I work with people who want to lead from choice, not default
Coaching and thinking partnership for leaders, teams and organisations who want positive change, but don’t want to lose themselves in the process.
“A coaching session is somewhere you can put everything down, look through it with fresh eyes and decide what to pick back up again, and what to leave behind.”
Emma Gill
I'm an executive coach, mentor and leadership development facilitator. My practice draws on a lifelong love of meaningful conversations - from my parents' landline to a boardroom. I value connection and curiosity, over small talk.
My Oxford Law degree taught me analysis, verbal reasoning, and that two things can be true at once. Strategy consulting and executive search showed me what organisations actually want — and the skills needed on each side of the interview table.
The NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme grounded me in people management at scale and spurred me on to specialise in talent development and coaching. Working in organisations like Great Ormond Street proved to me the power of purpose and how to navigate the gaps between leadership theory and reality.
What carried through every move, and what I love most now, is the work I do today: coaching that combines empathy, intellect and pragmatism.
One thing I’ve always been able to do: see potential in others. Help people articulate their strengths in a way that feels authentic and persuasive, weed out blockers, find choice where they feel stuck, hold them accountable with a no-nonsense kindness. For me, like many of my clients, the harder work has been turning the championing, compassion and pragmatism inwards. Offering generous assumptions and good leadership to myself, as well as to others.
When I came back from maternity leave, I wanted to pull everything together: to apply what I’d built across sectors, and practise what I preach. The way I speak to myself will likely become my daughter’s inner voice. I wanted to role-model empowerment, not role-play it. Self-compassion, self-trust and agency as prerequisites — not rewards earned after the fact. Purpose Coaching & Development came out of that.
The thread running through everything, and the heart of the With Purpose framework, is staying self-aware (not self-conscious) and translating insight into action. Coaching that helps people lead well without leaving themselves behind.
Outside of work, I seek out nature wherever East London allows, and answer Yorkshire's call to come home and walk in the woods when I can. My daughter and I bake, write stories and craft together. I also pretend to myself that I enjoy running, sign up for half marathons and the odd full one, remember too late that I loathe it, promise never to do it again. Then the endorphins kick in and the cycle starts again.
How I work
My clients are leaders — individuals, teams and organisations — investing a lot of time into developing others and problem-solving. There aren’t many moments for them to stop and reflect, to consider what they want instead of what they ‘should’ do. The default is to keep going, waiting for headspace to come.
Coaching provides that headspace. The opportunity to define what’s important to you, identify where you have choice and translate strategic thinking into action.
Change works paradoxically: the more you try to be something you’re not, the more you stay stuck. The more you accept who and where you are, the more likely change becomes. So we start from your reality — your resources, skills, experience — and build forward from there towards goals that mean something.
There are three live questions that run through all coaching and development With Purpose:
Why? Your purpose.
What? Your actions and choices.
How? The pragmatic practices, habits, and the string of choices and actions one after the other that forge your path from where you are now to where you want to go.
The With Purpose approach
With Purpose is the coaching and development philosophy running through everything. Its premise: leadership and careers are journeys, not races — and not a one-way ticket.
Four principles shape it:
Travel with purpose, not on autopilot. Leaders set direction with intention and own the decisions that follow. Much of what feels like personal failing is actually systemic pressure. Seeing the forces that shape us, discerning what we can and cannot control, gives agency back and options for moving forward.
Impact without damage. Every journey leaves a trace: on people, on cultures, on the environment. Creating a legacy of leaving places better for having had you there.
Don’t abandon yourself. Take yourself with you. Many leaders leave parts of themselves behind to fit expectations or keep pace. Finding ways to stay authentic and intact: carrying and safeguarding your values, needs, and humanity wherever you go.
Meaning, pace, and joy are prerequisites, not luxuries. Fulfilment, rest, and recognition are not rewards you earn after success. They are part of the journey itself.
The framework applies across all formats: 1:1 coaching, team development, and organisational programmes.
Credentials
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Coach of Excellence, CPD Standards Office
Level 7, Executive Coaching & Mentoring, Institute of Leadership & Management, 2020
Group Coaching Programme, Barefoot Coaching, 2025
Facilitated Conversations Practitioner
Diploma, NLP, 2018
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PG Diploma in HR Management (CIPD-accredited), Leeds Beckett University, 2015
Post Graduate Certificate, Healthcare Leadership, Open University, 2014
Certificate in Leadership Foundations, NHS Leadership Academy, 2013
DiSC Accredited Facilitator
360 Feedback Facilitator
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BA (Hons) Jurisprudence, Balliol College, University of Oxford
Who I work with
I work with people who want to lead and choose with intention, for themselves, their teams, and the systems they're part of.
Individuals.
Career and leadership treated as one journey, because the live questions of leading well are usually the same questions that shape a sustainable career. Senior leaders looking for an ongoing thinking partner. Professionals at inflection points: promotion, partnership, return from leave, a purposeful pause.
Values-led, people-first organisations.
The senior leaders shaping change rather than reacting to it, the high-potentials being asked to step up, and the teams holding it together. Great Place to Work certified or aspiring.
NHS.
National and regional bodies, Provider Trusts, and ICBs supporting staff and leaders through ongoing change and sustained pressure. Retention, sustainable senior leadership, and progression that closes inclusion gaps, so culture commitments turn into something staff can feel.
What ties all three: high potential people willing to recognise opportunities as well as challenges, and to lead from choice rather than default.
Your next steps
If any of this sounds like you, your team, or your organisation, there are a few ways we can work together.
• For individuals: 1:1 coaching services.
• For organisations: 1:1 executive coaching, cohort programmes, team coaching, and workshops.
• For NHS commissioners: 1:1 executive coaching for senior leaders, team coaching for high potential senior teams, workshops and Train-the-Trainer career development.
A 30-minute discovery call gives space to talk through the change you want to make happen. My goal is for you to leave with:
• An experience of what coaching and With Purpose feels like
• More clarity on what you (and your team or organisation) want and need
• A clear next step - whether that's working with me or not.