Dr Caroline Horner

“When I became the head of the UK business of a global organisation (headquartered in Malaysia), I shifted from being in the business to leading it. A confident ‘doer’ I was a slightly under-confident leader. I sometimes felt like a toddler bumping into walls. I recognised I needed support to develop and succeed in the role.Caroline’s friendly, no-nonsense approach suited me. She is easy to talk to. She listened and played back my feelings and thoughts succinctly. With her, I built my confidence by uncovering my values and communicating my expectations to the team.Caroline balanced my needs and those of the organisation. For example, we focused on enhancing the skills needed to interpret unspoken organisational signals. I stepped back from being a ‘doer’ and became a strategic, holistic facilitator, meaning my team and I could develop together.Coaching enabled me to better direct, reflect and engage to drive the business forward. I doubted my ability to succeed in this role before. Now I can say (and people can see) that I’m confident, comfortable and doing well. Investment in the site was totally off the table two years ago but I’ve just secured its largest ever investment.Embracing open-mindedness helped me get the most from coaching. Taking a deep breath and space to consider how I’m doing, how I feel and what's going on for the team has made me a better and more confident manager, leader and person.”

Richard Town

General Manager at Sime Darby Oils

“Working with Caroline was transformative during my shift from 'doing' to 'leading' as a managing director. Caroline's guidance, especially in a region with few peers, provided a supportive and insightful partnership. Her practical observations led to tangible outcomes, emphasising the concept of guided learning for both short-term solutions and long-term benefits.Caroline excelled in challenging areas like change conversations and employee optimization, offering a non-judgmental approach that brought new insights to decision-making. Our positive connection extended beyond work issues, with Caroline's ability to reframe discussions and balance freedom and focus making our partnership highly effective.Caroline's coaching style fosters an exploratory mindset, surpassing the expectation of learning specific skills. Her inviting conversation style encourages comfort and productivity in each engagement. In summary, Caroline's coaching catalysed personal and professional growth, going beyond expectations to create an environment for meaningful behavioural changes. I wholeheartedly recommend her transformative and exploratory coaching.Contrary to my initial expectations, Caroline's self-guided approach to coaching was refreshing and we covered a great deal in the course of our conversations. She adeptly navigated the conversation's flow, creating moments for reflection.”

Jim McMullin

Vice President, Call of Duty (International) at Activision Blizzard

“Caroline is both a kind and challenging coach. She has a lovely style where she’s able to help you reflect quite honestly on what you want to improve and develop, whilst feeling supported. She very quickly got to know my team and was able to detect personalities and dynamics in a way that helped me think about how to lead them best as a team. My team enjoyed the time with her and felt she was really invested in helping them as well as me. She’s able to seamlessly move back and forth between the big picture ‘how am I showing up as a leader’ to the tactical and tangible ‘how do I do x, y, z with my team for this specific intervention’. I wish I had been able to set a clearer ‘I want to achieve these two things and measure progress’ but there were some significant unexpected changes in my world during our engagement. Caroline was super responsive and flexible to adapt to what I needed, and she helped me grow as a leader in a new role. The questions she asked me would often pop up in my head throughout the course of my work and helped me navigate many situations. I have valued our time together and would jump at the chance to work with her again.”

Jen Baxter

SVP Strategy & tech transformation at GSK

“I worked with Caroline over a period of around six months when I was Chief Executive of the National Infrastructure Commission, and she made a huge difference in helping to navigate the move from being a (relatively senior) cog in a large organisation to being wholly responsible for a smaller one. She was fantastic at helping me examine my own leadership style and the patterns of thought that underpinned it, to help me build on my strengths and - critically - to identify strategies to deal with the areas where I habitually avoided challenge or conflict. She also helped me work through my priorities for my next role, which directly informed my move to the GLA. Caroline is an excellent coach - her approach is thought-provoking and reflective, but she is not afraid to make concrete suggestions where needed, whether to provoke a reaction or unlock a way forward. To benefit from working with her, you need to be prepared to enter into a genuine process of self-examination and to be challenged about your own motivations and decisions, although the work became more concrete as the process went on. The sessions were not always comfortable - Caroline was prepared to probe underneath initial, instinctive responses - but they were richer for that reason. I would thoroughly recommend her.”

