Testimonials
Working with Gayle has been life changing. In a few hours we worked through patterns of thought and behaviour that I have struggled with for decades. We made realistic, manageable plans together that felt completely unique and tailored to my circumstances. I'm already seeing benefits to my career and mental wellbeing. Working with Gayle has been like opening a window and letting fresh air into my mind and my life. She was calm, compassionate and has a great sense of humour. I can't recommend working with her highly enough.
Gayle has worked with Place2Be in two different capacities - one as a Business Development Consultant and secondly as a Coach. On both fronts Gayle has been brilliant to work with - a huge amount of energy, a determination to move things along and a shared passion in bringing out the best in people, be that the children and young people we support or our teams. We have progressed extensively in the areas Gayle has supported us in. Highly recommend Gayle!
Patrick Johnston, Director of Learning and Practice. Place2Be
I have known Gayle since 2012 when she trained and qualified as part of the internal coaching network with the Open University. Over the following years, she has regularly coached managers in various roles across the university. She has played an active role in the coaching network, attending regular supervision and on-going training. I have consistently received excellent feedback from her ‘coachees’ and their line managers on the impact of her coaching. Gayle has been one of our high performing coaches. She is very adaptable and depending on the needs of the ‘coachees’, has worked with clients via face to face, Skype and telephone sessions. She has also worked successfully offering intensive one off sessions as well as under taking longer term contracts with clients. I have no hesitation in recommending
Gayle as a coach.
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Julie Stock, Coaching Programme Manager Open University
Over a period of around 6-8 months, Gayle worked with me to help identify barriers in my thinking and provided some useful tools to help boost my confidence and performance in the workplace. Gayle listened, challenged some of my assumptions and gently encouraged me to grow and push myself. As a direct result of her input and support I progressed to a senior manager role and I would thoroughly recommend her as an excellent coach.
Because of my dyslexia I had well established negative patterns around avoidance and procrastination. The thought of reading aloud had a huge effect on my
emotional wellbeing and confidence. It was affecting and infiltrating my day to day ability to do my work as a senior manager. I was in a persecutory mindset, chastising myself for making mistakes.
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I now feel more positive and confident and less
critical of myself. I’m more open about what I’m able to do and not do and this has helped to take the pressure off. I’m much more aware of my strengths and what I have to offer. I have less of a fear of failure of getting it wrong.
It’s just not a big issue anymore. It's literally changed my life.
I thought it was great to be in an open an honest environment where you can explore your experiences, test ideas, and just take some time out to look at yourself and decide on where you want to develop personally. I find the method of learning from others really suits my personality style.
When I started working with Gayle I was in a very difficult situation and stuck within my own train of thoughts. I was struggling with management perceptions of me which I felt were purely based around my diagnosis as an autistic adult. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself as a person, team member or social work practitioner. I knew I could do the job but I couldn’t always see it.
I’ve now started to build trust and confidence in the people around me. I’ve started on the road to develop greater professional flexibility. I have tools that I’ll take forward in the rest of my career. I’m much more aware of my strengths and weaknesses and can acknowledge these. I feel that others have more confidence in me now too and trust in my professional opinions.
I feel that real change has occurred for me [due to the coaching] I have come out of my shell again. I feel much more confident in communicating, and feel like a productive part of the team. I plan to continue with my self-awareness and reflection on my progress both within the office and out. I still write down my positives for each day.
It brought to attention my ability to resolve situations and be proactive, seeing the positives more and challenging my own assumptions, gaining more confidence in my abilities again.
Gayle planned and facilitated a strategy development day for our team. Liaising closely to clarify our needs for the day and the outcomes we wanted to achieve. She then organised and delivered a thoroughly successful day, it was interactive, fun, productive, involved everyone and resulted in clear outcomes.
Gayle is a skilled facilitator with a sound knowledge of business planning processes. She involved us in activities that opened us up to new thinking and ideas. She was able to judge the room and adapt as we went along, kept us all focused and on track, and integrated energisers throughout the day. I would recommend Gayle for this type of work.
Simon Armstrong, Chief Technical Officer
Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP)
I appointed Gayle to a developmental and managerial post at the Open University and she was a highly valued colleague for nine years. Throughout that time Gayle demonstrated strategic leadership, most especially in the area of partnership brokering. She is entrepreneurial and a self-starter, and invariably keen to innovate and develop creative solutions to various challenges. A key element of her approach is that she is clearsighted on the need to deliver outcomes and agreed targets - she is without doubt a ‘completer-finisher’. Gayle has excellent interpersonal skills, is a good manager of people and a constructive and collegiate team player. Her people-skills have been honed and put to good use in her commitment to professional coaching and personal mentoring - in this, and in her work more generally, she has highly developed facilitation skills. I would recommend Gayle very strongly and without reservation to any future employer or anyone who may have the opportunity to work with her.
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Rob Humphreys CBE, FLSW
Senior higher education professional
Gayle has the ability to promote self-reflection, challenge your perceptions and help you formulate your own forward plan with a collaborative and inclusive style that puts you at ease.
The best compliment I can give is that you don’t feel as you have been coached, as if you have had something done to you, but that you have arrived at a conclusion or destination that feels more positive
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CEO, Health Sector