Transformational Thinking for Health Leaders Podcast starts October 2024
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Coaching with Dr Fiona Day is proven to deliver a +17.4% improvement in outcomes: BMJ Leader 12/23 | BMJ Leader 03/24 | BMJ Leader 04/24
My 1:1 Leadership and Career Coaching Programmes for Doctors and Public Health Leaders are confidential, highly effective, action and future focused, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities which achieve both immediate and lasting, longer term results.
My coaching programmes for medical and public health leaders, doctors and public health professionals are always tailored to your own specific needs, and usually include a combination of: addressing public health and medical career difficulties including career direction and career transitions; public health and medical leadership development; and improving work-life balance and wellbeing for doctors and public health leaders.
Coaching for doctors and public health leaders is fun and very rewarding – and it can also be hard work and demanding to work out what you really want in your life and your career, and to develop further as a leader. It may require considerable courage to take bold action and to make the changes you need. I will support you through the process, providing challenge and accountability as well as being alongside you every step of the way, helping you to find the confidence to experiment, reach your potential and create a new future for yourself.
As well as the contact time we have together, you will need a similar amount of time between sessions to complete the actions we agree to help you to move forward.
Leadership and Career Coaching, and Coaching Psychology, are not psychological therapy or counselling for people with mental illness, and nor is it any form of medical care. I integrate coaching psychology with career counselling and mentoring for public health and medical leaders who want to focus on the future and what they want to move towards, as well as to grow their sense of agency and autonomy.
I also offer training courses and workshops bespoke to the group’s needs, as well as team coaching, and certificated coaching skills training and supervision for medical and public health leaders.
I may use any or all approaches when I work with you, according to your needs and your preferences.
Coaching Psychology is ‘the scientific study and application of behaviour, cognition and emotion to deepen our understanding of individuals’ and groups’ performance, achievement and wellbeing, and to enhance practice within coaching‘ (British Psychological Society). It is without doubt the gold-standard of coaching practice and is now a formal branch of psychology, a Chartered Coaching Psychologist is the most senior qualification which can be awarded and is a legally protected title which I hold.
The four approaches of coaching, mentoring, career counselling, and coaching psychology have some things in common. They are confidential helping relationships between a Client and a qualified Coaching Psychologist, Coach, Mentor or Career Counsellor which take place as a series of conversations. They may be short term relationships over a few months, or longer term over a period of years.
These approaches are not all the same in terms of effectiveness or scope however.
Most mentoring takes place in an informal basis, for example a more senior colleague within the same profession who supports and champions you, and provides some low level support. They may be within or outwith your department or organisation but are usually not in your team. Most mentors are not formally trained and do not bring the level of rigour to their mentoring that a trained coach does. They do often provide a lot of helpful support and do some great work, BUT this is not the same as working with a trained coach in terms of impact and effectiveness. A mentor will need to have the same technical skills set as yourself to be able to offer professional support in your context, such as medical or public health leadership skills and experience.
A trained coach will ensure an explicit ‘contract’ exists between you, this includes an explicit psychological contract about how you work together in a relationship of two equals, and the use of measurable goals (objectives) which provide a frame for the conversations and the relationship. Coaching has been proven in a number of meta-analyses to be an effective method of improving effectiveness, wellbeing, motivation and relationships at work (Theeboom et al 2014, Jones et al 2015, Jarosz 2016, Wang et al 2021).
A highly skilled Coach will be able to use a whole spectrum of skills, from less directive to more directive. A highly skilled coach will be able to both draw on the Client’s own internal resources and their own resources and expertise to help the Client to progress.
There is a myth that coaching is purely ‘pull’ in terms of providing a space for you to come to your own conclusions without any intervention, and that mentoring is purely ‘push’ in terms of telling you what to do. In reality, coaches and mentors use a spectrum of skills as per the image below, but the more trained the coach or mentor, the broader the range of skills and also the deeper the depth of their intervention.
Career Counselling is different from Coaching or Mentoring. It is not personal counselling or therapy, rather it uses specific career guidance for doctors and public health professionals. Career Counselling usually involves specific career-related exercises in order to give career advice for doctors and public health specialists, and whilst personalised to you, follows a much more structured approach to help you to specifically find or change direction in your career or later life.
Surprisingly, most ‘ILM5’ career coaches are actually not trained in careers guidance for doctors or public health professionals, rather they are trained to help with more general career issues such as managing emails or relationship difficulties at work.
I integrate a range of specific evidence-based Coaching Psychology, Coaching, Mentoring and Career Counselling interventions with a focus on action between sessions, so that my Clients consistently achieve lasting change and get on an ‘Upward Curve’. The impact of my work has been published in BMJ Leader.
I will usually start on the left hand of the spectrum in every session (less directive), and will draw on my own professional expertise as a trained Chartered Coaching Psychologist, Mentor, Leadership Coach and Career Counsellor depending on your context and needs in a flexible way on a moment-moment basis.
Every professional relationship with me is highly personalised and is always explicitly a relationship of equals between two adults: my role is to empower and enable you to fulfil your potential and to reach your professional ambitions and goals through developing your own agency and scaffolding the skills you need into the future.
Whilst there are a lot of practitioners who are helping others with their professional lives, unfortunately both careers advice and coaching are largely unregulated industries. This means that anyone can call themselves a Coach or a Career Coach.
However the British Psychological Society now has a branch of psychology called ‘Coaching Psychology’ with a doctoral-level qualification to become a Chartered Coaching Psychologist. This is a legally protected title, which I was awarded in 2023, I am one of the first such Chartered Coaching Psychologists in the UK and the only one globally to also be a doctor and or public health specialist by background.
Coaching Psychology is ‘the scientific study and application of behaviour, cognition and emotion to deepen our understanding of individuals’ and groups’ performance, achievement and wellbeing, and to enhance practice within coaching‘ (British Psychological Society). It is without doubt the gold-standard of coaching practice and is now a formal branch of psychology, a Chartered Psychologist is the most senior psychological qualification which can be awarded and is a legally protected title: I am a Chartered Psychologist in Coaching Psychology.
I have always sought to ensure that my coaching practice is as professional as my former medical and public health practice; when I led the development of a Coaching Strategy across three NHS organisations in Leeds, I was wholly committed to ensuring that coaching governance was robust and that we were training and commissioning only the highest quality Coaches.
The good news is that there are now robust, independent Coach accreditation processes available through the four industry-leading professional bodies. These are similar to formal licensing and revalidation processes. Being ‘independently accredited’ is an essential requirement for anyone who considers themselves to be a professional Coach; independent accreditation is the mark of quality you should ensure as a purchaser of coaching services.
Choosing the right Leadership and Career Coach for doctors and public health leaders is very important, because a coaching partnership is a high trust relationship which lasts for months – and often years. You will need to feel fully confident that you can be open and honest with the Coach, and that you completely trust their integrity, skill, and professional practice, and that you feel they are professionally an equal to you.
Any Coach should work within a recognised professional code of ethics.
There may be other factors which are important to you – take time to consider what you feel you would need from a Leadership and Career Coach to get the most out of the partnership.
The topics, questions or issues which you might bring to 1:1 leadership and career coaching are varied and can relate to any or all aspects of your professional life. This includes self care, work-life balance, setting boundaries, prioritisation, improving communication, managing difficult emotions at work, retirement planning, as well as your growth and development as a leader, and your short or longer term career direction. Having said that, my clients’ coaching goals usually fall into two broad categories:
My Leadership Coaching Programme will be tailored to your unique needs, and will enable you to develop exceptional leadership qualities – so that you can transform health services and improve outcomes for whole populations.
Your Career Coaching Programme will be tailored to your unique needs, and will enable you to find clarity and a way forward. Career Coaching focuses specifically on your career direction and career decisions, including planning your later life career or retirement.
As well as specific goals around leadership development and career direction, I can help you to flourish at work again. I have repeatedly demonstrated a statistically significant increase in my client’s validated before-and-after wellbeing scores – which has been published in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Leader – and am wholly confident that I can help you to feel better in your professional life and to learn specific, evidence-based strategies to manage yourself, connect with others, and rediscover balance, compassion, and integration in your working life as a doctor or public health leader.
Whilst Leadership and Career Coaching always has a primary focus on your professional life, rather than your personal life, coaching for doctors and public health leaders can also include your work-life balance and you as a whole person in the context of your career.
I can also help with evidence based, skilled self help to build confidence and emotional self-regulation at work, however I am not a therapist and I do not provide mental health treatment or personal counselling support for issues outside of the work context for example personal relationship difficulties.