Philip Graham

Former Chief Executive National Infrastructure commission

“Feedback from colleagues suggested they couldn’t quite make out the real me. Rising rapidly into leadership, my persona was unflappable, formal, and direct. A colleague in HR said they’d never seen me stressed. Initially flattered, I realised that what they were really saying was that they’d never seen my human side.This was the impetus for coaching. I wanted to be less formal and more authentic. Relaxed leaders are better leaders after all. I met five or six potential coaches. On paper, what made Caroline stand was her experience working with global leaders across different industries. In person, what stood out was phenomenal skill at listening. The other coaches were excellent, but they spoke a lot more and listened far less.At first, I reverted to my professional persona but Caroline quickly broke that down! We immediately began to explore the power of vulnerability for leaders. We identified my values and my strengths. Understanding what makes you tick will get you closer to a life that makes you happy. I resonated with Caroline’s approach of leveraging strengths rather than focusing on areas of weakness. Caroline responded to what was going on in my life, which meant the impact of coaching stretched beyond my job.For some, the idea of coaching might seem like going to the dentist and doctors at once. Self-reflection can feel uncomfortable but it’s like going to the gym: you have to bear the discomfort, keep showing up, keep building muscle.Post-coaching, my organisation has a leader who values authenticity and knows themself better. People have taken notice. I’m more relaxed and I’m clearer about the future. In addition to my current role in global marketing, I’ve moved into the investor relations space - something I wouldn’t have done before coaching.”

Senior Global Marketing Director Pharmaceuticals

“Curious about my potential and ambitious to fulfil it, I expressed an interest in executive coaching to my Line Manager and Chief People Officer. As someone on the organisation’s leadership fast-track, they were happy to invest in my development and encouraged me.Throughout my career, I acquired leadership skills predominantly through mentoring and self-directed learning. I had an enriching coaching experience several years ago and I felt the time was right to seek the guidance of a coach again, one who could help me delve deeper into my purpose, be the best version of myself, equip me as a future global leader and contribute to my organisation in new ways. In Caroline I found that.During my very first meeting with Caroline, I valued her honesty. She didn’t say ‘yes’ to everything. In a warm and engaging way, she articulated her approach which aligned with who I was. Crucially, she also understands cultural nuance and has extensive experience working with global leadership, a space I plan to step into.Our conversations were always practical. From understanding the techniques leaders need to step back in order to let those they lead flourish. She told me that I didn’t need to read more leadership books. I should trust what felt right for me.My strengths have become amplified and my concern with impressing others has reduced. She encouraged me to trust in the value of being myself.My line manager reported that the CEO has seen a stark difference in me. My ability to read the room, demonstrate empathy and put my listening skills to use are all much more apparent. I think more broadly and horizontally than before.You have to be curious and have a mindset of wanting to learn. To get the most out of coaching, you must be ready for the conversation, to be resilient and responsive. Difficult questions will confront you and make you feel uncomfortable, but it’s all about moving forward. This investment in myself has enabled me to leap forward.”

Associate Director in Retail

“I transitioned from being a frontline leader in nursing to chief of staff, to sitting round the executive table as assistant director. Those are big jumps! If the trajectory of your career and background is similar to mine, you might encounter others who doubt your ‘right’ to take a seat at the table. You might even doubt it yourself.Through coaching, my leadership has developed in myriad ways. For example, I have a much wider view of the organisation and the context in which we operate. I’ve developed my capacity to hold more than one perspective. I know how essential it is to take a moment to pause and reflect before reacting.But perhaps the most important and confidence-enhancing thing to come out of my coaching experience was that it made my value-add clear: not just to others, but to me too.Caroline was a good fit for me: I resonated with her methodology and we established a rapport and connection almost immediately. She made me feel comfortable to speak freely and show vulnerability in a way I’d never done before.Caroline helped to bring my strengths, and the value of my experience, into much sharper relief. I became much clearer about who I was as a leader: a strategic thinker, with a naturally empathic approach. We never dwelled on weaknesses as weaknesses. We treated them as opportunities to strengthen my leadership.What coaching – and a skilled coach like Caroline – offers is a supportive space to focus on yourself. If you want to develop as a leader, a protected place in which you can talk, reflect and be constructively challenged is vital.In our conversations, Caroline played back what I said in a way that made me realise new things about myself. In particular, that I was my harshest critic and that I needed to show myself much more self-compassion.Like many others who step into leadership roles and acquire significant responsibility, work dominated my life and I lost the balance I needed. Working hard, wanting to learn as much as I can and striving for success will always be fundamental parts of who I am, but I now have that perspective which tells me when I need to pause, take a step back or delegate, which are essential components of effective leadership.”

Assistant Director NHS