Leadership that Understands Life
Strategic. Human. Coach-Led.
My Journey
From performance coaching to award-winning executive leadership, here's how I developed the Inner Reach Growth Framework™ — shaped by lived experience and life-work collisions.
Coaching Roots & Growing Through Change
Trained as a coach while preparing for maternity leave, then stepped into performance coaching, supporting professionals through early-career transitions, return-to-work challenges, and confidence dips. These years laid the foundation for everything that followed.
🌀 Life-Work Moments: Became a parent (1998, 2000), while growing my career, juggling motherhood and working fulltime.
OD, Redundancies & Early Impact
Moved into organisational development and learning design while navigating multiple redundancies. In 2009, I created a leadership programme that drove a 25% improvement in capability, proving measurable change is possible. I also launched my first business in 2012.
🌀 Life-Work Moments: Redundancies (2005, 2009, 2012), family responsibilities, and bold experimentation in business.
Strategic Leadership & Cultural Transformation
Became Head of Talent & OD, leading senior leader development, culture change, and performance strategy. In 2020, I designed and delivered a senior leadership development programme, introduced emotional intelligence and coaching skills to all managers, led a values refresh, and became an ERG lead.
🌀 Life-Work Moment: Navigated stress, burnout signs, and the weight of responsibility during Covid while holding space for others.
Founding Inner Reach Coaching Ltd
Launched Inner Reach Coaching — bringing together 20+ years of insight and lived experience into a powerful leadership support offer.
🌀 Life-Work Moments: Final redundancy, perimenopausal symptoms, energy depletion — all colliding with the courage to start again.
Executive Coaching Certification & Personal Loss
Qualified with the Association for Executive Coaching, formalising decades of experience.
🌀 Life-Work Moment: Grieving the loss of my father while supporting others through their own challenges.
Leadership Coach of the Year
Recognised by CorporateLiveWire for Innovation & Excellence in Executive Leadership Coaching.
🌀 Life-Work Moment: Faced a personal health scare and supported a loved one through critical illness — deepening my commitment to human-first leadership.
Life-Work Collision Map
Understanding the moments where personal life intersects with professional growth — and how these experiences shape leadership resilience.
🌱 Early Career (20s-30s)
- • First job pressures
- • Starting a family
- • Return-to-work transitions
- • Confidence building
- • Work-life balance discovery
🔥 Mid Career (30s-40s)
- • Leadership responsibilities
- • Caring for ageing parents
- • Teenage children challenges
- • Burnout risks
- • Career pivots & redundancies
⭐ Senior Career (40s-50s+)
- • Menopause & health changes
- • Loss & bereavement
- • Succession planning
- • Legacy building
- • Energy management
Every collision is an opportunity to build stronger, more human leadership.
Our framework supports leaders through each of these moments, turning challenges into growth.
What's It Like to Work With Jay?
A coaching approach that blends strategic challenge with genuine human care — grounded in lived experience, measurable results, and real-world leadership.
Coaching Style: Human-first. Business-smart. Always grounded in reality.
Clients describe me as "refreshingly direct" and "surprisingly practical." I bring both challenge and support in equal measure — listening for what's unsaid, asking the questions others avoid, and holding space for conversations that matter.
My coaching is:
- • Strategic — focused on meaningful outcomes and business alignment
- • Human — rooted in care, trust, and lived experience
- • Actionable — everything connects back to real decisions, relationships, and priorities
Whether we're working on organisational change, team dynamics, or personal resilience, our sessions will feel relevant, timely, and immediately applicable.
Our Impact at a Glance
Because culture change isn't just possible — it's measurable.
Qualifications, Accreditations & Memberships
Professional credentials and specialist tools that shape my human-first, business-relevant coaching approach.
Recognised. Accredited. Trusted.
Professional Coaching & Certifications
- • AoEC Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching – Academy of Executive Coaching (2022–2023)
- • 8 Skill Coaching – Pfizer Ltd. (2000)
- • Association for Coaching Member 2023–2024–2025
- • COACH Programme (for Leaders & Managers) – Co-designer and participant (2021)
Education
- • BA (Hons) Business and Finance – Manchester Metropolitan University (1990)
- • Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma – Manchester Metropolitan University (1990)
Specialist Training & Psychometric Accreditations
- • Emotional Intelligence Practitioner (EIP3) – PSI/Talogy (2019)
- • NEO Personality Inventory Conversion Course – Hogrefe (2015)
- • OPQ32 Practitioner – SHL (2017)
- • Saville Wave Professional Styles Practitioner – Saville Assessment (2014)
- • Test User: Occupational Ability & Personality – Saville Assessment (2014)
- • MBTI Step 1 Practitioner – OPP (2008)
Awards and Recognition
Industry recognition for excellence in executive leadership coaching and organisational development
2024 Leadership Coach of the Year
CorporateLiveWire
2024 Most Dedicated Executive Leadership Coach
Nationwide (UK)
2024 Client Service Excellence Award
2023 Most Empowering Leadership Coaching Practice
South East England
2023 Finalist - This Is Us Awards
2002 Early Industry Coach of the Year
Let's Talk Strategy — and Action
When life and work collide, leadership either fractures or adapts.
At Inner Reach, we help organisations lead through it, not just with coaching, but with the data, tools, and frameworks to build stronger teams, cultures, and decisions.
What we bring:
A 30-minute conversation to explore what's possible with no pressure, no pitch.
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