Catherine Sandler

Catherine has worked in the field of leadership development for more than 25 years and is one of the UK’s most experienced executive coaches and coaching supervisors. She was a founding member of APECS in both Coach and Supervisor categories. She is based in London and works from the Sandler Consulting offices in Marylebone having founded the practice in 1998 (www.sandlerconsulting.co.uk). Along with a small team of coaches, she specialises in work with senior individuals at Board and Director level across all sectors. Clients include FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies, leading professional partnerships, SMEs, public sector organisations and charities.

In both her coaching and supervision practice, Catherine combines an in-depth understanding of individual and group psychology with a business perspective and a strong focus on practical results. She has established a reputation as an unusually skilful and proactive practitioner who enables her coachees to shift longstanding but unhelpful patterns of behaviour and transform their leadership effectiveness. She is particularly known for her work with complex or challenging individuals, including those with significant behavioural issues or in severe emotional distress.

Catherine is a leading authority on the psychodynamic approach to executive coaching but also draws on a wide range of other models and tools, including 360 degree feedback and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®), to meet her clients’ development needs.

Catherine has taught at several leading educational institutions including London Business School and INSEAD. At LBS she worked as an associate from 1993-2001 where she coached on multiple internal and company-specific programmes. In 2000 she helped establish group coaching at INSEAD’s Global Leadership Centre and taught on its flagship programme, Coaching and Consulting for Change. She has also been a teacher, consultant and PhD supervisor at the Tavistock Clinic in London. Her own doctorate is from Oxford University and she is also a qualified counsellor.

In 2011 her book Executive Coaching: A Psychodynamic Approach was published by McGraw Hill (Open University Press) as part of the ‘Coaching in Practice’ series. It was recently translated into Mandarin as the first in a series of coaching books selected for the Chinese market. This has led to Catherine running an ongoing series of coaching training programmes in Beijing.

Catherine has also written articles for a wide range of professional journals on topics including the emotional role of the leader in turbulent times, coaching leaders under pressure and tackling bullying at work. She speaks regularly on coaching-related topics at conferences, business schools and training courses, runs leadership development workshops for client companies and runs coaching masterclasses for coaches and allied professionals in the UK and abroad. She has been interviewed for features in the Financial Times and The Times on leadership and on executive stress.

As well as working with senior executives, Catherine enjoys working with entrepreneurs. She has considerable experience of helping those leading fast-growing SMEs to develop the leadership and people-skills they need as their companies grow.

Catherine also specialises in working with senior and high-potential women. Since 2008 she and her team have run highly-acclaimed programmes for senior and high-potential women, on both an open and an in-house basis, designed to enhance their influencing skills, build resilience and increase their leadership presence. She is in increasing demand as a speaker and commentator in this area.

From the beginning of 2017, Catherine is increasingly focusing her time on teaching and writing while maintaining an active but limited coaching caseload.