Phases
Position · Bearing · Passage
Cadence
Reviewed every 90 days
Format
90-minute working sessions
№ 01 — The Method
A named method, because improvisation is what you already have. Three phases, fixed in order, written down, and reviewed against reality every ninety days.
The first two sessions establish position without flattery: what the role actually demands, what the organisation believes about you, which of your habits got you here and which are now liabilities. Helen writes it up as a Position paper — one page, in your language, yours to dispute. Most clients say this document alone was worth the engagement; it is the first time anyone has told them the truth in writing since the promotion.
A year at executive level offers a hundred plausible priorities and rewards about three. Bearing is the discipline of choosing them: which relationships must change, which decision you are avoiding, which part of the old job you must visibly put down. The bearing is written, dated, and — where there is a sponsor — shared. Ambiguity is where coaching engagements go to drift.
The remaining sessions work on the actual job as it happens — the board paper due Thursday, the underperformer everyone inherited, the restructure you now own. Each session ends with a committed action; each begins with what happened to the last one. Every 90 days, progress is reviewed against the bearing, in the open.
Section 02: When it isn’t working
Every engagement carries a 90-day review at which either party can end it — no notice period, no remaining-sessions negotiation, no awkwardness mortgage. Helen has ended engagements at review herself, twice, with a refund for unused sessions and a referral to a better-suited practitioner.
Coaching that cannot be ended cleanly stops being coaching and becomes a subscription. The review is in the engagement letter, in writing, every time.
Questions to ask any coach
Section 03: Begin
Thirty minutes with Helen. No preparation, no deck, no follow-up sequence. You leave with a written note on what she heard and whether — honestly — coaching is the right instrument.