If you are experiencing overt or covert bullying or harassment at work, you may benefit from a combination of mediation and assertiveness coaching; you can find out more from your HR department or organisations such as ACAS regarding your legal position.
If your employer has serious, significant concerns about your conduct, capability, or fitness to practice then coaching is not likely to be a suitable intervention.
If you have significant current or recent psychological problems then coaching is unlikely to be suitable, as I am not a mental health professional.
I don’t ‘tell you what to do’, rather I help you to make your own decisions: you are responsible for making your own decisions. I will be honest and straightforward in asking questions and making requests; this may include exercises to help you to understand what you need in your career and professional life, identifying plans of action, asking questions, and giving feedback. I integrate both coaching and mentoring approaches in my work according to your needs, including skills development. I don’t provide formal psychometric profiling, nor do I undertake job search or job research, write your resume on your behalf, or tell you what is ‘the right career’ for you.
I can help with your leadership development and career planning for doctors and public health leaders – I am a leading expert in my field of coaching for doctors and coaching public health leaders.
If you think you may be ready to explore working with me, the first step is to book a free, confidential, 30 minute Career Consultation. This will allow us to explore your needs and confirm whether working together is right for you at this time.
If we agree to work together then we will set a date for the first session. I send you a copy of my Coaching Proposal for you to check and sign. this ensures a safe, transparent and confidential relationship which works well for both of us.
Once this is signed I will send your full Welcome Pack. This includes everything you need to get started (such as exercises and questions to help you to prepare for our work together) in order for us to finalise your coaching goals in your first session.
If you are a doctor or public health leader and are considering working with me, the first step is to book a free, confidential 30 minute Career Consultation. This might include:
A Consultation is an opportunity for us to decide whether we would be a good fit to work together; I can answer any questions you have.
I will send you a Proposal to review so that everything is open and transparent to lay the foundations of an effective working alliance together.
There are 8 competencies which a coach or mentor’s practice are assessed against by the professional body, European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
Each of these competencies increase in the level skill for the four different levels of coaching and mentoring practice:
As a coach or mentor becomes more expert, the level of competence expected of them increases from Foundation to Master Practitioner. The competency framework for the EMCC is the curriculum which coaches and mentors are assessed against.
I am Independently Accredited by EMCC as a Master Practitioner and by the British Psychological Society as a Chartered Psychologist in Coaching Psychology
As well as meeting the EMCC competencies, Independent Accreditation also requires the practitioner to have over seven years’ experience, over 500 hours experience, and over 40 clients. (My experience significantly exceeds this).
A Chartered Psychologist is the highest level of award from the British Psychological Society and is a Level 8 (PhD) level of competency attainment.
I understand that discretion and confidentiality are extremely important to my clients, and I take great care to provide a safe and confidential service within the limits of the law. In line with my professional accountability ethics, if I have concerns about your or someone else’s welfare I will discuss this with you in the first instance and I will agree a course of action with you. I will always make every effort to discuss any concerns with you in person or by phone, and will only contact another party as a last resort in extreme circumstances, and even then on an anonymous basis if at all possible.
I am happy to answer any further questions regarding your privacy and confidentiality, please see my Privacy and Confidentiality Statement for more information.
I will provide a certificate to state how many hours of coaching we have undertaken together at a ratio of 2 hours CPD: 1 hour coaching contact time with me.
I will help you to develop your reflective practice skills further and to gain the maximum value from our sessions together.
See here for recent evidence about the effectiveness of the kind of coaching that I practice.
All my 1:1 coaching programmes include world-class between-session support during and after a coaching programme with me. A client is a client for life, and I will be there for you from the moment we agree to work together, and into the future – I will have your back professionally and you can trust and depend upon me.
I will send you a draft Proposal with fees once you have booked your Consultation. If I don’t feel that we are likely to be a good fit to work together, I will advise you of other options where possible.
If you are self-funding, it is usually possible to count your coaching sessions as Professional Expenses (CPD) for tax purposes. You can pay in instalments in whatever way suits you over eg 6-12 months, and I will give you a CPD certificate for appraisal purposes. Many employers will pay for leadership and career coaching from an independent provider such as myself to support their more senior staff.
Working with me in a coaching partnership is a significant investment in your own future and your personal and professional development. I will support you to lead confidently and effectively, to ensure that your future career and working life meets your needs, and is fulfilling, satisfying and emotionally sustainable.
My clients consistently tell me that they feel they have received full value in terms of return on their investment, and they are wholly confident that the work we have done together will continue to have a positive impact on the rest of their career – as well as their long term quality of life.
I offer the following formats:
Career coaching for doctors and public health professionals: 4-6 x 90 minute session programme
Leadership coaching for doctors and public health leaders: either 6 x 90 minute session programme or on a highly flexible basis according to your specific needs
All my programmes include between-session support, and:
For early and mid-career junior doctors, middle grade doctors, registrars, and non-specialist (pre CCT) public health professionals, I also offer a supported, self-led e-learning career coaching programme.
My 1:1 coaching programmes are bespoke to your specific needs and my skills are globally unique. In principle, I would love to be able to work with every senior doctor, medical and/ or public health leader who wishes to work with me without cost being a barrier.
Instead, I work probono or at a very reduced cost on a regular basis, especially for emerging leaders working in a global or public health context; this is in line with my values and my commitment to improving health, societal and environmental outcomes. I also offer probono or reduced price coaching programmes in the context of taking part in coaching research – see here for any current research programmes I am working on.
If my fees are a significant barrier to you, please feel free to request a discount; I may not be in a position to offer a reduction of my fees on this occasion, if I can, I will.
For earlier career doctors and public health professionals seeking career coaching, I also offer a supported, self-led option.
Please also see the rest of my website for other free and low cost resources to support you.
The evidence base for coaching and coaching psychology is rapidly growing. However, as in all areas of professional practice, there is much work to be done to continue to build up the scientific basis underpinning coaching. Particularly as regards the coaching process itself and how coach and client interact with each other is still under researched.
Doctors and public health specialists have a role to participate in research: it helps them to evaluate their practice objectively; advance their discipline; learn skills to improve their practice; as well as being able to question, evaluate and test different approaches objectively (1). It is well known that all patients have better health outcomes in research active hospitals, even if individual patients are not part of research (2).
I have always initiated, collaborated with, and participated in research as a doctor and as a public health leader, ranging from publishing audits, to initiating and co-supervising a PhD in health psychology, and setting up a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to improve staff health outcomes.
I have always sought to ensure that my coaching practice is as professional as my former medical and public health practice, and to this end I have been actively involved in undertaking research as a Coach and as a Coaching Psychologist. I also offer probono or reduced price coaching programmes in the context of taking part in coaching research – see here for any current research programmes I am working on and how to apply, or please email me to find out more.
I work Monday – Friday as a coach and coaching psychologist: this is my main and only job and has been for over 5 years. I see clients mainly on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; however I can see you on Wednesdays and Fridays if this is the only time you are free.
My normal coaching hours are 11am to 6pm but I can be flexible if needed. I see a limited number of clients per day to ensure I am able to give each client the full benefit of my attention.
The rest of the working week, I am doing admin, delivering training, or supporting my professional practice (CPD, supervision, audits, research, leadership roles for the EMCC or British Psychological Society professional bodies etc).
I mainly work on a 1:1 basis with senior doctors, medical and public health leaders. I do also offer a range of group based interventions bespoke to your specific context.
This might include training and development courses in leadership, management, wellbeing or career development; action learning sets; group coaching; needs assessments; team facilitation and team development / team coaching sessions; or other consultancy relating to the professional lives of my client group.
Please see here for more information.
I am happy to work with senior doctors in difficulty relating to their professional life or work/life balance/ wellbeing, and have successfully helped to rehabilitate dozens of senior doctors over the last 10 years.
I do not work with senior doctors where there are active concerns about their mental health as I am not a clinician in this relationship, nor where there are serious concerns about their capability.
I do work with senior doctors in difficulty who pro-actively wish to engage in a developmental, skills based process to address wellbeing, career direction, leadership, conduct or communication issues.
Please contact me to discuss your specific needs further.
The theories and models that I use in coaching are all evidence-based and published in peer-reviewed coaching psychology journals.
I am an expert in deep listening, coaching, careers counselling and mentoring, leadership development and leadership training, and also in the field of behaviour change and human flourishing, having spent the last 30 years learning, using, leading and teaching evidence-based theories of applied psychology to effect change at individual and population levels, in order to improve health and wellbeing and for leadership development.
