader and the brief.
Who it is for
A new managing director has inherited a team, a set of numbers and a board that wants a plan within weeks, and needs someone outside the business to think it through with.
The coaching is for:
- Managing directors and chief executives in the first year of the role, or taking a business through change.
- Members of executive teams who have been promoted, or asked to lead a transformation alongside the day job.
- Founders bringing in a chief executive or moving to the chair.
- People taking a first non-executive, trustee or chair role.
Clients work in sectors including aerospace, asset management, education, professional services and technology. Coaching is in English or German, online, or in person in London and Maidenhead.
It is the wrong fit if you are early in your career and want general development, if the aim is to manage someone’s poor performance, or if you need a sector specialist as a mentor.
What changes
Typical goals for an engagement:
- a plan they wrote themselves and have tested with the people who must approve it
- decisions taken that had been waiting for their attention
- more credibility with their board, investors or parent group
- a team that knows where it stands
The sessions deal with the commercial questions your board will ask, and you write the answers and the plan yourself.
How it works
Success in Your First Hundred Days
For a leader starting a new senior role, whether in a new company, sector or country, or after a deal. You have five one-to-one sessions of sixty minutes, then a written close-out reflection. Between sessions you build your own hundred-day plan, and in each session we test it with you before you take it to the business.
Leadership Cohort
Coaching for two to six leaders in the same business, for example after a restructure, a deal or a change of leader. Each person has a separate, confidential one-to-one contract. Occasional group sessions cover themes the leaders share.
How a programme runs
1Introductory call
A short, free call, sometimes called a chemistry call, to judge whether we would work well together. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.
2Contracting and goals
We agree in writing the scope, the number of sessions, confidentiality and the review points. In the first session or two we write down your goals.
3Sessions
Each session closes with a next step you agree to take before the following one.
4Review and close
A midpoint review, a final review and a written reflection on what changed.
What the sponsor gets
Most coaching is paid for by the company. When it is, the coach, the coachee and the sponsor sign one contract. It names the goals, the number of sessions, the length of the engagement and what the sponsor will be told.
The sponsor receives two short written progress notes, at the midpoint and the close, and can have a check-in call at each. The notes cover themes and progress against the goals. What the coachee says in a session stays confidential.
Ambrose and Bell Limited is VAT registered and carries professional indemnity and public liability insurance. Contracts, data processing terms and insurance evidence are available on request.
Dr Stephen McCormac’s credentials
Stephen meets an EMCC-accredited coach supervisor one to one every quarter, and is a listed coach on the Trusted Coach Directory.
Background. Dr Stephen McCormac has 25+ years in consulting and leadership, 15+ of them with P&L, and has held five statutory directorships. He was managing director of the UK subsidiary of a European Microsoft technology integrator, and a managing director at Slalom. He chaired the board of an academy trust and its audit and resources committees, and is now a trustee of Pioneer Educational Trust. During fifteen years in Germany he worked as an engineer at Bosch and earned a doctorate in engineering at the University of Stuttgart.
What clients say
“Stephen is considered, empathetic and patient in his interactions. He fosters trust and a safe environment to reflect, challenge and grow. That’s everything you would ask for in a coach, mentor and counsellor.”
Senior leader, post-corporate transition
Related case studies and articles
Frequently asked questions
No. The sessions are confidential. If your company is paying, the sponsor receives two short progress notes, at the midpoint and the close, within limits all three parties agree at the start. Nothing you say in a session is passed on.
Stephen coaches leaders himself, in English or German. We also work with experienced associate coaches. We match the coach to the leader and the brief, and agree the choice with you and the sponsor before the work starts.
Against the goals written down at the start, which the coachee and any sponsor sign off.
Yes. Stephen meets an EMCC-accredited coach supervisor one to one every quarter.