What was going on in your business & life when you began to work with Megan?

My manager had just announced their notice, and the Head of Sustainability role opened up. In my mind, I was still maybe a couple of promotions away from having that opportunity, so when I was asked about going for this role, there was a bit of doubt alongside the excitement - Am I actually professionally and emotionally ready for this? Can I step up and lead a team?

At the same time, I'd noticed a shift in myself. When I was fresh out of university I really wanted to live to work; I was excited about going in every day and finding meaning in it. But I wasn't sure if my mindset was changing; that it was just a job, and there was so much more fun outside of work. I was starting to feel like the day job was heavy on reporting and light on the stuff that felt like real impact, and the line between work time and personal time had started to blur in ways I didn't want to normalise. 

What I really wanted from the VIP Day was to feel like I could make decisions for myself. Not just in the context of this promotion, but more broadly. I wanted to be clear on what was actually mine- my values, my ambitions- rather than defaulting to what was presenting as the obvious or expected next step.

What hesitation or concerns did you have about working with Megan?

As is always the case when engaging someone new, I was concerned about whether it would be value for money. I felt a pressure to grow quickly but also the expectation from my employer that I could do that on my own. I think there was also a stigma around (fee-base) coaching, and the assumption that I could find a volunteer in the industry to coach me with the same results. Although I hadn’t undertaken any professional coaching previously, I knew I needed structured guidance, and having now worked with Megan I completely disagree that someone untrained can provide the same results!

What specific results have you achieved?

The most obvious one is that I got the promotion. But a lot of what's changed is less visible than that.

I feel a lot more confident now making decisions, whereas previously I was much more likely to wait for someone else to sense-check me or have the final say. I'm also becoming more efficient at working out when I need support and taking it to the relevant people, rather than sitting on things.

I've also been building out a support network I really didn't have when I started. I've had conversations with senior leaders in the business, connected with women in the industry, started exploring finding a mentor, and joined a group of senior women within the business. Some of these felt like small steps at the time, but they've shifted how supported I feel day to day.

With my team, I went into one-to-one meetings and asked them how they felt things were going, specifically inviting feedback rather than assuming. I'm glad I did that early on, because it provided some reassurance that the decisions I have been making so far have been supported by the wider team.

I am more confident today than I expected myself to be at this point. I still have a lot to figure out, but I feel better placed to do it.

What did you like most about working with Megan?

Megan balanced knowledge and resource sharing with quiet reflection and probing questions, giving me the space to draw out my feelings in a safe environment. She brought both rigour and warmth to each session, helping me move from uncertainty to clarity at a pace that felt entirely my own. 

As a more general comment to working with a coach, I appreciated having someone to hold me accountable to the actions we set initially after the VIP Day, and subsequently each week during my first 90 days in the new role, for which I extended coaching with Megan. I found the structured, regular sessions were what I needed to feel fully supported during this transition into a position of leadership.

What was the biggest thing that you took away from working with Megan?

The accountability piece was massive for me. Having someone there to say “what have you done differently this week?”, that changed things. I took actions I genuinely don't think I would have taken otherwise, or not as quickly!

But beyond the accountability, I feel like I've crystallised a lot of thoughts I couldn't bring together on my own. Things that were rattling around in my head without a shape. The values work in particular landed in a way I didn't expect: understanding that central to me is my individuality, my freedom, and that that has to play into how I make decisions. That wasn't something I'd ever articulated before. Now I can use it as a filter. It makes things simpler, even when the decisions themselves are complex.

There's also something about learning to build a support network proactively. I knew it was missing, but I was waiting for it to materialise. Realising that I needed to go and open those doors myself, and that they were actually there to be opened, was a real shift.

What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t worked with Megan?

Without the coaching, I would have kept circling around professional development without committing to a direction. I'd have stayed vague about what I needed from my relationship with my new manager rather than taking concrete steps, and the support network I've been building wouldn't have happened - these all came directly out of conversations in our sessions.

What the coaching gave me, above all, was a regular space to think properly, not in the margins of a busy week, but with real focus. When you're in firefighting mode, it's very hard to step back and reflect at this level. I'm not sure I could have done that on my own when my focus was so much on getting to grips with the day-to-day expectations.

The other thing is confidence. Without somewhere to put my thoughts in order, I think I would have been far more reactive and less certain of my decisions. That sense of growing into the role and genuinely owning it wouldn't have come as quickly.

What obstacles or challenges came up in the months after the VIP Day, and how did the ongoing coaching help you navigate them?

Going into the VIP Day, a lot of what I was thinking about was quite abstract. Do I want this role? Am I ready for it? How do I stay true to myself in a more senior position? How do I become a stronger decision maker? These felt like the big questions.

What I hadn't anticipated was how quickly the ground would shift once I was actually in it.

Within weeks of starting the role, my team shrank significantly. My own role wasn’t replaced and a close colleague left meaning I had to deal with recruitment unexpectedly. I came into the new year still doing my old job alongside the new one, with less resource than before, heading into reporting season. 

The other thing I hadn't fully prepared for was adapting to a new manager. In the VIP Day we talked a lot about decision-making confidence and working upwards, but we were talking about it in principle. In practice I was landed with a manager who was completely different from my previous one. I spent a lot of the early months trying to work out how to get what I needed from them without either chasing constantly or going without. The sessions helped me think about it in a structured way: what did I actually need from my manager, what was I waiting for them to provide that they probably weren't going to initiate, and how could I just adapt around that rather than keep hoping it would resolve itself. Taking my manager's assistant out for lunch to understand their working style was one of the most useful things I did, and that came directly out of a session.

The other challenge that emerged, which I hadn't really named going into the VIP Day, was feeling unseen. Different to being ignored- other senior people in the office shared that they thought I was doing a great job and they left me to get on with it. But no one was asking what I was struggling with. No one was popping over to brainstorm. I'd just taken a big step up into a new role and it felt like everyone else was treating it as business as usual and there was no one actively alongside me in it. 

The coaching helped me see that I wasn't going to get that support by default. I needed to go and build it. And once I started doing that, it shifted things. Within a session of naming it, I'd gone and grabbed someone from the senior leadership team for a ten minute chat. I've always known I could do that- the metaphorical door was always open. But naming the gap out loud made it real, and that made me move. I’ve also found others in the business who have gone through similar transitions recently so I am being more proactive about checking in with them. 

What the ongoing coaching gave me that the VIP Day couldn't was somewhere to bring the stuff that actually happened, not the stuff I'd anticipated.

Who would you recommend to work with Megan?

Anyone like me going through a transition that they aren’t feeling wholly certain about. That might be a more junior person looking for a change in career trajectory, or someone more senior changing company or role. Unpacking the reasons for my uncertainties with Megan is something I really benefitted from. Talking with family and friends gave me some assurance, but working with Megan led me to crystalise my true feelings and values and map out what to do next.