I know how uncomfortable it feels caught between the rock and the hard place: between what the board needs and what the team can actually deliver, between long-term strategy and the fires that need putting out today. I’ve sat in that space myself, more than once, and I know it can feel very lonely at the top.
That’s the space I now work in, and I didn’t arrive here from theory. I’ve built and run my own business, Cloud 9 Business Solutions Ltd. I’m Founder and Director of Pitch&Co, helping companies pitch for investment and new markets. As CEO of Manufacturing Wales, I work daily with the pressures facing that sector. And as a consultant across public and private organisations, my clients include Medr, Transport for Wales, NHS Wales and Hybu Cig Cymru. I’ve lived it, breathed it and felt it, and I’ve seen how similar these pressures look, whatever the sector. As a leading member of the Institute of Directors, I believe deeply that supporting and skilling directors is fundamental, not just to their organisations, but to their personal outlook and confidence.
None of that, though, is what actually makes the difference in the room.
What makes the difference is this: resilience is essential, and self-care is very often the first thing to go when working life gets busy and headspace starts to feel like a luxury rather than a necessity. I know that because I lived it. What I needed, and couldn’t always find, was somewhere confidential and someone unconditionally on my side: a peer, not a judge, where I could think out loud without managing anyone’s perception of me.
That’s exactly what I trained in, so I can offer it to you. I undertook executive coaching at the highest level and built my coaching practice around it, because I know first-hand what it means to have someone in your corner who has genuinely seen it, done it, and can meet you with calm, compassion and complete confidentiality, no matter what you bring into the room. Now I can be that person for you.
