Polly Downes is a London-based Executive Coach and Facilitator who works with a variety of corporate clients across the UK and Europe. Her passion for helping others to become the best person that they can be, honouring their ability to come up with the best answer for them, drives her approach to coaching. She is able to build trust and rapport with her clients, allowing them to explore their thoughts and their way of being; she encourages her clients to take risks and to think differently. Polly is a challenging coach. This can result in transformational and life changing moments for her clients. Through coaching her clients find clarity in their thinking, purpose and happiness. Polly believes that one of the greatest benefits of coaching is self-reflection; she builds the safe, still place for her clients to be able to to self reflect:
“We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see”. (Taoist proverb). Polly coaches on a 1:1 basis as well as with groups and teams. She has trained in Structural Dynamics and is able to use the skills she gained to facilitate group workshops, allowing clients to see how their interaction impacts their performance. Polly can coach clients in many areas such as leadership, managing people, confidence, returners, the first 100 days in a new role, transitional coaching, coping with loss, achieving goals. Polly trained with Barefoot Coaching. Some of her most recent clients have included: American Express, the National Theatre, National Air Traffic Control, LinkedIn. Before becoming a coach, Polly worked for FT.com for over a decade. She was a member of the team who took the newspaper online for the first time, working in corporate relationship and strategic solution roles. She has acted as Vice Chair of Governors in an inner-city London school for over ten years. When Polly is not coaching or busy with her 3 (almost teenage) children, she enjoys cold water swimming at any time of year!