One of the main theoretical models which I use in coaching for doctors and public health leaders is the leading edge ‘third wave’ applied psychology ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Training, pronounced ‘act’). ACT’s focus is on enabling people to live lives based on their personal values: helping people to find meaning, purpose and satisfaction in their lives, and taking action in line with what matters most to us personally, despite the difficult thoughts, feelings and urges which arise for us all in relation to our careers, leadership, career changes and working life in general. There are now over 250 Randomised Control Trials of ACT of which many relate to its use in the workplace. Please see here for a list of recent references supporting the use of ACT in the workplace setting.
I also draw on my theoretical knowledge and practical skills in prevention and early intervention with ‘positive psychology’ (experience dependent neuroplasticity; mindfulness based cognitive approaches), adult development theory, complexity and systems theory, and compassion focused approaches.
I also draw on communication theories; and also the science of occupational and workplace health improvement, as well as my knowledge and experience of system-wide, organisational, and team leadership theory and practice including transformational leadership and leading in complexity and ambiguity.
I am an experienced 360′ report facilitator and Associate of the ‘Real World Group’, NHS Leadership Academy, and the FMLM. I use other evidence-based ways to increase your self awareness including self assessment exercises, some of which are externally validated.
I don’t offer full personality profiling and full psychometric testing, as there is growing evidence that personality is not a fixed construct, rather I use other tools to help you to develop insight into yourself and your impact on others including adult development theories.
The evidence shows clearly that transformational leadership is primarily about leadership behaviour, and competence, rather than about personality; my focus is on effecting sustained change through supporting my clients to expand their range of leadership behaviours and growing their competencies.
In a coaching partnership, we meet as equals either for an agreed initial number of sessions to explore an agenda wholly set by you, or for a year of coaching together.
We work together to identify what outcomes (goals) you want from the coaching relationship at the start of the coaching process.
There is evidence that working online leads to better outcomes in coaching, as well as being less stressful in terms of time and travelling related stress! It is also better for the planet. I have been working online for many years including before covid. I offer sessions on Zoom (or other provider of your choice) based coaching to clients across the UK and Internationally – I have a number of international clients and have worked with clients from all five continents.
All my coaching sessions are both reflective and action orientated and are usually 90 minutes long, and I am flexible according to your own needs. Session frequency varies according to your needs; sessions are usually 2-4 weeks apart especially for the first few sessions, and can be more frequent for people seeking a complete change of career under time pressure. I currently offer programmes in initial blocks usually of 6 sessions. Leadership coaching is usually around 12-18 sessions over a couple of years, with a minimum of 6 sessions. Career coaching (career counselling) is usually 6 sessions over a several month period, but can be 4 sessions and can also be at a faster pace if required.
I support you to set your own goals for each session, and at the end of each session we agree actions for you to take forward to complete before the next session. I ask for your feedback following each session to consolidate your insights and learning.
In between sessions you put your agreed actions into practice, and start to make the changes you want to see in your life and career. All my coaching programmes include access to the resources for clients section of my website, and my evidence-based career worksheets to complete between sessions on topics specifically relating to your needs.
At the final session we review your learning over our coaching relationship, and develop plans to enable you to move forwards into the future with greater meaning, purpose, satisfaction and wellbeing in your career, leadership role and working life.
If you are wanting to explore a complete career change or to develop a medical career plan I will usually suggest a specific, more structured career counselling programme, I will discuss this with you in the Career Consultation.
Many of my clients choose to continue to have additional sessions as their career progresses over time, either immediately after our initial sessions, or at some point in the future. We would always work within a contract and a framework of your own goals, and would regularly update your goals to reflect your current circumstances and context.
Please click here to find out more about my group and team coaching services, or contact me to discuss your needs further.
In general, yes, please contact me to discuss this.
If I am currently coaching you, we will need to consider whether we feel we can maintain our relationship without this being detrimental to the our relationship and to the rest of your team.
If you are an HR manager or Medical Director and are looking for a Leadership and Career Coach to work with a member or members of your staff rather than yourself directly, I can develop and deliver 1:1 coaching programmes, as well as group and team-based coaching and learning programmes to suit your specific needs.
Many if not most doctors and public health leaders whom I coach have never worked in this way before, please be assured I will be sensitive to your needs during our sessions.
Before our first session, we will have already had a conversation to discuss the coaching relationship and to agree the practicalities including: time and date; duration; booking appointments. I will have sent you a Welcome Pack to orientate you with some simple exercises to complete and return before our first session to help you to identify your coaching goals, ie what you want to achieve from working together.
A coaching partnership is a high trust, non-therapeutic learning and development relationship, which includes contact time together in the form of coaching sessions, to help you to move forwards towards your leadership and career goals as a doctor or public health leader.
The first session involves getting to know you, your context and what you have learned so far. At the start of our first session, I will always check with you if you have any questions or concerns. We will then review the exercises you have completed before the first session and we will use them to ‘sign off’ your coaching goals, so that we can both be really clear what you need to get out of our coaching partnership.
We will then start to work on your goals and moving forwards into the future, whether they relate to developing your leadership skills and style further, improving your wellbeing at work, or making career changes and planning your medical career or public health career. Each coaching session is always bespoke to your own specific needs.
During each coaching session, we identify ‘between-session actions’ for you to complete before the next session, such as conversations with people, reflective exercises, experimenting with new behaviours; we will discuss and jointly agree these at the end of the session.
Between-session actions are always an invitation for you to help you to move closer towards your goals; as a guide they may take around an hour a week. Before we close each session, we’ll briefly review the session, and agree the date of the next session.
Please bring a pen and paper with you to the session, perhaps in a special folder if you like. After the session, I will email you with the actions we agreed, the date of the next session and any resources you need. I will also send you a session evaluation email to help you to reflect and gain further insights, and also to help you to prepare for the next session.
In our second and subsequent sessions, we’ll check whether your overarching goals remain the same. We’ll also briefly touch on the last session, discuss progress since we last met, review the actions you have completed, and identify a session goal to focus on, aligned to your coaching goals. In this way we are constantly moving towards improving your career and working life, so that you leave each session feeling clear, energised and excited to be moving forwards!
I don’t feel this adds anything to the coaching process and it can change the feeling of equality in our coaching relationship and distract from the work we do together in coaching sessions.
We can complete evidence-based leadership 360′ feedback for doctors and public health specialists to help you to gain additional insights into your medical career or public health career and to build on your strengths.
I am skilled in working with senior doctors, medical leaders, public health specialists and leaders who find themselves in difficulty with their careers and working lives due to mild-moderate health issues, including doctors in difficulty and doctors struggling with burnout. UK NICE guidelines on mental health at work includes coaching as an evidence based option. I may be able to help you to stay in work, or to get back to work and am an expert in vocational rehabilitation.
Please discuss your specific situation with me through a confidential career discussion; if I feel that I am unable to help you, I will try to help you to identify alternative support.
If you are currently off sick from work, or have been mentally unwell requiring clinical treatment in last few years, please do let me know before or during our initial discussion.
Depending on your specific circumstances, I may still be able to work with you; however I will always ask you to discuss with your clinician or therapist whether working together is an appropriate contribution to your recovery at this point in time. I am a coach and not a clinician or therapist in this relationship, and my coaching services are not an alternative treatment for mental illness. The focus of our work is always primarily on your professional life.
Coaching has been proven in research meta-analyses to significantly increase the success of returning to work after a period of mental ill-health, in conjunction with clinical care. Please let me know if you are currently or have recently been working with a clinician or therapist at the time of our initial discussion so that we can both be sure that working together is appropriate for you at this time.
Neurodiversity conditions and traits are extremely common in the medical and public health workforce, and I am skilled in working in an inclusive, accessible way for doctors and public health leaders who are neurodivergent.
Neurodiversity-affirming practice is built upon the understanding that
an individual’s disability emerges from the interaction between their
characteristics and their environment and understands that neurodivergent
individuals have unique strengths and valuable perspectives to contribute to society.
I have significant experience of designing and delivering coaching for doctors, medical and public health leaders who are neurodivergent including: Autism, ADHD/ ADD, and Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia.
Please note that I do not make a diagnosis, but if you do have a neurodiversity condition then I can help you to understand the impact of your neurodivergent self on your career and working relationships and to play to your strengths. I can also help you to make the right career choices to enable you to improve your working life in the future, and to develop strategies to ensure you thrive in the workplace.
