Mandy Deakin-Snell

Succession planning in any team is essential to ensure there is stability for growth in the business. It provides your team members the opportunity to progress within the company by learning new skills and putting them into practice when covering absence. This in turn shows that you trust them to step up when new positions arise if progression is something they aspire to achieve. In a multi-generational team, implementing a coaching and mentoring culture helps the team to learn from each other, creating a cohesive and positive environment whether they want to progress their career, or prefer to continue in their current role sharing their knowledge and feeling valued for their wisdom.

Building a career in the Supply Chain sector, I never worried about being a female in a male dominated industry. Yes, it was hard to break that glass ceiling, but I still found success by being authentic, and taking the initiative to develop myself and those around me to be strong leaders who got results.

I don't think we celebrate our successes enough, I certainly don't! It was only when my own coach started asking me what I was celebrating at the start of our calls did I realise how much this was outside of my comfort zone. It's a great way to help your coachees recognise how even the smallest of celebrations count, like baking that cake you promised the kids or walking the dogs when you didn't feel like it. Each celebration we acknowledge in our life, no matter how trivial to others, can be uplifting and help towards the feeling that they are making good progress in their coaching journey.

In my experience, finding a suitable coaching supervisor is comparable to finding the right business partner. They need to be fully aligned with the core values of your business and what you stand for and have a genuine interest in helping you to become an even better coach. Ideally they will have experience in the coaching modalities you choose to offer, as this adds quality of understanding in the tools you can use and means they can offer the best quality of supervision relevant to your experience. I also believe that mutual trust and respect is essential to building a great rapport with your supervisor and helps build a strong, working relationship that's beneficial to both parties.

As an executive coach it's important to have a circle of trusted fellow coaches, business experts and honest collaborators to work with. The early days can be challenging whilst navigating all the technicalities of being a new business without the support from people that you hoped would be there for you. Nevertheless, it's humbling at how many new people come into your life at just the right time, to make sure you succeed. The support you find along the way can lead to forming life-long friendships with amazing people you never would have expected!

Mentoring matters at all leadership levels as it’s a way of gaining insights from someone who has walked the walk, and has the knowledge and experience to offer a different perspective on situations that you may not have considered. The higher a leader gets, the less people there are to open up to or bounce ideas off, making mentorship even more important to senior leaders. A good mentor will give you the bigger picture and solid examples of how to succeed, highlighting how your current thinking may be preventing you from seeing solutions and opportunities.