Background
10Eighty offer the Space + Time programme, supported by a team of expert coaches, in conjunction with national law firm Browne Jacobson. This is a dedicated executive coaching programme which offers support to c-suite level business leaders to ensure that they are working to the best of their abilities, covering issues such as leadership, prioritisation, horizon scanning and key decision making.
The Assignment
Our client, Heather Key, became the Chief Legal Counsel at Serco three years ago. A qualified lawyer for over 25 years, with Serco for eight years, she heads a team of 15 people. She is a generalist lawyer; previously she was Head of Contract Services at Serco.
She’s also been a trustee and, for the last three years, chair of a charity. While in that role she brought in a new CEO and built a new trustee board and strategy data points before handing over the reins.
Now Heather is moving into a new role as General Counsel at VIVO Defence Services Limited. She doesn’t have a team but is working directly with the CEO as part of the senior leadership team.
Coaching Fundamentals
10Eighty’s CEO, Liz Sebag-Montefiore, collaborated with Heather on the coach selection and chemistry process, helping to clarify her needs and arranging chemistry sessions.
The coaching sessions were a blend of a high-level arc across six sessions and session-by-session co-creation, with Heather frequently bringing live topics (e.g. 90-day plan feedback, MD check-ins, 360 feedback) to coaching discussions.
Each session opened with a brief recap of commitments and space to adjust for new priorities. The structure helped maintain momentum and accountability as coaching progressed.
10Eighty’s Approach
10Eighty’s executive coaching programmes are tailored to individuals. We collaborate with clients to help them understand what they need to do more of (or less of) to grow for the future. We provide flexible support, enabling clients to explore choices, options, and aspiration to maximise their potential.
Heather had received coaching at an earlier stage in her career. Since taking on a new role as GC and joining the executive leadership team, she requested a coach who would challenge her “the way an MD would,” rather than a purely nurturing style. She chose to work with Nigel Holland of 10Eighty.
Nigel is an executive and team coach who helps leaders to build their capability and transform their performance. He has successfully coached in a variety of business sectors, and his coaching is informed by his own extensive senior international leadership experience. Nigel has three decades of international business leadership experience in senior executive positions, operating at the highest organisational levels, and has helped to profitably grow businesses in a variety of blue-chip organisations such as Kraft, Boots and Tata.
Nigel’s coaching approach is focused on finding different perspectives to challenges and opportunities, which then results in behaviour change and action. An empathetic and credible sounding board, he is able to offer a point of view which often helps leaders quickly see new possibilities and move forward. His areas of specialism include enhancing individual self-belief, improving influencing capability, and helping teams and boards become more effective.
Coaching Expectations
Our client sought challenge, executive presence, and impact, and help to “show up” well in a new context. She deliberately chose a non-lawyer to gain an MD’s perspective, as she wanted to push herself outside her comfort zone.
She specifically sought a confidential, independent space to “download” thinking, test perspectives, and sense-check priorities. Her focus was on support with prioritisation (what to press on versus ease off) and communication (how to articulate ideas so they land), as well as protected reflection time that leaders rarely carve out, prompting daily habits such as brief morning check-ins on personal needs and priorities.
The Outcomes
Following Heather’s coaching sessions with Nigel, we asked her what she had learned about herself through the process. She shared that she was pleasantly surprised by how quickly a strong rapport was established, and how the coaching offered focused, thought-provoking challenges from the outset.
The early work explored her personal brand, values, and storytelling – helping her to reflect on essential questions: “Who am I? What do I want? And how do I tell that story?”
She also appreciated the early 360 input (via email interviews), which afforded quick insight into impact and growth areas. The experience reignited her interest in becoming a coach herself.
At the outset of the coaching process, Heather set out what success would look like and was specific about wanting clarity on where the challenges would be and how much she could lean into them to give her the growth she needs.
Client Feedback
We asked Heather to identify behavioural change as a result of the coaching process. She reports increased confidence and a calibrated challenge style, alongside greater leadership maturity and gravitas, without losing her positive, “glass-half-full” character.
Heather finds she can set clearer boundaries around delegation (“that’s not mine; I’ll support and train, but X owns it”), with a visible ripple effect whereby others are becoming more proactive and confident.
She is building and embedding a culture of trust and challenge and is offering mentoring to colleagues.
Heather also reflected on how coaching helped her address issues which may otherwise have affected her performance at work. She worked through new-starter dynamics, including landing well, building trust quickly as a General Counsel, and shaping her executive presence.
She is able to clarify “what I want to be known for” (her brand and story), enabling consistent impact and stronger relationship-building. She also identified that coaching reinforced the idea that kindness includes having hard conversations, even upward.
Her performance at work has been enhanced as a result of coaching due to greater clarity, confidence, and daily impact; colleagues are now actively seeking her out for energy and perspective. Additionally, Heather’s motivation has increased. While already highly motivated, she finds that the coaching sharpened her focus, confidence, and “ripple” mindset – considering longer-term outcomes of actions, not just quick wins.
She believes the coaching has had a direct beneficial impact on her work in terms of clearer leadership signals, a stronger culture of trust and challenge, improved proactivity across teams, and visible behavioural change in others receiving coaching.
The other benefits Heather attributes to her coaching work with Nigel include her decision to pursue coach training (subject to role developments) and an ongoing commitment to mentor others. She also feels she enjoys increased visibility and influence beyond her role through speaking, networking, and modelling psychological safety and ethical leadership.
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