Executive Coaching
For CEOs, MDs and senior operators carrying ultimate responsibility. A confidential space to think about strategy, people, judgement and the things that are difficult to say out loud anywhere else.
- CEO
- MD
- C-Suite
- Board Director
Tides is an executive coaching practice for the founders, leaders and operators of growing UK businesses. One-to-one work, leadership team coaching and group supervision for senior people who need a quiet, considered place to think about the decisions that matter.
One-to-one and team work for the seats that carry the most weight. Each offer is structured, but the cadence and depth are shaped to the person and the moment in front of them.
For CEOs, MDs and senior operators carrying ultimate responsibility. A confidential space to think about strategy, people, judgement and the things that are difficult to say out loud anywhere else.
For founders building, scaling or stepping back from the business they started. Held with a respect for what the company is to you, and a clear view of what the role now asks of you that it didn't before.
Sustained work with small senior teams — usually four to nine people — on how they think together, decide together and hold each other to account. Not facilitation. Coaching of the team as a unit.
A focused six-month engagement from week one in a new senior seat. First-ninety-days work, listening tour design, stakeholder mapping, and the personal shifts that come with stepping up.
Small confidential groups of senior leaders, meeting monthly, to bring real situations from the work and think them through together. Held by a senior coach. Quiet, demanding, and remarkably useful over time.
Most senior leaders do not need more advice. They need a room where they can hear themselves think clearly, and someone steady enough to stay in the difficult parts of the conversation with them. Working principle
Coaching here is contracted, not open-ended-by-accident. Three shapes cover most engagements; we will tell you which one fits before you sign anything.
Short, focused engagement around a specific situation — a decision in front of you, a relationship that needs reworking, a transition you are inside. Six sessions, contracted around the outcome.
The default. Twelve sessions across six months gives enough time to do real work, not just first-layer work. Most one-to-one engagements begin here, with a clear review at the midpoint.
After an initial six-month engagement, many clients move to a monthly rhythm, reviewed every six months. Held lightly, contracted clearly, and useful for the long arc of a senior career.
Every engagement, sponsored or private, runs through the same four stages. The work begins properly at stage three.
A free thirty-minute chemistry call. We talk about the situation, the seat you are in and what you are hoping coaching will do. You leave with a clear sense of whether this is the right fit, without obligation.
A short written contract covering scope, shape, confidentiality and (where relevant) a three-way agreement with the sponsoring organisation. Nothing begins until this is signed by everyone involved.
Sessions, typically ninety minutes, every two to three weeks. Work between sessions is part of the contract. Pace, depth and direction are reviewed openly, not just at the formal review point.
A structured review at the midpoint and the end. What has shifted, what is still in motion, what should come next. Honest about what coaching can and cannot do for the situation in front of you.
What founders, CEOs, HR directors and individual leaders usually want to know before beginning a piece of work with Tides.
Founders, CEOs and senior operators of growing UK businesses, and the leadership teams around them. Most clients are running organisations between fifteen and a few hundred people, or are inside a larger group carrying P&L responsibility for a division. We also work one-to-one with senior leaders buying coaching privately, on their own contract, separate from their employer.
One-to-one engagements typically run for ninety minutes, every two to three weeks, by video. In-person sessions are available in Cornwall and London by arrangement, and occasionally for an agreed offsite. Leadership team work is shaped to the team's cadence — sometimes a full day every quarter, sometimes a shorter monthly rhythm. Everything is contracted up front so you know what you are committing to.
Yes. Confidentiality is the default and it is the reason coaching works. Nothing said in a session is shared with a sponsor, an investor or a board without explicit, agreed permission. Where a session is sponsored by the organisation, we contract a three-way agreement at the start so everyone knows what will and will not be reported back.
Considered and direct. The work draws on systemic, psychodynamic and behavioural traditions, but the session itself is not theoretical. We use the time to think well about the actual decisions, relationships and patterns you are inside. Where it helps, we will name what we are observing; where it is more useful to stay quiet and let you think, we will.
Most one-to-one engagements run for either three months, six months, or open-ended on a monthly basis after an initial six-month contract. Leadership team work is typically a six- to twelve-month rhythm. New-in-role transition coaching is often a focused six-month block from week one in the new seat. Nothing is signed without a chemistry call first.