The Co-working Companies Coaching Programme has been developed by coaches on the Science and Technology Partnerships and Enterprise Team to provide 1-1 coaching to support the staff in our campus-based community.
“Unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”
Whitmore, (2003)*
The purpose of Coaching is to have a series of one-to-one conversations with you, with the aim of helping you to explore some work based/business related challenges, and allow you to gain new insights and make progress toward specific goals in your working life.
During coaching, the coach will ask thought-provoking and challenging questions and listen and provide feedback in a non-judgemental way. The process of coaching is designed to help you explore the options available to you and to give you new insights and perspectives on the topics that you choose for coaching. A coach will not advise you on what to do but support you to reach solutions that are right for you, and to identify actions which you commit to carrying out.
You can read more in our blog What Coaching is All About and How it Can Help You.
Coaching can support a variety of development needs at any time, including getting up to speed with a new role, managing priorities, career planning, stress management, and returning to work after an absence. It can:
You will be allocated one of our coaches and offered three Coaching sessions. Coaching sessions last one hour, and can take place on Teams, but preferably in person.
Before beginning your coaching sessions, you will meet once with your coach for an introductory session to discuss the topics that you would like to bring to coaching and ask any questions you have about it. As coaching requires some time within working hours, we ask all coaches to gain approval from their line managers to receive coaching. The content of the coaching sessions will remain confidential.
Coaching sessions will be conducted in cohorts, the first from January to April, and the second June to August 2025. We are over-subscribed for the first cohort but welcome applications for the second session at any time before the deadline, noon 16th May.
Any staff working for companies taking up office space or hot desks in the Lancaster Environment Centre, cTAP, and the Health Innovation Centre are eligible to take part in The Co-working Companies Coaching Programme. Places are limited and fully funded at no cost to the company. Priority will be given to companies who have not received coaching through the Programme, although applications from companies who have received coaching through previous rounds are welcomed.
Please complete the short application form, indicating the topics you would like to consider for coaching and indicating that you have line manager permission to receive coaching.
Please submit your coaching application online for the second cohort by 5pm, Friday 21st November 2025.
If you have any questions, or would like an informal chat about how Coaching could benefit you or your team, please contact Amanda.
“It was great to be involved and something I found extremely useful. Thank you to the University for letting me partake in such a beneficial programme and a huge thanks to Amanda who supported me throughout the whole process both within and post-session. She helped by following up each session with valuable materials she thought might come in handy to me, most of which I’ve already started to use in day-to-day work. She also had a great way of challenging me but in a supportive manner and making me think outside the box on multiple matters we raised in the sessions. I also can’t thank her enough for her work with me on looking to the future and my plan as I progress in my career.”
“I found that the opportunity to have a discussion in a safe environment about workplace obstacles and my objectives was incredibly valuable to help me reframe and clarify my current position and goals with some guidance from Amanda. One of the main benefits was being challenged on my beliefs and thinking patterns that I had fallen into without realising it. I also benefited from a sense of accountability to make meaningful progress on my actions in between sessions.”
“I found the process of coaching really useful as someone relatively new to the working world with lots of responsibility. The main benefits were having an external person to listen and help me to understand the different options for addressing work place issues. Rachael is a really great listener and made me feel completely at ease when discussing work issues.”
“I have already recommended the program to my colleagues. It’s important to have opportunities for personal development at work, especially when it’s not offered. The coaching program helps to facilitate this."
“I had a very pleasant coach, but my coach was also getting to the point. I find I got challenged very well but also very gentle, so recognising some limits that I wanted to overcome was a soft landing. I am grateful for that.”
“Coaching can help clarify your thoughts and plans and help you see connections across your work in new ways. It shows you that with the right space and support you do have the answers within you!”
“With the coaching programme, I got a better understanding of my current situation and managed to challenge myself in a constructive way to keep improving my professional career and future endeavors.”
“I found the coaching very useful the benefits were having someone to listen to your ideas and goals and provide tools and steps to help you to achieve it with actionable outcomes. This helped me to strengthen my reflection skills, and I believe I am better for having completed the coaching.”
“My coach, Amanda, made me feel comfortable from our very first session and encouraged me to make the most of the coaching, without it ever feeling pushy or pressuring. I quickly found myself looking forward to the sessions, simply because it was so enjoyable to chat with her. At the same time, she is highly professional and clearly very skilled at what she does.”
“A fantastic opportunity and of great benefit. The coaching helped me to see a way through some thorny professional and personal issues and had a great impact on both my thinking and action - with some highly positive unexpected outcomes!”
“Really useful, especially as I was at a time of uncertainty and unsure what to do next in my work life.”
“Coaching provides you the time within your busy week to focus on yourself, your thoughts, and feelings. It reminds you that you exist to be happy and can break the draining cycle of negative thinking in the workplace. You are challenged to spot things that are within your control to change in companies where change can be limited and a lot is outside of your control, because it focuses on your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions.”
I am a coach, facilitator, science and technology marketer, conductor, musician, and wellbeing champion. From these areas I bring my wealth of experience of communications to listen to, connect with, and help people deal with difficult situations, to access information, and to make progress in ways which feel comfortable to them.
This ranges from supporting individuals through their challenges through coaching, mentoring and marketing consultancy, facilitating peer-to-peer problem solving in groups through Action Learning Sets, exploring and celebrating the voice through vocal workshops, choirs and bands, speaking about wellbeing and raising awareness about sources of support, to marketing campaigns to help businesses access innovation support from multi-million pound global projects.
My personal approach as a coach is characterised by my openness and inquisitiveness. I use my ability to quickly develop a rapport with people, creating a safe space for them to share their problems, hopes and dreams, and help them to focus and translate these into tangible, achievable, and often life-changing goals.
I gained the Institute of Leadership and Management Level 5 in Coaching and Mentoring in 2019 and joined the Lancaster University Coaching Bank, which offers coaching to all Lancaster University Staff. I also have a MA in Applied Research and Consultancy, Institute of Leadership and Management Level 5 Leadership and Management, and over two decades experience of working with Small and Medium Enterprises. As part of the University’s Coaching Community of Practice I receive regular supervision and training to keep my practice current.
My clients have included people across a variety of sectors, roles and levels in their careers, from new starters, to Heads of Departments.
I am a coach with a background in project management, marketing, event management and business development. I look forward to coaching on the Co-working Companies Coaching Programme and I will work collaboratively with you, to help you to explore your chosen areas for development effectively.
I have completed a Coaching Professional Apprenticeship (Level 5) with BPP/Grant Thornton which qualifies me to become a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Coaching Council and I am a coach through the University Coaching Network, where I receive continuous professional development and coaching supervision.
I have coached people from different backgrounds and at different stages of their working lives, which include Project Manager, University Administrator, Doctoral Researcher, CEO, Business Owner, Early Career Researcher.
I'm currently working at Lancaster University as a Student Engagement Officer, where I support businesses in involving students in their organisations, through internships or graduate roles.
I spent five years living and working in Denmark in a Marketing and Business Development Role for a Smart Textile Company which combined software engineering with textiles to produce innovative sensing garments.
I also worked at the University of Cumbria as Project Manager for LEAD Programme, a Business development programme for SME Owner managers.
If you have any questions about The Co-working Coaching Programme, please contact Programme Manager Amanda Ross.
*Whitmore, J, (2003), Coaching for Performance, Fifth Edition: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership, London, Nicholas Brealey