Please also see my blog
Please contact me to find out more, and also see my privacy and confidentiality and inclusion policy for more information.
Being a partner alongside my clients whether through distance learning or in 1:1 career or leadership coaching for doctors and public health leaders, group or team coaching sessions is the way I do my own best work in the world and to have maximum impact.
I endeavour to support you to be exceptional clinicians and health leaders, and to thrive in your own careers and professional lives so that you can maximally impact outcomes of your patients, populations and colleagues whilst also taking care of yourselves in the process.
Outside of the work context, I’m an ambivert personality, so I enjoy a mixture of time with people and time alone.
I’m first on (and last off) the dance floor, and love yoga, running, and being outdoors in nature, as well as spending time with friends and family – including our cats and dog.
I am constantly organising social events in order to connect people together and build community: ranging from our ‘street party’, to large charity fundraisers, to hosting social gatherings at home.
I’ve always been curious about what makes people ‘tick’, and am usually doing something related to this one way or another!
Having been in my chosen career for many years I found myself anxious about the next steps to take. Fiona completely related to my dilemma and provided an excellent service. She helped me identify my goals, supported me to do that with exercises and tasks that felt relevant to my life stage, and enabled me to explore solutions in safe space. I would recommend Fiona to any professional seeking to explore their future career plan.
I found the process of coaching to be immensely helpful in understanding how I can use my skills and knowledge more effectively in different situations. It has improved my ability to move between strategic and tactical thinking much more easily and be more effective as a medical leader and Board member. Having a space to think out loud and discuss approaches with someone skillful who is encouraging and completely non judgemental was very useful and I have really benefited from my sessions.
Fiona helped me to focus my thoughts about the transition of life as a very busy clinician to that of retirement. The sessions appropriately challenged me to look at my future and unlocked ideas of what really is important for me to enjoy life in years to come.
I would whole-heartedly recommend Fiona as a careers coach. I have benefited enormously from my sessions with her, developing a new strand to my career and even taking the first steps into medical leadership- something I would never have dreamed of before; especially as I was seriously contemplating whether leaving general practice was what lay ahead for me. I was uncertain about the financial outlay initially and a little uneasy about how it would feel discussing things online but I feel so lucky to have been able to undertake my sessions in this way (not being local to Fiona) as I would have missed out on life changing advice and guidance if I hadn't. The cost has been more than worth it and I have gained insight, been challenged in a very positive way and been supported for what feels like the first time in my career to choose/create an exciting future which fulfills my value system and which I am passionate about. Fiona is a very skilled coach and I believe whatever stage of your career you're at you would find her an empathic, professional and inspiring influence on your future.
Working with Fiona has transformed my life. When we first met, I was unhappy, struggled to deal with challenges, and not even sure whether to continue in medicine. Some months later, I know much more about myself that I thought possible, I have discovered new ways of thinking, am much more focused, and with a clear way forward. I feel enthusiastic and positive about the future, ready to seize opportunities, and focus on my core values. Thank you!
Beginning my DPH career during a pandemic has been both exciting and challenging. Having Fiona's coaching support has given me space to think strategically which has been hard to come by whilst the team and the Authority as a whole have been running in response mode. Fiona's coaching has given me the right balance of support and challenge and through her questioning I have developed different perspectives on issues I have been facing and been able to take different approaches in the workplace to achieve progress. Fiona structures the sessions and her feedback well to develop continuity in the coaching process and maintain progress between sessions. Thank you Fiona.
I arrived at the beginning of my coaching journey lacking direction and struggling to find way to move forward to find a fulfilling career. Through the direction, guidance and coaching of 6 sessions with Fiona I arrive in a place much more positive, having identified a set of values which has informed a clear plan I am confident will support my move towards the type of career I crave. I would recommend Fiona highly for her positive, caring and professional approach to coaching in helping me to this point.
I have worked with Fiona for the last 6 months in career counselling. As a GP of 20 years I was burnt out and struggling to reconcile my professional identify with my current role. From the outset , and with high skill and meaningful empathy Fiona helped me gain insights and skills in self care, re-appraisal of my core values. Fiona worked diligently and compassionately with me, such that I am now confident I have clarity, positivity and empowerment which I can readily access and apply to my career decision making. I would not hesitate to recommend Fiona to anyone who may feel they are experiencing something similar and who may be struggling to see how they can move forwards.
The career coaching I received from Fiona was excellent. As a senior clinician I wanted to explore the process of moving into a new role. The sessions were structured and very supportive right from the start. I feel excited about the future and have clarity about my next steps into a new career. I would thoroughly recommend any other doctor considering a change in career to contact Fiona and gain the valuable insight that I achieved.
I was hesitant about seeking out help in deciding my future, and tried to resolve the issues myself, without success. Fiona has been supportive but challenging, and really helped me understand why I do my job, and the sessions have allowed me to develop and become more confident in myself, as a leader.
I had got to the point where I was too scared to hope that my working life could improve. I had run out of empathy and energy and felt that, unless something fundamental changed, I would have to leave my job. It's early days but Fiona helped me re-remember my work passions and reconnect to the personal values that have always driven me. I now have a plan, resources I can tap into, and I feel safe enough to have allowed some hope to creep back in.
What I really liked when working with Fiona was that she has adopted a very kind and gentle approach, so not an aggressive one, but at the same time without asking her client to make discounts on their goals. I thought initially that she would suggest I tone down my ambition/ goals in favor of my self care, family relationships etc, but I was very pleased to see that she was teaching me ways of how to look after myself and my family relationships etc so that I could achieve my goals. That was valuable. In addition, through the work we did together and the tools she has shared with me, I have been able to adopt a step by step process of tackling my tendency to procrastinate and to respond only to deadlines, in a way that helps me make steady progress.
I learnt a lot about myself and my working patterns during my coaching course and feel that my confidence and self-awareness have improved markedly as a result. I'm aware of new techniques for improving my efficiency at work and have noticed already how I am using the methods in my daily routines. I would thoroughly recommend working with Fiona.
I have had 4 sessions with Fiona, as I had reached a block in deciding whether to continue in either my NHS General Practice or in my Clinical Director role. Fiona was an expert listener. She enabled me to articulate to myself, both what I need from my career and a plan of how to get there. I have now decided to stay in my current roles, but with some clearer goals, boundaries and a useful plan for my development. I feel more content and energised since our sessions together and would certainly have more sessions in the future.
Fiona's thoughtful sessions helped me get the most out of a very challenging year. I achieved my career goals, and also a new sense of balance and joy with my outside of work life. I'm really optimistic about new challenges, and developing further with this next stage of my career.
Fiona has enabled me to nurture myself into a confident leader who seeks new challenges and is not afraid to say no to tasks & projects that do not satisfy my core values. Anxieties have become a quiet distant murmur as they have melted away as I have become more mindful and self compassionate. A colleague recently noted that I was ‘too positive’. I now keep a journal and have started a blog and see my life as collections of joy. I would thoroughly recommend Fiona to anyone wishing to be coached to a new level in life.
As a senior Public Health Leader, I worked with Fiona just as I had taken on a new role. The opportunity to work with Fiona has been fantastic as it has allowed me the space and time to set my goals; work towards them with challenge from Fiona and see the significant progress I made over the course of the sessions.
Using the tools I learned from you, I was able to craft my ideal role - keeping the elements of my current role that I love and leaving the rest. I truly believe I could not have done this without the coaching and I’m so grateful to you. All of it was useful and - probably most importantly - the encouragement to believe in my value to my employer. So - Thank you Fiona - another success for you too!
Working with Fiona equipped me with the tools, skills and attitudes that will serve my career and and personal development for a lifetime - including navigating personal barriers to achieving my desired professional state. Fiona's expertise in healthcare, leadership, coaching and psychology were demonstrable in our sessions, which left me feeling in good hands and confident in the process.
Working with Fiona gave me such a confidence boost before successful my Consultant interview. She not only helped me to prepare in a practical sense but also made me realise that I was ready for this next step and to approach the interview with confidence. Fiona is approachable and helpful and works flexibly to what you need to gain from the sessions. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her to colleagues (and already have!). I'm looking forward to working with Fiona again in the future as my career progresses.
Working with Fiona was fantastic and really helped me to succeed in my career progression. Her structured approach to understanding my current role, aspects I enjoy and values I hold really helped me to develop a clear idea of where I ultimately want my career to go. Being able to articulate this has helped me take the leap I needed to and secure success at the next level.
