How Coaching Deepened My Impact as a Strategic Engagement Leader

Zero Plastic Waste Parliamentary Reception

The 'Earthy Suit' - costume for the lead character in Operation earth, a collaboration with ASDC

For 10 years of my career, I worked as an engagement specialist at the intersection of sustainability, nature, and evidence-based decision-making at the Natural Environment Research Council – the UK’s leading funder of environmental science research and innovation (part of UKRI). Looking back, I had no idea how important coaching would be to my development as a leader in the field when I started – or indeed, how far I would go!

Whether developing engagement strategies for business, policy and public audiences, facilitating cross-sector dialogues, designing inclusive events and initiatives, or translating research into action, my most impactful work has always been about creating spaces where people can connect meaningfully with ideas, evidence, and with each other – that’s my magic!✨

But even with broad experience in environmental sciences and strategic leadership, I found myself asking: how do we move beyond information-sharing to real transformation? How do we foster advocacy that’s not just technically sound, but emotionally resonant and personally owned, by policy-makers, politicians, business leaders and the public?

That’s where coaching came in.

🌀 Why Coaching Became Essential to My Development as a Leader

I came to coaching not as a departure from my scientific roots, but as a powerful extension of them. In a field where decisions are shaped as much by values, emotions, and relationships as by data, coaching offered a way to engage with the whole human system—not just the intellectual one.

Working with a coach helped me define an authentic way to lead in this space. I didn’t arrive with a traditional engagement background (I was PhD laser physicist!!) but I brought a deep passion for nature, and a fierce commitment to evidence-informed decision-making for sustainable outcomes, instilled from childhood. Coaching helped me channel that passion into purpose, unlocking talents I hadn’t fully recognised and shaping a distinctive approach to strategic engagement—one that delivered impact far beyond what I’d imagined possible.

As my own transformation unfolded, I found myself adopting a leader-coach approach with my team and senior stakeholders. Coaching became a way to bridge evidence and action, complexity and clarity, individual agency and collective change. It helped me lead not just with expertise, but with presence, empathy, and trust.

🔍 How Coaching Influenced My Practice as an Engagement Leader

Coaching fundamentally reshaped how I show up in engagement work. It deepened my ability to listen beyond the surface, to hold space for uncertainty, and to invite reflection that sparks insight and connection. Here’s how those shifts translated into practice:

Coaching Capability	Impact on Engagement Work
🧠 Listening & Presence	Tuning into the needs of the audience at a deeper level – what matters to them, and where is the common ground - surfacing tensions, hopes, and blind spots to shape engagement strategies and content.
💬 Powerful Questioning	I used questions to help stakeholders clarify their values, challenge assumptions, and connect evidence to what matters most in their context.
🌱 Holding Space for Complexity	By creating environments where stakeholders feel safe to explore uncertainty, sit with paradox, and discover insights that honour both data and lived experience, to identify ways forward.
🎯 Goal-Oriented Reflection	My approach supported teams and collaborators to align around purpose, navigate resistance, and commit to meaningful action together – delivering real-world impact.

🌍 Real-World Applications

These shifts weren’t just theoretical—they transformed how I led high-stakes engagement initiatives:

• Parliamentary Advocacy: By listening deeply to what drives parliamentary audiences - including the unsaid - I helped shape campaigns that led to dramatic uptake of environmental science evidence in parliamentary debate and decision-making. Coaching principles enabled us to move from presenting facts to building shared understanding and emotional resonance.

  
  

• Inclusive Public Engagement: I designed equitable programmes that extended environmental science engagement far beyond high science capital families -reaching hundreds of thousands more people. Coaching helped me centre curiosity, empathy, and agency, ensuring public dialogue insights influenced strategic decisions at the highest levels of the Natural Environment Research Council.

🌱 What Coaching Offers the Sustainability Field

Coaching isn’t just a personal development tool—it’s a systems change lever. It cultivates the relational intelligence, resilience, and reflective capacity we need to lead in complex, uncertain times. It helps us move from broadcasting evidence to co-creating meaning. And it empowers people to take ownership of change, not just comply with it.

In a world facing ecological and social tipping points, coaching offers a way to engage hearts and minds, not just policies and metrics.

🌟 My Commitment Moving Forward

I’m continuing to build my coaching practice, integrating it into my facilitation, strategic advisory work, and team interventions. I’m passionate about supporting purpose-led leaders and groups to navigate change with clarity, creativity, and care.

Whether I’m designing a collaborative summit, coaching a team, or supporting a leader to define their vision and the steps that will support them to deliver it, my aim is the same: to create spaces where evidence meets emotion, where complexity becomes possibility, and where people feel energised to act.

✨ If something in my story has resonated - whether you're growing as a leader or building momentum with your team – my coaching and facilitation offers might just be for you.

👉 Explore how we can work together

📆 Ready to take the next step? Book a free 30 minute chemistry call to explore your requirements and how I can help.