Kate McGuire

I’ve been a coach for twenty years. I set up Fenner McGuire in 2006.

Since starting my own business, I’ve worked in more than 30 organisations ranging in size from 15 employees to over 100,000, from local to global, across commercial, public and charity sectors. I’ve worked with Chief Executives, board members, leaders of teams, and individuals who want to take their performance, confidence and sense of fulfilment to the next level. Clients include Diageo, Sony, BT, Nationwide, BG Group and the NHS, and a wide range of private individuals.

Before that, I was Head of Organisation Development at the BBC, running a team of 35 in-house consultants. I (and they) learnt the hard way how not to do it!

I fundamentally believe that how we show up on the outside is a manifestation of who we are on the inside. That’s why I draw on my psychological and therapeutic training to help my clients understand how their history has shaped them, and how much personal change is possible once they believe they can be the architects of their future selves.

Qualifications and Professional Associations:

• MBA (Bradford University Management College)

• MSc in Organisational Change (Ashridge Business School)

• Coach Foundation Course (accredited by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council)

• Executive coaching training (i-coach academy)

• Fusion Certified Therapeutic Coach (Integrated Coaching Academy)

• European Mentoring and Coaching Council (member)

• Association of Integrative Coach-Therapist Professionals (member)

• Embodied Coaching (Richard Strozzi-Heckler PhD and Dr Eunice Aquilina)

I have regular individual supervision and participate in a supervision group, to support my ongoing personal and professional development. I read a wide range of professional publications and regularly attend seminars and workshops on coaching, consulting, psychology, organisational change, and other relevant issues, so I can bring the latest ideas to my clients.

I abide by the EMCC Codes on Ethics and Diversity.

This all sounds terribly worthy. I like to think I have a sense of humour, don’t take myself too seriously and that, despite the hard work involved, my clients enjoy their sessions.

Beyond work, I enjoy music, theatre, reading, writing, yoga and beautiful countryside. I’m trying to overcome my creative self-doubt and write a novel. Don’t ask me how it’s going!

How does coaching help?

If making changes to our lives was easy, we’d all be fit and healthy with brilliant relationships and stellar careers. Knowing what you ‘should’ do isn’t usually enough to change the habits of a lifetime. And often we can’t see in ourselves the things that are really blocking us. You need someone to cast new light, ask you new questions, and guide you to new insights.

Unlike more traditional training, coaching is focused entirely on you and your context. We talk about real life, extract the learning, and work out practical solutions that make your life better. That’s it.

Many coaches work at a surface level, helping clients to tackle symptoms and solve problems. Often that can be effective - until you’re really under pressure, when your default settings tend to kick back in. I help you identify and address root causes and increase your capacity to tolerate challenges as well as resolve them. I support you to go deep, work out what really matters to you and how to have greater impact with less effort. I support you to make sustainable changes that, over time, transform your life and that of those around you.