Career coaching with Fiona has been enlightening and empowering as it has enabled me to align my values fully with a shift in career horizons. I can now comfortably acknowledge and accept contemporary career decisions and view future career options with excitement and clarity. At times, the experience was challenging requiring resilience and mental toughness to engage in reflection and analysis honestly and with an open mind. Throughout the coaching period, Fiona has been empathic, caring and diligent. Her knowledge on personal development and coaching is bountiful as is evident by her ability to draw on examples and resources to support the process. I would whole-heartedly recommend Fiona.
I came to Fiona at a stage in my career where I felt on the edge of burnout, unable to keep going as I was, but unable to understand what I needed to do to move forwards. I have always been able to sort professional problems myself but on this occasion I was truly stuck. I thought long and hard about the financial cost and was apprehensive it would be a colossal waste of money. I couldn't have been more wrong. In four sessions Fiona has helped me disentangle the multiple strands of my professional and personal life and compartmentalise each one in such a way that I can plan a future. Part of my job role will remain the same, but I now have the courage to try something new, more aware of options out there, and importantly more aware of what I want and enjoy in my work. It has been so important to me that Fiona is medically qualified and works exclusively with senior people in the healthcare profession. It gives her an insight and experience that other career coaches don't have.
I came to coaching with Fiona after a very difficult couple of years in a leadership role, knowing that I needed to work through some issues that were affecting my wellbeing and causing me to doubt my suitability to lead. Fiona is an extremely skilful coach - her compassion, professionalism and expertise have made a huge impact on me. I had to work hard, but felt really supported, and have made transformational progress with the issues I brought to coaching. Not only do I feel much happier and confident, I've been able to use the skills I've developed to manage new challenges and to become a better leader.
I felt perhaps like others "coaching" may conjure up a variety of perceptions. Having worked with Fiona, it has been a real eye opener particularly when I was faced with developing into my Clinical Director role, I think her credentials and experience added a sense of confidence to really engage and not hold back, she managed difficult discussions with empathy, sincerity and holding you to account and really getting into the places where it matters to effect change. Whole heartedly would recommend her.
I had been struggling to find my niche as a new consultant, and was aware of my career path being shaped largely by chance and by the agendas of other people. Working with Fiona helped me to clarify what my career goals are by getting to the heart of what I really care about and what makes me feel energised. I now have a vivid picture of what I want for my future self, and a clear idea of the steps I need to take to get there. I would recommend Fiona as a coach to anyone who feels lost or stuck in their career.
I think Fiona has the perfect background for the highly specialised area of medical careers advice, having had experience both clinically, within public health, and management. This, combined with her intuition, commitment and warmth provided an arena in which I felt understood, and I felt like I was treated as an individual rather than the "tick a box" approach that I've experienced in careers advice previously. The depth to which Fiona helped me explore my career interests was so impressive, and she also helped me understand a lot about myself in the process. When I met Fiona I was feeling burnt out, unhappy and work and lost in the system. 18 months on, I am excited about my career again and have tangible goals; I finally feel like life is unfolding into a future I feel excited about and I am so grateful to Fiona for guiding me through a difficult patch with empathy, humour and wisdom.
Fiona was fantastic from our initial consultation right through the process. She was understanding when my schedule meant rearranging sessions and made every effort to accommodate the fact that I wasn’t always in the same time zone.
Fiona has enabled me to see a clear career path which suits not only my ‘work’ requirements but also takes into consideration the lifestyle I crave. If you are procrastinating over decisions or unsure if you can change your career then coaching with Fiona will be life changing - just as it has been for me. I’m now in the process of changing career from GP to forensic pathology and feel excited and hopeful about the future.
Fiona makes great efforts to understand your current situation and to help you clarify your goals. Be prepared for a significant time commitment in between sessions to obtain the most benefit.
I am a Consultant working in an Irish health service context. I have a multifaceted patient and management role with minimal supports in place. At the time of starting this program I was really struggling in workplace relationships, achieving goals and being productive. This coaching program has helped almost every aspect of my clinical and management practice. I have a much more structured approach to work and life and this makes everything more achievable. My working relationships have improved with benefits for my service. I am better equipped to tackle the ongoing pressures that come with working in this hectic environment. I would recommend working with Fiona Day to anyone in a similar position.
I engaged in coaching after feeling that I was not meant to be working in leadership roles any more. I'd had episodes of illness, long term health problems and family difficulties meaning that I felt I had been left behind with my career. I'd had so many knockbacks and hadn't achieved my leadership goals despite lots of effort. Coaching was very valuable to make me realise that this is the right direction of travel for me in my career and not to compromise on this goal or to be put off by failure. Fiona really challenged me to act and to put my experience and knowledge into use which I successfully did. This process enabled me to re-build my confidence at a time when I was close to giving up completely.
Thank you for your assistance in coaching me through job transitions, facilitating my ability to reflect and “giving” me permission to congratulate myself! Recent months have been challenging for doctors worldwide, especially for those who are face to face with vulnerable patients. The response to COVID -19 has been a steep learning curve for me but also, post reflection, an important time to consolidate a vision for my journey going forward. You have helped me to look at challenges from a different perspective and this has been much appreciated.
Working with Fiona has enabled me to focus my ideas about my future career. Her open, non-judgemental approach is balanced by a constructive, critical input that challenged me to untangle some of the career development ideas I have been juggling with for some time now. I have felt able to speak openly to her, and had a clear sense that she was on my team throughout. I still have work to do, but having worked with Fiona feel that I have the tools to achieve my goals.
I thought long and hard about whether to look for coaching and who with. I chose Fiona as I could see she is very well trained and experienced as a Coach, I was impressed by her testimonials including success with clients with the same objectives I was bringing, and in particular her niche practice working with senior doctors and medical leaders. It was important to me to work with a peer who understands my professional world. Fiona took great care at the start to understand and help me clarify my own objectives, and her support has been invaluable in helping me to launch a new career interest as a business, in particular helping me improve my planning and networking strategies. I had a hunch I would come away with more than this however. Fiona has really helped me to see how to find the time in my busy life to make this new project succeed and to create a mindset (fifteen years into the senior part of my career) where I now accept looking after myself as fundamental to delivering my best work.
I have found Fiona to be calm and professional allowing me to think and reflect on my values, goals and skills. Fiona has helped me focus and I have some clear next steps to take. I liked the structured approach and Fiona's skill to keeping me on track during the session so we made best use of our time.
Fiona has this amazing ability to listen (to my somewhat unstructured thoughts!), make sense of situations, and turn deliberations into action plans. Our work together has enabled me to connect my day to day work with my longer term career direction - helping me to recognise my strengths and areas for development, whilst focusing on my values and what motivates me. Through challenging exercises and conversations I’ve gained confidence and the courage to make the right decisions for my career. Fiona’s expertise and commitment to helping me has been pivotal for me this year, and I wouldn’t hesitate to work with her again.
I had been considering coaching for a while but worried about finding someone with genuine experience working with senior medical professionals and academics - Fiona absolutely ticked all the boxes. She has a superb depth of knowledge alongside enormous experience and insights. Working with her was incredibly valuable supporting me in managing significant changes in my role and planning for the future. Medicine doesn't equip us well for significant changes in the direction of our career - Fiona does.
Working with Fiona is highly recommended, whether or not you're at the stage of wanting to change your career direction, or just exploring your options. It helped me define and evaluate my skills and interests in a way that I would not have done myself, which, in turn, helped me focus on what I really want to do (instead of simply what I think I 'should' or 'can' do). Her approach is collaborative, and open and flexible, and provided the time, space, and focus that I needed to define my plans and set them in motion! After working with Fiona, I can't wait for it all to unfold.
I have found the experience of working with you very helpful in understanding better my strengths and weaknesses. I have been better able to position myself and the role I contribute within the senior management team. I have also been able to benchmark myself as a Director in comparison to others in my field. I have gained better insight into the dynamics of the senior management team. I have truly benefited from my sessions with you and appreciated your open and honest feedback on matters and your valuable ability to conceptualize the bigger picture from an outside perspective which was harder for me to see. I would definitely recommend you and your services to other senior leaders in their fields who need to gain a better understanding of themselves and where they are positioned within their senior management teams. You are a friendly, approachable, honest professional with high moral values and ethics. I thank you for the help, support and good advice/ direction you provided me with and will not hesitate to reconsider the need for further work together in the future should the need arise.
Fiona is a fantastic coach. She challenges me and has enabled me to make major changes both in my work and personal life. Through her sessions I have set-up and am running my own Medico-legal business that is being inundated with new work – I would not have moved at this pace and achieved this prior to my coaching sessions.
