James Cuthbert

I began coaching with James due to feelings of under-confidence at work. These feelings mostly arose in situations I found unfamiliar or where I placed additional pressure and expectation on myself to perform well. This often made me struggle in ‘being present’ and participating in the moment. I also struggle with a critical inner voice. This means I can hold myself back from trying new things and feel guilty about letting down those around me.

In my first few sessions with James, he helped me understand what was happening for me in situations where felt a lack of confidence, and took me through various exercises that made me think about that feeling in a variety of different ways that I hadn’t considered before. He also helped me understand the opposite, and we explored times where I’d felt most confident. We then went through a variety of different exercises over subsequent weeks which helped me learn both strategies for managing these feelings in the moment, and also what underlying factors might have happened in my childhood to explain these feelings now.

The biggest change I’ve noticed since working with James is that I feel I have a better understanding of where my negative feelings come from, and this has allowed me to feel more compassionate about them. For example, I previously would try and fight those feelings and feel very frustrated with myself for having them. Now, I feel I can be much calmer about their presence, and just notice them without trying to fight or change them in the moment. This overall has led to them lasting for less time and therefore having a smaller impact on my day-to-day. James taught me techniques that have really helped this, like saying ‘that’s interesting’ to help me notice those feelings, and the idea of ‘responding, not reacting’.

From my experience of working with James, I felt that he was very respectful of me and how I might be feeling. He put a lot of effort into making sure I felt safe in our sessions, making it clear that I could share as much or as little as I felt able, and asking throughout if I was feeling comfortable. He gave me lots of options of directions that each of our sessions could take, which meant I could always tailor them to how I was feeling that day. The result of this was that I felt very relaxed in these sessions, and likely was able to open up much more because of it. He also clearly had a very broad knowledge on the topic which meant our discussions could flow very naturally, guided by James’ knowledge.

James has been coaching me for circa 1 year and always makes me feel very comfortable during our coaching sessions and my challenges/issues never feel trivial. My challenges over the past year have been a difficult member of staff who I was going through an informal performance management process with, a member of staff who I was struggling to motivate, and reflecting on my personal career goals and coaching on next steps to progressing.
Support I was receiving outside of my coaching sessions with James were support and advice from HR regarding the performance management process, and I set up more regular coaching sessions with the staff member who I was struggling to motivate whilst also moving to a more directive approach. However, I still felt I needed my own space to reflect on the whether the techniques I was using were the best approach.
Since working with James, my relationship with both staff members have improved, one is no longer under the performance management process and I am able to better judge how to manage both staff members who are now performing well and we are achieving results as a result. I also have progressed reaching out to my network and have 2 job opportunities that have presented themselves recently that support my career goals.
James is able to ask exactly the right questions or has an effective approach to questioning that helps me get to the nub of what I am struggling with. He is also able to talk through with me different approaches and models to test with my staff members to see which approach works best for them and me to improve our relationship and help them perform better. He also provides friendly challenge that pushes me out of my comfort zone slightly, which has helped me to feel like I have taken more control over my career and next steps.

In short: I believe that James would be a truly fantastic coach for anyone looking for support with their journey. :)

When I first started working with James, I was in a job that I knew wasn’t quite right for me. I was facing the challenge of wanting to develop myself professionally in a way that felt authentic to me and which aligned with my career goals, whilst knowing that these goals didn’t necessarily align with the organisation I was working for at the time. Our sessions initially focused on tackling specific development challenges within my role at the time, but then pivoted once I left that role into helping me identify and build a career that would be more fulfilling for me.

I had been working with a number of people on my development from different angles, such as my managers at the time, and an external career coach- along with reading different business philosophies and frameworks to broaden my knowledge. Whilst these did help, it felt like I was addressing everything at surface-level instead of seeking a more fundamental change.

Working with James has given me a lot more structure to my career journey, which has been delivered in an approach tailored to me. I initially had a lot of vague ideas about where I wanted to get to, and areas where I wanted to change, but which weren’t very well-defined, or organised in a way that I could tangibly work towards them. James has helped me to organise my goals and delve into the values underlying them, and create a more robust and comprehensive vision. Not only has this given me a better understanding of the path I’d like to take, it’s also helped me to hugely shift my mindset away from surface-level achievements and towards a values-driven approach. Since starting our sessions, I’ve managed to move from a job where I felt unfulfilled and undervalued, towards a huge step up in my career, which I would never have considered without James’ support to identify what I was truly looking for.

My favourite thing about working with James is his ability to tailor his approach to fit what I need at that point. I often joke that he has a framework or analogy for literally everything (which he most definitely does!), but I think his skill lies in choosing what to use and when, and knowing what will best support my journey at that time. We’ve had very mixed styles of sessions, from working through specific frameworks to create and analyse plans, to more unstructured sessions when I’ve had broader concepts that I wanted to discuss. James is also great at blending his person-driven coaching approach with offering advice from his very broad personal career experience where appropriate- this is something I specifically requested, and that I feel I’ve benefitted hugely from.

Overall, James creates a completely judgement-free, calm zone for coaching which has allowed me to explore my values, development and career and shape a path forwards that aligns with what is best for me. I’ve really appreciated how he has flexed to my needs whilst holding me to account on my journey, and encouraged me to take my thinking that step further each time. The biggest difference I’ve felt through working with James is that the focus has been on drawing out my ideas and values, instead of having anyone else’s opinions or expectations imposed onto me- in fact, actively encouraging me to free myself from these external pressures. I fully feel like I’m on MY journey, which is incredibly empowering.

I would fully recommend James as a coach to anyone looking for someone experienced, supportive, and adaptable to support with their journey!