About Fiona
I understand what senior doctors, medical and public health leaders, need to reach their potential, find career direction, make changes, develop their leadership abilities, stay well, and to ensure lasting meaning, purpose and satisfaction in their careers and working lives. I have over 2,000 hours of experience practising as an Executive Coach in this context over the last 6 years.
My 20 year medical and public health career
I qualified as a doctor in 1996 at Edinburgh University, also with a first class intercalated honours degree in psychology. My early exposure to the new and emerging science of human flourishing, behaviour change and emotional wellbeing radically shaped my professional life, and has been the ‘golden thread’ throughout my career. After several years as a junior doctor in hospital, General Practice, and community health settings, I chose to focus my career on the prevention of illness and improving health, becoming a Consultant in Public Health Medicine in 2009.
For the next ten years, I worked in both citywide and regional system level roles as a Public Health Consultant, including: joint senior roles across health and local government; over 3 years as Public Health Advisor to a National Health Service Governing Body (Board); and as an Associate Medical Director for a large Clinical Commissioning Group. I led large programmes to improve the health of whole populations, also improving staff health, leading multidisciplinary teams through change, coaching, mentoring and developing people, and innovating and improving a wide range of health, care and public services.
My career coaching senior doctors, medical and public health leaders
I recognised that I was finding great satisfaction from developing my team members and colleagues as leaders, helping them to stay in work when they were struggling, and supporting them to develop their longer term career plans.
I felt I could add real benefit to very senior professionals at an individual level, enabling them to effect lasting change in health and societal outcomes, through doing their own best leadership and clinical work. I decided to integrate my varied professional skills and interests in order to focus the second half of my career on improving the complex careers, wellbeing, and leadership of senior doctors, medical and public health leaders. I spent the next few years developing my theoretical knowledge and practical skills further in order to provide maximum value to my clients.
I wanted to offer a wholly objective, independent and confidential coaching practice and realised that I could only achieve this through being self-employed. Having spent 20 years in corporate NHS and local government environments managing substantial budgets, leading on clinical and other forms of governance, measuring impact, undertaking strategic and operational planning, I felt that I had sufficient skills to work for myself in a human scale business. I established ‘Fiona Day Consulting’ in 2016, and steadily reduced my employed role over the next few years.
My values and skills
My own career transition has – and continues to be – a rich learning environment. My professional values of partnership working, using expertise to make a difference, and being curious, compassionate and empowering have been my compass and are at the heart of my coaching practice.
I first started coaching in the form of peer mentoring in 1990, and I love partnering with my clients who are usually both experts as well as leaders to help them to get on an ‘upward spiral’ in their working lives and careers.
I specialise in using evidence-based ‘third wave’ approaches to behaviour change in the context of leading and working in complexity and transformational contexts: developing professionals who are compassionate, embody their values, have a high level of present moment awareness, and are willing and able to take sustained, committed action to progress their goals.
I can help you to your own best work yet
Whatever you are experiencing in your career or leadership role, change and growth are possible; I am very skilled at working within the complexity and ambiguity of medical and public heath careers and leadership roles, and I can help you to move forwards into the future and towards doing your own best work yet, on terms which will enable you to thrive.
