We help experienced coaches who are ready to:-
- Move beyond the artificial limits of person-centered, non-directive coaching
- Develop skills and approaches to challenge clients to achieve sustainable change in an organisational context
- Innovate new ideas and approaches to catalyse clients who may be 'stuck' and for whom traditional coaching skills are not working
- Practice delivering challenging feedback and holding accountability in a safe environment
We can help you answer the following questions:-
- ‘I believe my coachee can achieve more, how do I challenge them courageously and compassionately?’
- ‘What are the skills I need to create, calibrate and sustain a creative tension in my coaching?’
- ‘How do I risk breaking rapport with my client in pursuit of achieving the courageous goal for them and the wider system?’
- ‘How can I find the edge of my coaching skills and go beyond that so inspiring my clients to do likewise?’
Our Coaching Book
In 2012, we published 'Challenging Coaching' which was hailed as a 'game-changing' book in the coaching world.
This book details our FACTS coaching model which is a real-world, timely and pragmatic coaching approach focussing on Feedback, Accountability, Courageous Goals, Tension, and Systems Thinking.
Watch our book review, or visit the Challenging Coaching Book page to find out more and download a free chapter.
Free Coaching Self-Assessment Tool
We have developed a self-assessment feedback tool to help coaches and leaders assess their challenging coaching skills.
Download this tool for free by entering your email address here...
De-Brief of the Self-Assessment Report
We offer a 1 hour telephone de-brief of the report for our clients. Please get in touch via our contact form to explore this option in more detail.
"I gleaned some very helpful insights from my report and debrief with Ian. All in all it was a terrific process and one I'd highly recommend to other coaches looking for specific feedback around the FACTS model and all the other great frameworks from the Challenging Coaching process"
Laurie Hillis PCC, President at Megatrain Inc.
Ongoing Skills Development
We can provide ongoing coach development and mentoring to help coaches reach for their edge and stretch into new and exciting capabilities. Coach development programmes can be designed and tailored to meet individual needs and budgets.
Please get in touch with us via our contact form if you wish to explore these options in more detail.

Latest blogs
- Facebook has recently renamed as Meta, as the internet moves towards the ‘Metaverse’. But what is the Metaverse and what are implications for coaching? There’s been a lot in the median about the metaverse since Facebook rebranded in October 2021, with tech blogs, podcasts and TV programmes getting very excited about this next evolution of…
- Something New to Consider… Divergent and Convergent Thinking Let’s think about the purpose of coaching more broadly and more holistically, by exploring the field of creative problem-solving. A coaching client does not always have a ‘problem’ to solve, the ‘problem’ may be that they don’t know what to do in a specific situation. The situation…
- Coaches, are you getting the hard sell, offering the miracle solution in these hard times? I decided to follow up on one of theses and see what would happen and what they were offering. I’ve noticed more and more social media posts offering top secrets for generating business, courses which guarantee success, or people willing to…
- Beautiful blue sky, blossom on the trees, roads quiet. Pandemic, lockdown, 759 deaths yesterday in the UK. Stark reality. Out of this tragedy, good things can come, there is hope for the other side of lockdown. The pandemic has caused tragic deaths and terrible suffering, but out of this enforced lockdown change has come. On…
- I’m feeling lost, scared, uncertain. I can’t visit my elderly relatives and I’m worried about them. I’ve had to close my business and I don’t know what the future will be? Will I have a job? These are some of the comments that I’ve heard recently. In a matter of a few weeks everything that…