Kate Sturdy - Kate Sturdy Coaching

Who Can I Help?

Hi, I’m Kate Sturdy. I help senior public sector leaders in high-pressure jobs. They may feel stuck in their role, have a negative mindset about their abilities, and feel like they’ve lost perspective. The work and leadership patterns that have helped them succeed in the past are no longer working well enough, and they don’t know how to change.

How can I help?

I create a supportive and safe space for senior leaders to reflect on what’s happening in their careers and meet them with honesty and directness. Also, I have a unique blend of compassion and sharp thinking, bringing what clients call a “gentle challenge” to their situation. I work successfully with people in various work patterns, including part-time and job-share.

Clients say that working with me is transformational. With me, they have regained confidence, found new insights into their leadership strengths, solved complex professional challenges, and achieved senior promotions. I am experienced in helping individuals move positively through major challenges, such as burnout, change of career direction, and approaching retirement.

With patience, firmness, and kindness, I listen with full attention and without judgment. I tune in deeply to what I’m hearing and seeing in body language and play it back with questions. I move the conversation on through stages by expertly summarizing and playing back key points. By building trust and rapport and responding carefully to clients’ thoughts, I help each client choose the changes that will work for them.

Qualifications and experience

I am qualified at L7 in Executive Coaching at the Institute of Leadership and Management. Additionally, I have been practising as Kate Sturdy Coaching since May 2021 and have hundreds of hours of senior leader coaching experience—121 and in groups/ teams.

I have further coaching accreditations and endorsements as follows:

Hogan’s psychometric assessor and Hogan’s 360 assessor
Balance in Leadership Practitioner (Engendering Balance Centre)
Neuroscience for Leadership Coaching by Professor Patricia Riddell, Clinical Psychologist, University of Reading
Team coaching by Team Salient

As a further background, I am qualified with an MA with a distinction in Education Policy from the Institute of Education, London. I have a PGCE in Secondary History from the Institute of Education, London. I have a BA Honours in History, 2.1: Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge

Services

Team/Group Coaching
Individual Coaching
Leadership/Executive Coaching
Career Coaching
Management Coaching
Transformational Coaching

Ways of working

Online
Face To Face

Contact Me

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-sturdy-coaching/
[email protected]

What my clients say about me

NHS Board member:
“Kate is the most talented executive coach I have had the pleasure to meet and work with. Her coaching techniques and ability to get the best out of someone are second to none. Anyone who Kate coaches is fortunate, and I will miss my sessions with her.”

Senior Civil Servant:
“You have such an amazing coaching style; you ask questions that find me reflecting in ways I hadn’t expected, that take me deep into thought on some core challenges, whilst with care & compassion drawing out sensitive areas to help me first recognise them, unpack them & think about what that is telling me.

You are a great listener; over our time together, the strength of your reflections back to me grew stronger & even more informative, truly recognising what I needed and how best to take me through some difficult challenges. I felt emotional at times, in a good way, articulating for the first time things that have weighed heavily on me & others I thought I had a handle on. You’ve challenged my thinking, built my confidence, helped me define my strengths & brought me back to my early ambitions to press me on progress.

You’ve helped me define what really is and isn’t important to me, keeping me focused on those priorities. I’ve loved our coaching, and I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me. I would absolutely recommend you as an exemplar and exceptional coach.”

Freelancer:
“When we began the coaching, I struggled to identify my next career steps after becoming disillusioned by freelancing. Talking to you helped clarify what I want and need out of my career and how I might identify sectors and roles where my skills might be transferable. I’m now more focused on the roles I’m applying for. I’ve also had some success getting interviews for roles, so I’m clearly on the right track even if I haven’t landed the perfect position yet. I would, and indeed already have, recommended you as a coach because your insightful questions and friendly demeanour helped me think about my career in a new and helpful way.”

Civil Service job-share:
“From Kate’s job share coaching, we are now more aware of the evolving skills and approaches we will need to deploy and strengthen now that our role has changed. This will help us enhance our joint leadership by confirming what we share and have in common, affirming what we each bring to the job share and the strengths we offer to the role as a result of that (so boosting our confidence), and helping us to understand what skills we need to develop further.

We found the session very useful, as we haven’t taken the time or had the opportunity before to purposefully reflect on the job share. It will help us to reflect on the strengths of our job share in job applications and interviews.”

Voluntary sector leader:
“When I started the coaching, I was almost at the point of burnout. I had lost a lot of confidence and was frustrated in my role. So, I wanted to leave my job but had lost a sense of my key skills, so I did not know how or what to move on to. I was looking for a coach who could support me with work and deal with a deeper emotional side.

Kate Sturdy was the perfect find. She worked with me to rebuild my confidence, leave my job well, and identify what might be next. She helped me through this with a range of techniques around changing behaviours and taking back ‘the control’ to deal with some ‘In the moment issues’ at work and working with me to rediscover my key strengths. This was done so subtly that it never felt I was being taught or told things, she just enabled me to realise them myself.

Things have hugely changed for me at work. I have had a promotion, and I have additional people on my team who I have been trying to get for years. Now I feel more connected to my key skills and myself. I would recommend Kate 100%. She is highly skilled, professional, and compassionate. She understood my needs in the first 10-minute phone call we had, and I am still feeling the positive effects of our work together.”

Senior Civil Servant:
“I was unsure what I wanted – from my current role, from my work/life balance and from my thoughts about possible next steps. You helped me make sense of everything and brought clarity to the jumble of thoughts and ideas I had. In particular you forced me to really appreciate what my priorities are.

I’ve now got some concrete steps to take day by day to make my life more focused on what I want to do. I’m particular that you broke things down into small steps that would make the biggest difference. In the slightly longer term, I’ve also got a much better idea of what I want from my next step. I know what is important to me when deciding where I go from here.

I would recommend you as a coach. You’ve given me so much more confidence in understanding what changes will make a real difference in how happy I feel and perform.

You are also really easy to get on with. I trusted you immediately; you have a great sense of humour and perspective. You guided me towards my own solutions without pushing expectations or ideas that wouldn’t suit me. Overall, it was a great experience that I would recommend to others. I’ll be back in touch for more!”