I had never considered coaching before. After three sessions the benefits are crystal clear. Fiona’s coaching style has really suited me: a perfect mixture of affirmation and challenge. Being coached by Fiona has helped to give me clarity about my own strengths - and helped me shape career choices moving forward.
I started working with Fiona when I realised that the way I worked was not going to be sustainable in the long term. Working together helped me realise that my biggest weakness was not in my professional ability but in my failure to care for my own wellbeing and to maintain a healthy work life balance. Fiona shared enough of herself for me to feel that I was working with a ‘real’ human being, not just with empathy, but with relevant life experiences of her own – but always maintaining appropriate boundaries such that it remained ‘my’ session. I now have a far more healthy view of the place that work has in my life, and whilst I see myself as a ‘work in progress’, when things to start to slip I continue to refer back to the strategies I learned when working with Fiona.
Working with Fiona has helped me to stop, take stock and critically assess my career. The exercises undertaken with Fiona have reinforced my need to work in an environment that align to my values. Looking back over my career, including how I managed through some difficult times, helped me to realise what strengths I have, and what choices I have moving forward.
I have found coaching a very useful use of time in trying to negotiate and plan the numerous commitments and opportunities that modern day general practice throws up. It has helped set realistic targets and plans to maintain my work life balance.
Honestly I was dubious before the process started. Once I went through it I learnt so much about what I really wanted in life and how to go about it. Fiona gave me the confidence to do this. She allowed me to take control of my future and gave me the tools to make the changes in my life to give me clarity.
With Fiona's guidance I have just re-invented my professional life after retirement from NHS clinical work, developing an independent consultancy in my area of expertise. She offered great listening skills, calm and warm hearted conversations, clarity in setting of objectives, defining my vision and plans. Whether you have a 'burning platform' or you are at a crossroads with your career, you can trust Fiona with creating the right setting to reflect, innovate and thrive.
Each session was well structured around things and issues that matter to me in progressing my professional and wider carer choices. I feel much more focused in what I want to achieve and the necessary steps and actions. I have also learned some exercises which are helping me to be more socially aware. Overall, it has been a thoroughly good experience.
Since working with Fiona I have established a clear set of goals for the next three years. Working through a series of actions with her support I have moved mountains, going from a set of ideas to creating a new role which combines my strengths and key interests. This clarity has helped others around me understand how I might contribute more effectively to the system I work within. I really valued the calm space that Fiona creates in which to test out ideas and refine what my vision is. She uses really effective exercises that energised me, rediscovering what I want to achieve and helping me focus on what really matters to me. I was nervous about the time commitment and investment required at a time of maximum stretch professionally. However the push to do this was a need for greater job and life satisfaction. I would recommend Fiona’s approach to senior clinical professionals who are considering making a change or are working within systems that are changing. She has helped me grow in confidence about my personal strengths, learning how I can effect change in the system by finding a role that I can bring my best skills to.
I started working with Fiona at a time in my professional life where I was seeking direction and reflecting on my next steps as a doctoral student. I am lucky to have worked with Fiona who approached my needs with kindness and understanding. Fiona enabled me to see the positives in my professional journey which I have learnt to use as a strength moving forward. Her understanding of my professional context was extremely beneficial as not everyone can understand the differences in working in a country low resource setting compared to a high-income country. I will definitely recommend Fiona Day Consulting to friends and peers.
Investing in coaching was one of the best decisions I have ever made and I recommend Fiona without hesitation. In just five months it has made a huge difference to my life: I feel more centred and resilient, applying for a Consultant job no longer feels overwhelming, and I have made significant progress towards creating a portfolio career. The actions from each session kept me motivated and added a level of accountability. Given how disempowered I felt before coaching, they also gave me permission to try out new behaviours in a safe environment. Most importantly, I now have a range of tools and techniques that will help me grow into the best version of myself and I’m grateful.
I went into coaching with a real lack of clarity over how to progress in my career and feeling very unsure if I would want to continue to work as a Doctor. Through skilful guidance, Fiona has really helped me understand and identify my needs. This was something I had totally failed to consider before. I now recognise what makes me feel energised and what I need to have a happy, fulfilling professional life. Coaching with Fiona has helped me realise that I do enjoy being a Doctor but I may need to make some "tweaks" to my path. I now have the confidence to undertake this!
Fiona has been very supportive and really helped me to know how I can use my skills and achievements more effectively in different situations. The coaching sessions were enlightening and empowering. They have allowed me to further develop and enhance my potential as well as to project myself better as a leader.
Fiona helped me during a critical decision stage of my career. Fiona helped me evaluate my values and strengths and reevaluate my career aspirations. This involved helpful and informative exercises, followed by in-depth discussion. All along Fiona was considerate, supportive and encouraging. She asked key questions that enabled me to make confident career decisions. She also provided support and guidance whilst applying for a new role and around the interview process. She helped me bring an awareness of my core values into my decision making process regarding this new role. I was always impressed by Fiona's high level of professionalism, kind and considerate nature. I found her to be very respectful, trustworthy and easy to talk to. We did our sessions online which worked very well and was convenient. 3 months later I am now working outside the NHS in a new career and I am happy with my decision and where I now am. Fiona's coaching services were an important and helpful part of confidently making this career transition.
I came to Fiona at a critical time in my life and career, with a ‘dream’ that seemed an awful long way away. Fiona calmly and professionally made me realise that the dream could be a reality with careful consideration of what was right for me, she also gave me the courage to leave the job I was in and move into the right place. I am now “living the dream”. Thank you Fiona.
I have worked with Fiona for just less than 3 years, during a complex merger of multiple GP practices, significant changes in my family life and the start of a very challenging leadership role. With Fiona’s help I’ve survived these changes, am clearer about my values, can take better care of myself and have managed to create a professional role, leadership position and working pattern that feels right for me. I feel that the Fiona’s coaching has helped me succeed in delivering a series of difficult projects that would not have been possible without her skilled, validating and supportive mentorship.
I came to Fiona with so many thoughts and ideas, which she carefully help me dissect and re-craft; in doing so I have gained much more clarity about my career goals. Fiona has a fantastic manner with an obvious wealth of experience that makes the experience enjoyable (if a little unnerving at first!) I would totally recommend her. I appreciate coaching is expensive, but I challenge anyone to find a bought item that can add so much value.. invest in yourself!
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Fiona. She has challenged me, she has made me think, she has worked me hard and together we have created a working and viable blueprint for the next stage of my life and career.
I found the sessions with Fiona very valuable. I had been struggling with a portfolio career and saying yes to all opportunities that came my way. I also felt guilty that I was not fully committed to GP work. Fiona helped me understand the way forward and improved my confidence and my belief in my right to choose a career I wanted. Fiona was flexible with timings and really listened to my position. I would absolutely recommend her.
Working with Fiona has provided me with the headspace, and challenge, to reflect and refocus my energy where its needed in order to be most effective. By doing so I've been able to achieve my aim of a much healthier work life balance.
Working with Fiona helped me to better understand my skills and where I have thrived most in my career so far, and after the career coaching I feel much better equipped to identify aspects of alternative roles which are most important to me looking forwards. In addition I have a much better idea of other options which would be suitable for me and where to begin exploring for these. In the short term I also feel more positive in my current role whilst I explore these other options. Fiona was kind and discerning, and took the time to get to know my attributes, skills and career needs. She also made time between sessions to assist me when needed. I would thoroughly recommend working with her if in a similar situation.
Fiona's coaching has helped me to make changes in my working life with confidence, and provided clarity about the next stage of my career. Her supportive but challenging approach has been much appreciated. I started the process with some reservation, but would now recommend to any doctor feeling dissatisfied in their career.
Coaching with Fiona has been supportive, challenging, thought provoking and empowering. It has helped me to develop skills to look at my current work situation, reflect, and given me tools to make changes- with the aim of letting go of one trapeze and catching another.
I've developed greater clarity on my career vision, what I want from a job and how to take the next steps in my career development journey. These sessions have given me time and space to reflect on my career to date, my skills and development needs and have made it easier to make decisions about career direction and jobs I can take to help me get there. I have since been appointed to a new role that meets many of my aims. As part of our sessions we also did some very useful work around systems leadership and how to work in complexity which has helped me on my journey to becoming a stronger leader. Fiona has a supportive style and provided just the right amount of challenge, helping me to clearly identify my aims and to recognise my strengths and areas for development. I've gained a huge amount in a short space of time and would definitely recommend her to others in similar senior leadership positions.
