I work with executives, leaders and managers to harness the power of purposeful leadership and engagement to raise performance and create an environment where everyone can excel. We shine a mindset lens for you to raise your inner sustainability that gives you the capacity to deal with life and work's increasingly complex systemic environment and challenges. We start with raising awareness with a focus on meaning, purpose, values, strengths, motivation and passions, to create the foundations for you to be more effective, analyse your current situation and clarify where you want to be and how you will get there, both personally and professionally. This values-based approach creates a core compass to facilitate positive decision-making, sustainable change and wellbeing for both individuals and the organisation. It also serves as a foundation to recognise and draw on your strengths and see where you align with, and can be motivated by, the purpose and values in your team and organisation.

Working in this style raises your inner sustainability and your unconscious knowledge about "who I am and what is important to me" into your conscious thoughts which raises your self-worth and courage to take action. Things becomes clearer and it becomes a lot easier to make choices and decisions, be confident and resilient, and to deal with whatever issues brought you to coaching in the first place. Occasions where this approach is particularly useful are for coaching around broader purposes such as career, leadership, a crossroads in life, better life/work balance and integration, confidence and a wide range of issues in work. It is also particularly relevant for business owners who gain most sustainable motivation for their business when it aligns with their personal purpose. This approach helps me inspire my clients to be motivated by helping them find clarity about their own personal purpose, focus on what is important to them, be confident they are doing the right things and to value time they invest in re-energising themselves and doing things they enjoy.

Methodology Coaching areas in which I specialise include leadership, engagement, confidence, mental toughness and resilience and emotional intelligence. Coaching works best through conversations with a purpose. I use a wide range of methods drawn from traditional coaching, solutions focused coaching, emotional Intelligence, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), business and strategy models, team and leadership models, and systems thinking, choosing elements that are relevant to support you in the topic under discussion at that time. I use a range of tools that help you develop awareness, confidence and the motivation and commitment to turn your plans into reality. These include a proprietary frameworks that support you as a leader, manager or executive to focus on priorities, engage your people, create high performing teams, maintain balance in all realms of your life, and many other topics as required. For career coaching, I have a number of additional frameworks that help you clarify what you love in your work, your purpose and aspirations for your career and life, and how to banish stress and find fulfilment.

I use psychometric and other profiling tools to help you gain objective insights and self-awareness, including self-reporting style questionnaires and 360 degree feedback. From an organisational viewpoint, profiling at both the start and end of a coaching period can be a useful method to demonstrate the changes brought about by coaching. Rather than being overloaded by attempting everything at once, I recommend selecting profiles that will be most relevant to your situation and what you want to achieve through coaching. (Contact me for more information.)

Session Style and duration Some clients prefer a more structured session, others prefer it less so, and I aim to match my style to your needs, preferred learning style and so on. Session duration can last 45 minutes to 1.5 hours or occasionally longer depending on what we contract for, and that will be effective for you to achieve your objectives.

Location for 1:1 meetings Many clients prefer remote coaching sessions as it makes it easier to fit into a busy schedule. Others prefer physically meeting together in person, and this brings a different dynamic to the session. Both formats provide valuable coaching insights. Whether we meet in person or remotely (by telephone, Skype, Zoom, Teams, other apps), I recommend being in a neutral venue where you will not be overheard, which is more likely to create a safe space.

I recommend we meet in an informal space where you feel comfortable but is not your usual home or workplace. This helps you to step out of your usual thinking patterns and focus, which gives you different perspectives and more illuminating insights. When we meet in person, we often meet in a private meeting room, hotel lounges and cafes. We can walk in beautiful spaces such as an art gallery or outdoors in nature when the weather permits. Edinburgh is blessed with beautiful outdoor spaces, from Princes Gardens in the city centre, to Holyrood Park and Blackford Hill on the edge of the city, and we can also meet further out at the Pentland hills or the beautiful beaches towards East Lothian. Our environment and whether we are sitting or walking, changes the way we feel and think and that makes a difference to the outcomes of the session!

An important part of what makes the coaching partnership work well is a good relationship between you and me as your coach, where we feel comfortable and can have open, honest and trusting conversations. This is vital as we may talk about things which you would not normally talk about with other people. As part of my commitment to creating a an emotionally and psychologically safe space to talk and reflect, I maintain full confidentiality about our work together.

When coaching is sponsored by the organisation, during our initial "contracting" 3 (or 4)-way meeting, we will establish guidelines about confidentiality and information flow, which are critical to develop trust between the coachee, coach and other stakeholders. We will agree what information the organisation requires regarding the coaching and the coachee either reports themselves in a review meeting or reviews information before I report to the organisation. All parties need to understand and respect the delicate balance to protect session content and maintain constructive dialogue with the organisation sponsoring the coaching sessions.

Any information about the coachee and the organisation that emerges during coaching sessions will be treated in strictest confidence.

Sue Mitchell, PhD
Has experience coaching clients at many levels, including business owners and aspiring to senior managers, executives and board members in small, medium and large organisations in the private, public and third sectors.

Delivers 121 coaching as well as training and development in coaching skills and leadership.

Uses a broad range of coaching approaches, tools, techniques and models which enables her to be flexible and tailor her coaching approach to suit each client's individual needs. These tools include models, techniques and frameworks from a wide range of theoretical backgrounds, including coaching theory, organisational theory, psychology, psychometrics, learning and NLP.

Coaches in accordance with the Association for Coaching Code of Ethics.

Has coaching relevant qualifications: Diploma in Corporate and Executive Coaching; NLP Business Practitioner; Certificate in Performance Coaching; Psychometric Licensed User: Emotional Intelligence (EQ-i2), Leadership Styles (ILM72), Mental Toughness (MTQ48); Facilitation skills; Communication skills. Her first degree included Psychology and behaviour.

Takes part in on-going continuing professional development(CPD) by attending training courses and seminars, reading publications and contributing to the Association for Coaching (AC) events.

Has coaching supervision to maintain best practise. Supervision is a formal, independent process of reflection and review

Is a member of the Association for Coaching (AC) and adheres to the AC Professional Body ethics for coaching. She is a member of the Professional Speakers Association and was the Regional President of PSA Scotland in 2019 to 2020.

Maintains Professional Indemnity Insurance through a Professional Civil Liability Insurance with Oxygen, with an indemnity limit £3,000,000.

Aeona Limited is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for data protection (registration number Z1331417)