Louise Sheppard

A highly experienced coach and coaching supervisor with over 30 years of business experience and a deep understanding of executive coaching, group and team coaching and coaching supervision gained from working with over 50 organisations globally.

About my practice

  • I work as an executive coach at board and senior executive level and with managers with high potential across the private and public sectors.

  • I carry out group and individual coaching supervision for internal and external coaches across the world.

Coaching style

Louise enables busy, talented leaders to have vital space to reflect upon their choices, think through strategic decisions and address their self-limiting beliefs. She builds trusting relationships with clients to support and challenge them to take the best path forward from their current reality so that they can reach their goals. Louise's approach works well for those who like to explore issues from a variety of angles, draw upon their intuition, are willing to experiment and value feedback and learning. Clients say that they feel invigorated, heard, enlightened and motivated following their coaching, and that they leave the sessions with clarity about what they want to do next.

Coaching strengths

  • Transition coaching to support executives stepping into larger roles

  • Developing effective leadership

  • Increasing influence and impact

  • Gaining clarity about career plans

  • Supporting senior women to realise their potential

Coaching supervision style

Louise believes that coaching supervision should be supervisee-led and the role of the supervisor is to provide a safe space for coaches to explore how they are affected by their clients, share ethical or boundary concerns, expand their use of relevant coaching tools and techniques to support the client's learning and development and discuss how to develop their coaching practices. Her approach is to work in a non-hierarchical way, encourage openness, support and challenge coaches and share her experiences and insights to accelerate coach development and safeguard client interests. Typical outcomes from a supervision session are that coaches will leave saying that they feel supported, clearer, energised to see their client and resourced.

Some recent clients

American Express, BAML, BP, Citi, Clifford Chance, Dairy Crest, Ernst & Young, First Data, GlaxoSmithKline, Goldman Sachs, Grosvenor, ICBC Standard Bank, Ince & CO, Institute for Government, KPMG, Legal and General, London Stock Exchange Group, Macquarie, McKinsey, Nabarro LLP, NHS, Permira, RBS, Talking Talent, Twitter, UBS, University of Worcester, Vodafone, Withers LLP and World Wildlife Fund.

Business and organisational experience

Louise started her working career at Unilever plc where she carried out a number of management roles in human resources covering employee relations, employee development and expatriate management. She then moved to Coopers & Lybrand as a management consultant and worked in their Commerce & Industry, Government Services and Financial services sectors advising on leadership development and change management. Louise has been a trustee of a national charity and is currently on the advisory board of a social enterprise, Rising Minds.

Qualifications and training

  • Professional Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring, Oxford Brookes University. Thesis title: How coaching supervisees can help and hinder their supervision.

  • MA in Professional Coaching, Middlesex University. Dissertation title: The issues that senior professional women bring to coaching and how coaches can best support them.

  • BSc in Economics and Politics, Bristol University.

  • Qualified to use Hogan inventories, Myers Briggs (steps I & II), FIRO-B and various

  • 360 instruments.

  • Accredited Executive Coach with the Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision(APECS).

  • Member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).

  • Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Geography

Louise is based in London and works with clients globally. Some of her coaching and supervision is face-to-face in London, but where this is not feasible, she provides virtual coaching and supervision sessions using telephone, Skype, Live-meeting and video conference for executives and coaches.