Last week I went into my 10-year old son’s school to help out during a lesson on entrepreneurship. The feedback from Johnny (which he was keen to give me the moment he arrived home #timely) was that I spoke clearly and smiled and would “make a good business studies teacher” 😊

 

My initial feeling was one of relief that I hadn’t been a complete embarrassment to him (I’m all too aware that these days are numbered!). But I was also struck by how quickly he has stopped viewing me as a “lawyer”, and instead sees me as someone who “helps people in business”. He was alive for half of my 18-year legal career but has moved on very easily.

 

I suppose I have too. I refer to myself now and again as a “recovering lawyer”, but I do feel like the curtain has fallen on that Act (even though I still find the business of law fascinating (really!)).

 

At the start of a new coaching assignment, I will always ensure that my client is clear on the nature of the support I’ll be providing and the style of my approach – the so-called “contracting process” -, and it is always a nuanced discussion. But when I am asked by people I don’t know “what do you do”, and I tell them that I am an “executive coach”, invariably I am left feeling that this job description fails to capture the breadth and variety of what my work actually entails.

 

When working with a law firm senior associate looking to be promoted to partnership, the term holds up well (although, given my previous experience, some mentoring inevitably creeps in (with the coachee’s agreement, of course)); but this isn’t the case if I’m describing my work with a CEO contemplating the sale of their business (sounding board?) or a founder in the process of scaling up (consultant?)*. Fortunately the strapline I came up with a year ago – “Face the future with confidence and clarity” – still feels apt (no need for a rebrand anytime soon (phew)).

 

New executive coaches (myself included) get very hung up on questions like “what sort of coach am I?” or “who is my ideal client?”. As I contemplate the past year of self-employment, and how much I am enjoying myself, I have decided to heed some advice I received recently from a coaching mentor and banish any notions of “niche”. Instead I will continue to seek out opportunities to work with as many different clients as possible, to build with them relationships based on trust, empathy and respect, and to keep considering myself as someone who “helps people in business” (© Johnny Carlton 2021).

 

 

 

 

*I have even been called a “consigliere”!

Today I am very excited to be launching my website.

I first drafted the copy for this site at the beginning of 2020 – before leaving private practice as a lawyer, and before we went into lockdown (for the first time) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That was 8 months ago.

Why has it taken so long for the website to go live? The obvious answer might be because of the chaos the world was plunged into in March 2020. But that was not the case for me.

The coinciding of lockdown and leaving full-time work provided me with a period of relative calm. From April to July, when I wasn’t coaching, spending time with my family or completing my ILM assignments, I was thinking – about what sort of coach I was going to be and who I wanted to work with. The conclusions I reached, which I have summarised below, meant that, when I dusted off my website copy at the beginning of September, I realised that I was going to have to do a fair amount of editing.

The outcome of my reflection was that I want to put my “first career” to good use. I want my entrepreneurial clients to be attracted to me because of the 100+ deals I’ve worked on, and I want my professional clients to seek me out because of the success I achieved as a lawyer – both as a leader of people and a generator of business. I know myself well, and I know that telling people what to do is not what floats my boat; however, invariably my clients perceive that my experience is of value, and I want to be able to share this where appropriate.

My website is therefore geared towards:

1. people who used to be my clients (Founders, entrepreneurs and CEOs);
2. people who used to be my colleagues and peers (lawyers and other professionals); and
3. the work I used to do (private equity investments, M&A transactions and corporate restructurings).

I am really pleased with the result. I hope those of you who know me well will agree that the site feels authentic. The colour scheme is a nod to my Welsh roots*. The copy is clear, focused and upbeat. And the trainers are a neat symbol: not only do I literally (nearly) always wear trainers, I also feel that they represent the experience that people will get from spending time with me – relaxed, practical, no-nonsense and even, on occasions, fun.

I’m looking forward to the next step on this journey. Ymlaen**!

 

 

*Think flower, not dragon.

**Onwards!