experience
I have more than 25 years experience as an executive and team coach, and workshop facilitator, working with leaders, owners, young emerging leaders, and senior management teams (including working virtually with global teams), supporting them through organisational change, rapid growth, succession, starting up and pre/post acquisition.
In 1991 I became one of the original coaches at The Coaching House, one of the UK’s first executive coaching companies. I helped shape the company’s approach and led many projects for them during their first eight years of business. I started up, and for five years was the MD at the UK hub of Insight, an international training company. I launched Creation in 1999.
I sometimes design, lead, deliver and project-manage short and long-term coaching projects for individuals and teams through Acumen Global Partners and Leadership Coaching Limited.
Alongside my corporate work, I am one of a small global team of facilitators presenting transformational development seminars around the world to groups of up to 200 people. I have coached over 10,000 people in this dynamic format.
Much of my recent work has involved supporting emerging and future leaders to grow leadership mindsets and collaborate with each other in fast growing start-up and scale-up environments.
‘creds’
I am an APECS Accredited Master Executive Coach, have a Master Practitioner Diploma in Systemic Team Coaching with the Academy of Executive Coaching, am an IFS Practitioner (Internal Family Systems) with the IFS Institute, a Coaching Constellations Practitioner, an Integral Development Coach with New Ventures West, am certified in the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) and the Collective Leadership Assessment (CLA), have diplomas in NLP and Psychosynthesis, certified in MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and experienced in the Strengths Profiler.
living by the sea!
I was born in London and lived, and worked, there for many years. I’ve moved around quite a bit during my life but I always wanted to live by the sea.
I do now! I live in Cowes, Isle of Wight when I’m not working with clients in London or somewhere else in the world.
Living on the Island feels like being on holiday everyday and walking on the beach is one of my favourite things to do!
Here is a photo of me with Luca, my adopted Spanish dog.
guilty pleasures!
Eating peanut butter with a spoon, box-set-binging and lazy days in the sun by the sea.
my ‘back story’
a bit of a read …
women in management
In June 1979 I participated in my first personal development seminar (Insight 1) which had been brought to the UK by Arianna Stassinopoulos (now Arianna Huffington).
I met her in January 1979 when a colleague of mine drove her and me to a ‘Women in Management’ event Arianna was presenting at (my colleague had organised the event). On the way we got chatting and Arianna told me about her spiritual practices and her teacher. She invited me to come to a group meditation evening in her home – she lived a short walk from my offices.
the power of meditation
That meditation evening was pivotal for me – I experienced a deep ‘coming home’ inside myself. My life didn’t change but my relationship with it did. I went every Thursday night after that and began a daily spiritual practice at home. I also decided to sign up for the first UK Insight Seminar which Arianna was promoting and was organised by people studying with the same spiritual teacher.
my heart opened
The seminar was truly transformational. It was incredibly practical and deeply healing. We explored our habitual responses to life and their causes, learned valuable approaches to personal effectiveness, experimented with honest, uplifting relating, put energy into a vision for our lives and restored a sense of childlike awe. But more importantly we focused on awakening a heartfelt connection to humanity, beginning with ourselves. I saw myself, the world, and everyone in it differently. My heart opened to the living loving energy that flowed through it and that united us all. I connected to a sense of purpose and knew I’d found a vocational direction.
working in mental health
I left my corporate job and took a position in Mental Health working at a day-care centre serving clients with long-term diagnoses who lived within the community. I was there for a few years and was promoted to Deputy Manager. It was a very fulfilling time for me.
becoming an Insight facilitator
In my spare time I participated in as many personal development experiences as I could and embarked on numerous training programmes to develop my practitioner skills. Eventually I decided to work for Insight full-time as the UK representative and later as MD of the UK company. I then trained to lead Insight Seminars – Insight 1, 2, and 3. I still lead seminars today and continue to grow and be touched deeply every time.
coaching senior advertising executives & teams
In the early 90’s Insight became popular with senior advertising managers and creatives. Several of them asked me if I would work with them and their teams – I agreed to. Working at senior level in organisations – especially within a creative industry, was fun, stretched me, and had a potent impact beyond the people I was coaching. It was exciting to be at the forefront of a new kind of development for people at work – back then, coaching in organisations was rare.
horses, dogs, cats & leaders
Between the years of 2,000 and 2012 I added another method to my coaching practice. My ex-husband was a ‘natural horsemanship’ practitioner. We lived and worked on a beautiful 20-acre Kent property and often brought our herd of horses, pack of Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs, and our farm cats together with my leadership clients. Animals respond to what happens inside humans. Our animals regularly ‘acted out’ the system dynamics within the leaders’ organisations and teams. We ran many events that included interacting with the animal systems enabling powerful insights and profound healing (for the humans and the animals too).
virtually global
During the last fifteen plus years more and more of my clients have been based outside of the UK. I coached many of them remotely on Skype and then Zoom, one-to-one and in groups, to enable me to work globally. This was great preparation for lockdown!
presence & compassion
My background in deep personal development with a spiritual perspective seems more and more relevant now as we all learn to navigate increasing uncertainty and instability in the world and in the market place. I believe it’s crucial for leaders to show up as whole human beings, with presence, compassion and vision.
‘Ruth made a huge contribution to executing the succession management plan at PHD. But for me personally the real game-changer was the work she did with David Pattison (P), myself (H), and Jonathan Durden (D) around our changing roles as the business grew, and then preparing us for Life After PHD.
All these years later Jonathan, David and I remain close friends, and I’ll always be very grateful to Ruth for the important part she played in this.’
Nick Horswell, Founder, Uncle
Ruth brings together years of facilitation, true people and team understanding with high levels of compassion and empathy. The result is genuine growth in individuals and teams alike. In the last two years we have achieved outstanding business results and I am in no doubt that Ruth’s coaching of the senior team was an important factor in our success.'
Beatrice Lafon as CEO Etam Groep, now - Chair, NED, Mentor, Advisor, Founder
‘Ruth's training was a fantastic confidence boost to my ability in both receiving and giving feedback. I took a lot away from the day and a few weeks down the line it has made a lasting, positive impact on a key skill.'
workshop participant