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Nick Oakley-Smith

Nick has worked coaching individuals across a very broad range of sectors including financial services, professional services, luxury goods, retail and utilities as well as having worked in the public sector.  His current clients include Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Simmons & Simmons, Ernst & Young, John Lewis, LVMH, Parfums Christian Dior and The European Investment Fund.

Nick brings a great range and flexibility to his approach which, in addition to his individual coaching, sees him designing and delivering coaching and leadership programmes in the UK, Europe and the United States.  In addition to this, Nick has worked as a Senior Associate for the Judge Business School (Cambridge University’s business school) in designing and delivering programmes on leadership and coaching.

Throughout all the work that he does Nick is passionate about helping individuals become more aware of themselves and the context in which they operate so that they can take greater levels of responsibility for themselves and those they lead or influence.  His own approach is based on seeing business and life as an interactive experience rich with meaning and purpose which is continually challenging us to learn, grow and perform.  His own learning has helped him to understand the “black holes” that individuals and organisations fall into and how to convert these into learning so that they can fulfil more of their potential.

His approach is very practical and in coaching individuals he is adept at helping them become more aware of themselves, their impact on others and the elements that interfere with them being able to perform or fulfil their potential. He is also skilled at helping individuals understand the motivations of others and develop strategies to adapt to these, allowing them to resolve conflicts and bring the best out of themselves and others.

Before creating his own company Nick was Director of Leadership and Executive Development at Ernst & Young.  Whilst with Ernst & Young, Nick had responsibility for designing and implementing an organisation wide talent management programme for future leaders within the firm as well as working on the design and implementation of the firm’s assessment and development process for transition to partnership.  This latter saw him involved in designing and running master classes and extensive coaching of candidates.  His approach focused on helping individuals become more deeply self-aware and unlocking their genuine potential.  He brought a unique perspective to helping individuals make sense of their experiences and transform them into learning.  As part of his role Nick was also responsible for coaching senior teams and individuals across the organisation and for troubleshooting teams and individuals that were struggling.

In 2000 Nick spent 4/5 months with CEA, an education consultancy, which was the pilot organisation for private outsourcing of Local Education Authorities and took over Islington LEA.  He was engaged as Change manager and Coach for the core team overseeing the transition of the Local Education Authority to private ownership.  Whilst there, Nick was responsible for helping to manage and for coaching the transition team and for coaching and setting up the new management team.

For a number of years Nick has been chairman of a local charity which runs a Steiner school, Farm and property portfolio where he has put his learning about leadership and emotional intelligence into practice.

Nick is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.  He is also a qualified assessor for the Reuven Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory, a qualified consultant for Corporate Tools, a cultural measurement system and also a qualified instructor for Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.

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Steve Knight

Chartered MCIPD, HG.Dip GHGI

Steve is a learning and development specialist, focusing particularly on coaching and leadership.  In addition to his work running coaching and Leadership programmes Steve also works extensively as a one to one coach.  He is experienced as a facilitator and coach in supporting individuals and teams through change. He has an eclectic approach to change and learning drawing on a wide range of approaches from many sources.

Steve is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. He also holds a Human Givens Diploma from Mindfields College.  He is qualified to use a number of psychometric tools, including MBTI (steps 1 & 2), FIRO B the Emotional Competence Inventory (Hay) and OPQ. He is a licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and uses this extensively to anchor the work that he does with people and teams. Steve is particularly focused on helping people to understand and take a holistic approach to development and change - recognising and working in an emergent way to raise self awareness.

Steve has worked with a wide range of clients in a number of different sectors.  His work has seen him running coaching programmes for leading financial services and professional services firms as well as facilitating and coaching teams and individuals through change.  He has also designed and run leadership programmes for the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.  He is currently involved in running leadership and development programmes with the Metropolitan Police and the Football Association as well as being involved in a transition coaching programme for new leaders where he is responsible for coaching individuals in their first year of transition after being appointed into senior leadership positions.

Prior to becoming a consultant Steve was the Director of Leadership Development for Ernst & Young where he was responsible for formulating the firm’s approach to developing its future leaders. This included leading a project to re-engineer the firm’s approach to the development and assessment of senior managers coming through to partnership. He was also responsible for overseeing the introduction of an Accelerated Leadership Programme for people identified early in their careers as having the potential to become future leaders.

Clients have included:
• Allen & Overy
• Lloyds TSB
• Leadership Foundation for Higher Education
• Institute of Chartered Accountants
• Birketts
• Nandos
• Ernst & Young
• Football Association
• The Metropolitan Police
• John Lewis

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