Fiona helped me work through a difficult period at work when pressures on my organisation were at their highest. She encouraged me to challenge my own work patterns allowing me to prioritise some of my needs without compromising the work I delivered. Through my sessions with Fiona, I was able to recognise the impact of the work environment I had created and take simple steps to improve it. She supported me to hold constructive conversations in order to enable me to grow professionally.
You are a transformational coach who has enabled me to significantly improve my performance and wellbeing. I enjoyed working with you because you were both assertive and compassionate and enabled me to achieve my specific goals. I would recommend your services to anyone in a professional role because for me, the experience I had as your coachee went way beyond my expectations and has had such a positive impact on my stated outcomes.
Deciding to embark on careers counselling felt like a daunting task, I was unhappy in my career and felt like there was no solution. Fiona was kind and guided me through a structured approach to uncover what really makes me tick in a professional environment and eventually to what I am really looking for in a career. I am leaving the other side excited about the next stage in my career and confident to start searching and applying for the jobs I know I want.
It has been so useful to have an expert external providing training on coaching. What I found particularly useful was the emphasis on how I can better incorporate coaching skills into my day to day work, rather than it being seen as a separate “add on.” During the training I have worked with a great group of people in a safe environment to refresh skills, learn new, test ideas and apply our learning. I have thoroughly enjoyed and been enriched by the whole experience. Fiona’s style of training pushes you but is also very empathetic and nurturing; the course resources and materials are brilliant. The sessions have been challenging, intense and very rewarding. I have since used my coaching learning in appraisals, one to ones with staff, to support others with their personal development and in other ways, and feedback has been very positive. I am now asking more insightful questions to encourage others to dig deep into their experiences, values and aspirations etc. and enabling them to create their own solutions. As one of my appraisees said “you made me work hard there and I got so much out of it.” I am really motivated and gratified to see I am helping others be more self-aware, courageous and solution focused. When I began the course I was somewhat cynical as I have undertaken training in coaching before but never made it stick; however I am now fired up and committed to continuing to apply my learning in other ways, and am convinced there are real benefits in this.
I have benefitted from working with Fiona in the way that I understand my place in the current organisation much better, and can now express my wishes and plans for the future development of the department in a clearer and more strategic way,
I was very pleased with the work done by Fiona during our coaching sessions. She really helped me to understand how employable I actually was. She was very empathic and demonstrated both an excellent knowledge of the feelings and psychological pressure we sometimes go through and how to put things into perspective by looking at the real-world. The exercises we did to simulate job interviews and the analysis she did were great to equip me with tangible tools in the near future.
Coaching with Fiona was a really good experience. At the start, I knew I needed coaching but I was not very clear how coaching would help me. Fiona's approach of deep and careful listening for both the spoken and unspoken, careful playing back to establish shared understanding, and skilful questioning and nudging to enable me get to the solution myself was really impressive. Amongst others, one of the clearest benefits I got from working with Fiona was that I became supremely clear about my purpose in what I am doing right now and became even clearer about how I will know when my job is done in my current role. In addition, Fiona's coaching allowed me to explore my strengths and preferences in such a way that I have since become clearer in myself of what my career next steps could be should I decide it is time to make such a move.
I had a clear goal identified for what I wanted to achieve from coaching. Fiona talked me through the goals and helped me to identify the key areas I needed to focus on to achieve these. Over the course of the first few sessions we were able to focus on specific areas of improvement which led to a successful application and interview for a Director of Public Health post.
Fiona is a skilled coach who has helped to clarify my role and direction in leading the new primary care network and finding our place in a developing integrated care system. With calm empathic challenge, she has helped me develop leadership skills and navigate difficult situations, giving me insights that have been beneficial both professionally and personally.
I would recommend Fiona Day as a career coach. At a crossroads in my career decisions both emotionally and through changes in circumstance I have been able, with her help, to gain clarity on what gives me satisfaction in my working life and what my overall priorities are in future plans. The meetings were carried out virtually but I still felt a comfortable working relationship could be established. The rest now is down to me! Thank you.
Many thanks for the encouragement and confidence to step up to a national role! My Annual objectives meeting was a breeze - so thanks for your guidance with that as well.
Very professional coach. Sympathetic but challenging and gives homework to help progress between times. Kept me afloat during a very challenging period which I am proud to have come through without too many scars. A better transition than the last couple. Honest and with a wide range of tools to offer. Understands the Public Health world.
Thank you for your guidance over the last couple of years. I've finally secured a permanent post - after lots of uncertainty! It was very reassuring to me to know you were available to talk things through and break down my problem into tangle steps. You also gave me space to feel how annoyed I was feeling - which helped me progress to doing something constructive!
I would recommend Fiona's coaching service to other professionals who are at a stage in their career where they want to achieve something different for their working life. I have never been an ideas person and was at a loss to know where this would take me, or if there was anything at all that I would want to do, or could do other than my clinical role. I'm really glad to say that over the course of the sessions Fiona has helped me to create something that I feel comfortable and excited to be embarking on. She has helped me gain the confidence to realise a future that I did not imagine I could do.
I have enjoyed working with Fiona massively over the last few months. I had not had career coaching before and did not know what to expect. She has expertly taken me on a journey with appropriate support and challenge to a career choice/ aspiration that I am now very comfortable with. I would heartily recommend senior medical colleagues who have concerns about career choices use Fiona's services to help them with their decision making process.
The value for me on a personal basis was that Fiona was on my side , with out any bias which may have impacted on the work and feedback I received , I felt that I could discuss very difficult topics and achieve a way of tackling these in a hugely impactful way which empowered me in my professional and personal life - so a huge thankyou !
You have a very calm, kind and knowledgeable approach and bring with you a wealth of experience that you pass on in a really constructive way.
Fiona is very professional, with a clear, structured approach to coaching which made me feel really comfortable as a coachee. Fiona is a very good listener and her manner encourages honest, open conversation, whilst maintaining a focus on achieving your learning goals and ensuring that every decision/discussion is backed by actionable, achievable tasks to take away.
Fiona is very supportive and professional. She has helped me to work out where to direct my career and on what values to base it on.
You have a really calming and relaxing tone which took out the stress of the subject matter. Thinking about being a consultant and the gaps in line and team management can be daunting but you were reassuring and made me remember that I have the skills even if not the experience and there is a continuous support network. You were open with your own experiences so the course felt real. It was tailored to the specific needs of us as a group. You are a natural facilitator for discussion ensuring we kept to topic and time but enabling conversation of details. Thank you so much for everything Fiona, I feel much more confident about my transition to consultant!
Your calm and professional manner and the way to took the time to understand us as individuals really helped to make the course engaging, supportive and a safe space to share and reflect.
A massive thank you for offering this fantastic course. Absolutely the most useful and relevant training I have been on.
I went into the course seeking clarity on how to make careers decisions, how to maximise my chances of getting a consultant role in an area I am interested in and how prepare for working in a consultant role. The course has met all of these objectives.
I really appreciate practical advice, and you gave a lot of this. You're very supportive and straightforward, which was really reassuring when thinking about this big transition to the next stage of my career.
The process of working with Fiona to define my career goals and the strategy to achieve those goals has been really helpful. She used a combination of short written exercises and coaching sessions to help me direct my thinking. Over the several month process I have been able to develop a much clearer picture of my skill strengths and how I can apply them to my advantage as well as having a strategy for continuing to develop my ongoing career direction.
I entered coaching with dread as my issue was looming retirement and no planning. I wanted a coach who was a doctor and who would explore work life balance not leadership strategies and the goals of youth. The worst and best part was the knowledge that I would be challenged each month on progress. It prevented me from failing to progress. What was most useful was learning to put aside all or nothing thinking. My plans for retirement are much more stepwise. I also have had chance to sense check. So retire and come back with combination of weekday time out and blocks of stone for bigger projects have become my strategy for future.
After resigning from NHS practice and before I started working with Fiona I felt overwhelmed with decisions on where to take my career. I knew I wanted to continue to develop my medical skills and use them to explore options outside of clinical practice. I also had the hugely daunting task of using a new appraisal platform which required hours worth of data imputing which I kept putting off. With Fiona's gentle but challenging guidance I was able to set comprehensive weekly goals and reward myself for completed tasks, even if it was watching trashy tv! Fiona supported me to set my pace to achieve these goals using validated coaching techniques. I would highly recommend coaching to anyone either at a crossroads in their career or who needs further challenge to climb that ladder. There are many professional coaches out there but Fiona celebrates your achievements with you which makes you believe you can continue to succeed in whatever you choose.
