It’s a little word, isn’t it? Relevance, aptness, usefulness. If presence is the foundation, and practical wisdom is the store cupboard we can draw from, relevance is an orientation.
What’s going on here?
Our coaching has been refined and has been honed in the crucible of many years of lived experience. The lived experience of listening to people, hearing their stories, working with them as they make sense of their experience. We have worked with a huge number of people from different backgrounds, in all kinds of settings. Relevance drives the conversation to ask constantly, ‘What’s going on here?’
We’ve found that effective leadership starts with an openness to context. Leaders look around them, they appraise what they find, and open themselves up to the realities of their situation in order to confront what is present – that’s relevance! Relevance is about applicability, availability and currency. To be irrelevant is to be out of touch, off-point, detached or distant. In our coaching we want to focus on the concerns that are pressing, address the issues that prompted the recognition that you need some outside support, get close to you so we can see the world through your eyes and then strategise with you to start getting some traction. Relevance holds your feet to the fire, doesn’t let you drift off, doesn’t let you be comfortable in your denial.
Asleep at the wheel?
Coaching expert Dr David Drake suggests a powerful metaphor for what can happen to people without some direct (and relevant) help – he says all of us are prone to falling asleep at the wheel. So, what we need is someone to work with who can wake us up and catalyse us to action:
‘Narrative coaching offers people the opportunity to pause, become more aware of their stories, and make new choices. In the process they can let go of old stories that no longer serve them and develop new, more mature, stories that do. It is about awakening so that we do not fall asleep at the wheel.’
Drake, David, Narrative Coaching: The Definitive Guide to Bringing New Stories to Life (CA, 2018)
Relevance describes our orientation to you – we are here to listen, to explore possibilities and purpose, to harness your own resourcefulness and resolve. We are here to ensure you don’t fall asleep at the wheel and enable you to pick up the pen to start re-writing your own story.
About us
We are a team of highly experienced executive coaches, focused on developing leaders working in high-stakes environments across diverse sectors. We create space for leaders to step back, think clearly, and navigate complexity with confidence and renewed purpose. Our narrative-based approach blends deep listening, incisive questioning and rigorous thinking with a strong commercial focus.
“Our Knowledge Centre is designed to resource leadership practice and development. The articles we share on this site are intended to spark fresh thinking, offer practical tools, and support continuous professional growth.”
Jude Elliman
Founder
Our approach
We work with leaders to build their leadership brand and impact. Our approach includes:
✔ Challenge and support: creating time and space for rigorous thinking and problem-solving
✔ Narrative coaching: defining and refining the stories that shape leaders and organisations
✔ Commercial focus: cutting through complexity for strategies that inspire change and drive results
We help leaders make crucial decisions, align teams for greater effectiveness, and envision new possibilities for the future.