Practitioner Diploma / “For me there’s nothing like practice and rolling up your sleeves to learn and develop new skills”

George Bruell has more than 30 years’ experience of working across business and the arts. With a degree in immunology and an organ scholarship from Cambridge University, his career has spanned investment banking, strategy consulting for a food ingredient and technology multinational and running communications and media at a world-class opera house. We were delighted to speak to him about his experience of coach training with the AoEC and his segue into the field of executive coaching.

Your career has been very diverse, spanning finance, strategy, business development and general management across a range of sectors, commercial and non-profit. Who or what introduced you to coaching and led to you signing up for coach training with the AoEC?

I’ve always been curious about how well framed questions can have a potential for making a positive impact. Sitting in meetings, participating in exchanges with colleagues and friends I’ve noticed the people I’ve warmed to and admired most are those who seem able to pose a question that helps deepen awareness, draw out insights or move a conversation to a deeper level. For me this is very much at the root of what value I believe coaching can offer, both to individuals and organisations.

I’ve had two specific experiences in my career when I was the fortunate recipient of coaching. Both of these - in different ways - had a transformative effect on me, my life and my career choices. One was when I was anticipating a big career change (from strategy consulting to the performing arts sector); the other was supporting me following a promotion and a taking on number of new challenges and responsibilities.

Following these experiences I was curious to learn more about what this coaching thing was, what it could offer and what lay behind its potential for making a positive change. I researched a number of different coaching training providers. I decided on the AoEC diploma because of its emphasis on practical learning and the opportunities it provides to apply the learnings through work with clients. For me there’s nothing like practice and rolling up your sleeves to learn and develop new skills.

What were some of the positives and challenges you experienced while doing the diploma?

One of my objectives from the diploma was to maximise opportunities for learning alongside the other participants. Working with some wonderful peers there were many opportunities to experiment and listen. Also sometimes to laugh and fail, all of which served to help my learning as well as my enjoyment and engagement. I found all the exercises (including the writing assessments) very helpful in supporting my learning; in particular they equipped me to think about how to marry my skills and experience with a coaching approach I might take for the future. 

Participating in the diploma helped remind me of the importance of building time for reflection. For me it was important to find the space to apply perspective to my practice. Within this – and personal to me – was the challenge and encouragement to trust myself. As one faculty member would remind us: your aspiration as a coach is to be “real not perfect”.

What is your top advice to others considering coach training?

If you want to make the most of the opportunity my advice would be to engage as fully as you can, bringing your full self and set of experiences. By this I mean less about your time – the actual hours required are not onerous - and more about your mindset. 

As I reflect back, I realise I entered into the training in part to acquire a new set of skills and coaching tools; I wasn’t disappointed and certainly this objective was met. More than that I found that the learning is far more profound and long lasting if you spend the time to reflect on what it is you bring from your own set of unique experiences and talents. With the help of further refinement these can develop into the gifts you offer of service to your future clients.

Maybe an example can help illustrate: I’m very much a visual thinker. I use metaphors and analogies to explain complex things, whether technical, commercial, emotional or other. The challenge for me as an aspiring coach was how I can I use this preference to help clients deepen their understanding and evoke greater awareness about themselves in our work together. What is it that I can bring in terms of metaphors and analogies that will help a client delve deeper into more difficult and complex issues?

The other advice I’d offer is be prepared to be vulnerable. There may be times you feel slightly uncomfortable or ‘de-skilled’. For me that was an important part of the learning and development process.

To quote one faculty member’s wise words: “We do the work on ourselves in order to have the privilege to do the work with others”.

Looking back at doing your diploma, what has been its lasting impact on you as a person and you as a coach?

It’s one year since I completed the diploma so it’s difficult to judge in full. 

Inspired by what I learned and experienced I’m continuing to work on finding a deeper and greater capacity for listening, in particular providing ‘attention’ - a gift for those I engage with, both within and outside of a coaching setting. I’m increasingly struck by the positive potential that a high level and quality of listening and attention can have on someone.

Can you tell us more about your personal coaching model and how this has evolved since doing the diploma?

My coaching model is based on building a working partnership with a client. In my mind I have five groups of components to this and use the metaphor of a hand with five fingers that reaches out in service to my client. I use all five components to order the work and achieve the balance and flow needed towards building a person-centred partnership with the client. 

My five groups of components, following from thumb to little finger, are Trust | Agreement | Work | Reflection | Actions. Both systemic and behavioural approaches to coaching are important influencers to my model, particularly where changes in behaviour and/or thinking habits (typically in an organisational context) can often surface as part of the work with clients.

You now work as a self-employed executive coach, advisor and consultant with your own company; can you tell us about the type of clients you are working with?

I have a portfolio of consulting and voluntary work and am adding a coaching practice to this. I’m adopting this both explicitly with coaching clients as well as more implicitly, informing the way I work across all my work. For example, within my portfolio I serve as a non-executive director and volunteer for some different organisations; I’m increasingly understanding the value a coaching mindset can help to frame well considered questions and an approach that enables the executive team to do their job most effectively. 

I particularly enjoy my coaching work in areas where the commercial and creative worlds meet. I’ve recently taken on my first organisational client in the performing arts sector which I’m very excited about, working to help the next generation of leaders of a leading London-based professional music ensemble.

What are some of the issues and opportunities you coach people around?

Many of my clients are working through a transition in their career or life, some following a recent promotion with new responsibilities, others looking potentially for a career change. A lot of them arrive feeling somewhat ‘stuck’ and feel unable to change the situation they find themselves in. More often than not, I find progress is made when the conversation starts to move from the ‘issue’ to the ‘person’ and a client starts to recognise what they have within themselves to make the positive changes they feel they need to progress.

Can you share a success story or testimonial from one of your clients that highlights the impact of your coaching?

After a handful of meetings with each client I ask for direct feedback. I have found this helpful both to inform how I can continue to develop my approach and work, but also to encourage me around what is working or what could be done to be more effective.

One specific success story relates to a long-standing client who is a CEO of an international education charity. In the time we’ve worked together I’ve seen a significant positive shift in their self-belief and capacity to make changes to their behaviour and thinking patterns, all of which have benefited her, her team and her organisation. She recently shared: “George is an insightful coach, often using wonderful metaphors and questions to help untangle complex challenges. Working with George has been a gift, helping me to find my feet during a time of scaling and growth for my organisation.”

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a coach?

That precious (and sometimes rare) moment when a client makes a breakthrough in the pattern of their thinking, perceiving something in a different way to how they’ve ever done before. It’s a genuine privilege to witness.

Our deepest gratitude to George for sharing his personal journey and experience of coach training at the AoEC. You can reach out to George here.