Fiona is an excellent listener, insightful, easy to talk to about challenging subjects, encouraging and empathetic. The tools and resources provided are very helpful to enable change. The coaching programme helped me manage challenges/complex situations, build personal resilience and confidence and competence in my leadership roles. Fiona was instrumental in helping me make some decisions which are likely to be career defining. I would highly recommend Fiona Day Consulting to other public health/medical colleagues looking for coaching and in leadership or developing leadership roles.
I feel that I am equipped with the instruments to deal with myself and the environment around me. I know my leadership style, behaviour, and performance much better. I know how to manage challenging persons and issues very effectively. I feel closer to myself, and I can be myself. Importantly, I learned to have a structured approach in my life. The coaching benefited me in my professional and my private life. I strongly recommend Dr Fiona Day's services. Dr Fiona Day is very professional, knowledgeable, humble, structured, and a great leader, coacher, and mentor.
I have done coaching before and always find it invaluable. What I found different and helpful working with Fiona, is that she has useful tools and tasks to facilitate the coaching session, allowing reflection and meeting any set objectives of the session.
I must admit that I was quite sceptical when I first approached you. I’ve always been quite pragmatic and really wasn’t sure how you could help me. I was amazed by how much help your first session was, and I am now exactly where I want to be. With your help I made things actively happen rather than just drift in to them. Thanks to your help, I understand myself better and I know what I want. Finally, you also helped in very practical ways, covering all the tiniest details. You also helped me to work out for myself what I wanted, and how best to achieve them. I would definitely recommend you to anyone who feels that they are not quite where they want to be career-wise, or are having difficulties at work.
I would highly recommend working with Fiona. When I started coaching I was quite despondent about my career and work life balance but now I feel much more positive about my future home and work life. Fiona has given me tools and direction to deal with difficult relationships at work, manage my work life balance and plan for my future.
When I worked with Fiona I was pleasantly surprised at how much opportunity got unlocked both within and beyond my job. I'm now focusing on a direction that everyone wants to be a part of. It was great working together and Fiona is very astute and insightful. She gave me a toolset that can be applied to any form of change and helped me in recommending some specific moves which have already added value.
I found that the value of this process was in challenging me to justify my self-perceptions and particularly my negative or self-limiting feelings about myself. I have gained from my coaching experience a renewed confidence in what I do well, and the ability to give myself credit for things where previously I didn’t fully allow myself to do so. My coaching experience has helped me define and affirm my values and principles and know what’s really important to me professionally which has brought a clearer plan of how I want to develop and grow in my career.
Fiona's approach of completely and confidentially being on "your team" to support your development is genuine and gives you the confidence to aspire to do well and progress in your career. The coaching sessions gave me a better understanding of my own leadership styles, through a combination of PLI, 360 degree feedback and reflecting on both strengths and areas for development. Our conversations about dealing with challenging situations brought some new perspectives on dealing with complexity.
I would highly recommend working with Fiona. She helped me with my transition back to work after a considerable break, and with a career change. I have since gained employment in my new area and used many of the skills from our working relationship to get this role.
This course helped me to drown out the noise of an increasingly chaotic workplace and focus on what is important to me. I have gained a deeper understanding of the options that are available to me in diversifying my job as a medical consultant in the NHS.
I throughly enjoyed working with Fiona, and would recommend her highly. She encouraged and helped me think about the elements I wanted in my working life and how to achieve them. This helped me make some adjustments to the now to make my current work life more manageable and enjoyable whilst I worked on moving onto the next steps. I have now been successful in securing a new exciting role more in-tuned with my personality and aspirations. I feel excited about the future. Thank you so much!
Fiona has been kind, insightful and non judgemental throughout our sessions. She has provided a framework for me to consider my career in a positive light. With this structure I feel I am capable of approaching future decisions with the resolution and clarity required to make the right choice for me.
I was skeptical about being coached as I am in my late 50s and had achieved my professional goal but was re-evaluating everything. Through various tools and techniques, Fiona enabled me to gain clarity to be able to establish new goals and new ways of thinking about career.
If you apply the same amount of energy to the process that Fiona applies, you will feel more enriched. This is not a box ticking exercise to feed numbers into a computer to tell you what job you should have. This is an exercise in self discovery, and this in turn can not only define what the career goals are but WHY you are pursuing those next steps. I would recommend her coaching to all who are reviewing their past and shaping their future, through understanding their present.
Fiona provided some great career coaching for me, supporting me to gain clarity over future direction leading to significant improvements in work life balance. She worked within a tight timeframe which was hugely helpful in achieving my goals. I’d definitely recommend Fiona as a coach.
I have enjoyed working with Fiona during a period of intense challenge and change at my organisation, both prompted by internal leadership issues but also by the pandemic. Indeed, it is a regret that I had not organised coaching support earlier in my medical leadership career. Fiona speaks with great common sense based on considerable experience, and I was always struck at how she could bring a different perspective to the issues I was dealing with. This was particularly true of her deep understanding of how people think and react, enabling me to see the other side of some complex discussions. I strongly recommend Fiona's coaching to colleagues in senior leadership roles.
I have known for a long time that I wanted to broaden my horizons and in particular, work more strategically, looking to national work opportunities. However I wasn't sure quite what form this would take or how to achieve it. Time spent exploring these issues with Fiona was fundamental in really helping me to understand what I wanted to achieve professionally - both in the short and long term - and how I could go about fulfilling these goals in practical and realistic ways. I feel in a different place now and really do consider that I have ALL the skills, opportunities and ability to achieve my best. I thoroughly recommend that anyone asking the same questions, access coaching time with Fiona - you won't look back!
The opportunity and experience of being coached by Fiona for several months has been transformative, both personally and professionally. One of the most impactful aspects of my coaching journey with Fiona was the extensive and evidence-based 360-Transformational Leadership Questionnaire and subsequent reflective exercise and feedback she provided. This comprehensive feedback gave me invaluable insights into my strengths and areas for growth. As a result, I felt empowered to apply for more senior responsibilities/roles, which I have been successful in securing. Fiona has also shown me how to use coaching as a strategic tool, which has allowed me to contribute more effectively to fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement in my organization. Her expertise and supportive approach have been instrumental in my growth as a leader, and I highly recommend her to anyone looking to elevate their coaching and leadership capabilities.
Working with Fiona has given me an excellent framework to begin my leadership journey. We focussed on specific challenges based on my own experiences and produced workable solutions which I could test in practice. This gave me confidence to take on more difficult problems. The leadership 360 exercise was immensely useful in highlighting areas for development.
Fiona was very accommodating when helping me at short notice with some career-related feedback. She was able to bring the feedback to life for me and scrutinise it in a manner that made it genuinely useful for my own personal and career development. Her ability to put you at ease and recognise and utilise the positives, whilst at the same challenging you to explore beyond your comfort zone, is a real strength of her coaching style.
Fiona was excellent at helping to form and direct the very vague ideas I started with into what became a much clearer way ahead. I found it a very challenging process to break out of my fairly set way of thinking, but Fiona was very patient and encouraging and made sure that I kept going. I would definitely recommend working with Fiona.
Working with Fiona has been instrumental in shaping and achieving my professional and personal goals. In the period we worked together, I experienced tangible results and gained invaluable insights into various aspects of my life. First and foremost, the process of clarifying my career goals has been transformative. Fiona guided me in developing a clear understanding of my long-term aspirations, identifying my strengths and weaknesses, and exploring potential career paths aligned with my values. As a result, I now have a well-defined outlook on where I envision my career in the next 5 to 10 years, along with a comprehensive career plan outlining the necessary steps, skills, and networks required for the next phase of my career. The focus on developing leadership skills has been another area where I have witnessed significant progress. Through Fiona’s guidance and other reasons, I have increased responsibilities at work, gained improved confidence in decision-making, and managed my first team. In terms of improving self-esteem, Fiona has been a supportive and insightful coach. I have experienced a noticeable improvement in self-confidence, resulting in the building and maintenance of stronger relationships, both personally and professionally. This has directly translated into advancements in my career and an overall positive impact on my well-being. What I liked best about working with Fiona is the personalised and strategic approach to meeting my goals. The ability to tailor her guidance to my unique needs and aspirations has been a game-changer. She has a unique blend of expertise, empathy, and effective communication that creates a conducive environment for growth and self-discovery.
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