Background & Experience
A fascination with the mind, how people behave, and Argentine Tango led Isla to a career in coaching and mentoring. Her business life encompassed running and owning companies, working in finance and leasing, IT, recycling, asset and property management and publishing.
Her coaching and mentoring relationships involved all those fascinating aspects of stretching mindsets, encouraging strategic thinking, being innovative and embracing change. Clients have come from diverse private, public and corporate sectors including technology, e-commerce, HR, fashion and retail, leisure, social care, compliance and insurance. She has worked with numerous government backed business support schemes and provided training on topics ranging from soft skills to innovative thinking and self-management.
Her prime focus now is supporting individual clients with personal and professional development and through career change and progression.
Client history and assignments include: Improve International | Travelodge | Nursing & Midwifery Council| South West Councils | Wiltshire Police WAA | Johnson & Johnson | Sarsen Technology | Reading Council | A4E | Wiltshire Council | NHS | RNIB | Lumleys Insurance |Portman & Staffordshire Building Societies | Conservative Central Office | Smiths News | JMann Associates | individual leadership coaching / career coaching/ personal development.
Approach & Benefits
Isla’s extensive experience is focused on helping people achieve smarter results. Her support is resourceful, committed, results oriented, focusing on targets and objectives, helping clients see strengths and opportunities, set goals, make the right decisions, and enjoy their journey.
The benefits of Isla’s approach include:
- The opportunity for a reality check, time and space to make the right choices
- Stretching mindset and changing perspective to build strengths, getting different and better results
- Discovering innovative ways to build confidence, be resilient and communicate powerfully
- Having a sounding board, a personal check point, a challenging and supportive partner
- Encouraging growing self-awareness, the ability to self-promote, self-present
- Clarity on career change and progression, boosting personal performance
- Transforming uncertainty into opportunity.
Selected Testimonials
“Isla has been fundamental in helping me manage my business from being a business plan to becoming reality. Isla has great skill in helping you step outside of ‘the moment’ to look at the bigger picture, helping to prioritise what I really need to be working on …and to help create realistic timescales to achieve the work and which are still challenging.” Director – Technology retail company
“We employed Isla to work with a member of staff to enable them to build positive relationships with team members. Isla was very effective, at all times acknowledging confidentiality and establishing trust. Ensuring the staff member took an active part in the sessions and developed action plans meant that the coaching journey ensured development towards the objectives.” HR Manager international training agency
“After I had been made redundant, Isla helped me pick up the pieces and drew out all my strengths. She listened carefully and made no judgements, but gave me exercises to help me identify strengths and clarify goals. Encouraging, supportive, warm and thoroughly professional, Isla is a first class careers counsellor and I thoroughly recommend her to anyone at a crossroads in their lives. I honestly doubt I would have such a great job without her intervention.” Development Director
Other Activities & Professional contributions
Qualified in personal and business coaching and mentoring, Isla is also a certified SFEDI Business Advisor, NLP Master Practitioner, IAPC&M Accredited Master Coach, member of and trainer for the Association of Business Mentors and member of the Association for Coaching.
Past roles and pro-bono work have included: Head of Training at The Entrepreneurial Education Group | Contributor on the MentorsMe initiative | Volunteer coach at Inner Flame Charity | Wiltshire Business Mentors | Aspire Foundation.
Speaking appearances and workshops: Soft skills | Career progression and Development | Entrepreneurship | Managing Change and Uncertainty | The Emotional Journey at Work | Building Confidence and Resilience | Presentation and Putting Yourself Forward | Stepping into Your Personal Power.
And where does the Argentine Tango fit in? Trust, Appreciation, Negotiation, Graciousness, Openness – all elements of that great dance, and all elemental to being a great coach and mentor.