271: Why Naming Love in Coaching Can Transform Leadership with Clare Norman
Release Date: 12/01/2025
284: A Research-Led Perspective on Coaching Culture with Professor Jonathan Passmore
The AC Podcast
In the 6th episode of the Building Successful Coaching Cultures series, host Rosie Nice, is joined by Professor Jonathan Passmore to explore what it really takes to embed a coaching culture within organisations. Drawing on decades of research and practice, Jonathan unpacks how a coaching culture goes beyond individual interventions, becoming a default way of thinking, leading, and interacting. He highlights the value of aligning leadership intent with everyday behaviours, and the importance of extending coaching principles across all levels of an organisation—not just within formal...
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283: How Putting People First Built a Coaching Culture and Business Success with Charlotte Hurst
The AC Podcast
In the fourth episode of our Building Successful Coaching Cultures series, host, Rosie Nice talks to Charlotte Hurst to reflect on her time leading Farsight Consulting and how a simple intention - to build a great place to work and deliver outstanding client outcomes - evolved into a deeply embedded coaching culture. Despite not starting with a grand design, the company expanded from a small tight-knit team into an organisation of more than 140 people, where coaching became the backbone of how quality, learning and growth were sustained. ‘We realized more and more over time that...
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282: Why Leaders Need a Coach’s Perspective with Jan Doyle
The AC Podcast
How do you move from telling your team what to do to truly empowering them? In this episode host, Rosie Nice sits down with Jan Doyle, a specialist in leadership coaching and organizational development, to explore what it really takes to embed coaching into teams and organizations. Jan demystifies the idea of a coaching culture, drawing a clear distinction between professional, ‘pure’ coaching and the everyday coaching approaches leaders and managers can use to unlock performance. At the heart of the conversation is a powerful mindset shift: moving from telling people what to do to...
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281: From Blame Culture to Coaching Culture: Kuoni Tumlare’s Journey with Felix Gaehwiler
The AC Podcast
In the third episode of Building Successful Coaching Cultures, host Rosie Nice, speaks with Felix Karl Gaehwiler, an adaptable and pragmatic leader driving Business Transformation for DMC Europe at Kuoni Tumlare. Felix shares a candid look at life inside a blame-driven sales culture—where responsibility was always pushed outward, energy was low, and while people were functioning, they weren’t thriving. The team was stuck, unhappy, and disconnected. Change began when a new Head of Sales, Tim, introduced a coaching-led approach. Rather than giving solutions, Tim first listened—to...
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280: Transforming Sales with Coaching: Insights from L'Oréal
The AC Podcast
The second episode of Building Successful Coaching Cultures explores what it really takes to embed a coaching culture inside a high-performance sales environment. Host Rosie Nice is joined by Jo Richards, Head of Education at L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty, who shares her first-hand experience of shifting sales leadership from a traditional, directive management style to a sustainable coaching-led approach. Together, they unpack the realities of introducing coaching within fast-paced, target-driven teams—without compromising commercial results. Jo discussed the cultural and...
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279: Empowering Performance: Building a Coaching Culture from the Ground Up
The AC Podcast
In the first episode of Building Successful Coaching Cultures series, host Rosie Nice speaks with Anna Skeats, CEO of the Rainy Day Trust and former CEO of The Mason Foundation. From her early career supporting vulnerable communities to building a national charity from scratch, Anna’s leadership has always centred on empowerment over direction. Anna challenges the myth that coaching cultures tolerate underperformance, sharing how coaching approaches actually create high-performing, effective and motivated teams by encouraging the skills and strengths already within individuals and...
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278: A Day in the Life of Amanda Pennington and Chris Bibbo: Inside Their Shared Life and Coaching Practice
The AC Podcast
In this episode of our A Day in the Life series, host Maxine Bell interviews new coaches and life partners Amanda Pennington and Chris Bibbo. They share their journeys into coaching after long careers in the nonprofit sector and reflect on how coaching supported them through major life transitions, including a bold move from the USA to Portugal. The conversation offers an honest, inspiring look at how coaching helped them navigate uncertainty, personal change, and professional reinvention. Amanda and Chris also speak candidly about the realities of building a coaching practice, from...
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277: Reflections on our 2025 Podcasts
The AC Podcast
Join host Rob Lawrence, for a special, inspiring episode where we bring back all six hosts from our 2025 podcast series to share their incredible journeys. This heartfelt conversation dives into their experiences, insights, professional and personal growth, as well as the ripple effects of stepping outside their comfort zones to share their passions. Our 2025 episodes covered diverse yet deeply connected and important topics, including: · Self-Awareness: Insightful Tools for Growth: Explore a range of self-awareness tools for growth. ...
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276: Why Love Matters in Coaching with Helena Clayton
The AC Podcast
In this solo closing episode of the Love in Coaching series, Helena Clayton weaves together the key themes from previous conversations, reflecting on how coaching is evolving beyond performance-driven outcomes towards deeper, more human-centred practice. She explores the importance of coaches doing their own inner work — developing self-awareness and understanding how personal histories and relationships with love shape the way we coach. Helena considers the ethical and relational implications of bringing love into coaching, including flexible contracting, empathy, and the courage...
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275: Tenderness, Mutuality, Bravery: Redefining Coaching Relationships with Ian Mitchell
The AC Podcast
In this episode, our host Helena Clayton is joined by coach, supervisor and coach trainer, Ian Mitchell for a rich and thoughtful conversation about the place of love in coaching. Ian shares his journey from the financial sector into coaching and supervision, alongside insights from his research into spirituality and love in leadership. Together, they explore what it means to bring love, intimacy, and tenderness consciously into coaching relationships, and why these qualities matter in work with leaders and coaches, particularly in our troubled world where the desire for meaning and purpose,...
info_outlineIn this thought-provoking episode, host, Helena Clayton sits down with coach, supervisor and author Clare Norman to explore the transformative power of love in coaching, leadership, and organizational life. Drawing on their 15-year professional connection, they unpack how love—specifically agape, unconditional love—differs from empathy, compassion, and care, and why naming love explicitly can shift the depth and quality of coaching relationships. Claire shares real-life examples about how coaching and supervision becomes a deeply human-centred practice when viewed through the ‘lens of love.’
Together, they explore the practicalities of integrating love into coaching and the ethical boundaries needed when working with themes that can intersect with trauma, mental health, and personal history. The conversation highlights how love can become a bold revolutionary force in organizations and a catalyst for improved workplace culture and humancentric leadership —while also reinforcing professionalism, ethical rigour, and psychological safety. This episode offers both challenge and inspiration for coaches and supervisors seeking to work more bravely and compassionately.
You will learn:
· How to introduce love as a professional coaching lens
· The importance of inner work for this work - in breaking down a coach’s barriers to being loving
· The importance of ethics and contracting when bringing love into coaching and supervision
'I notice an extra notch in myself as I’m listening with love or through a stance of love; there’s just something additive in that listening.'
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