CoachFest - Coaching for Diversity and Inclusion

Join us on Thursday 12 October to discover the latest insights from leading experts and join the discussion on diversity and inclusion. This is a great opportunity to meet fellow members of the coaching community and to grow your network.

During the day we’ll explore belonging and culture, as well as invite you to sessions designed to equip you with skills to build how you think about D&I as a coach. The day has been designed to help you immerse yourself in cutting-edge coaching thinking, research and practice.

09:00 - Registration

09:30 - Exploring and Connecting: Reflecting and Integrating through LEGO® Serious Play® with Stephanie Wheeler and Teresa Leyman

13:00 - Lunch break, Networking & Exhibition.

14:30 - Moving the Inclusion Dial in the Workplace: Engaging Coaches as Allies with Dr Jummy Okoya

15:45 -How Coaching can Rekindle Your Fire After Workplace Bullying and Gaslighting with Professor Claire Collins

16:45 - Close

This session will give you the opportunity to reflect deeply on what Diversity, Equity & Inclusion means for you and your practice and to expand your awareness and thinking by listening to others' experiences and perspectives. You will take part in a number of individual LEGO® builds which will form the basis of small and big group reflections and conversations. You will leave with fresh perspectives and a clearer idea of what changes you want to explore and put into place moving forward.

We are so much more aware these days of the importance of a positive organisational culture to engage employees i.e. us. To ensure this, it is vital that everyone feels valued and committed to their work. However, there are still too many managers who operate a bullying regime, or who are gaslighting their staff. This can lead to demotivation, reduced performance, and poor mental and physical health.

Coaching offers a good route back to finding resilience, confidence, and renewed enjoyment of work. It can also build strategies to tackle the bullies and improve the overall workplace climate.

This session will explore ways to tackle bullying and gaslighting, and to build strength and confidence to flourish at work.

Coaches play an important role as change agents as they create an environment where people can be heard, feel more confident to speak up and add value. Research points to the importance of creating an inclusive environment, where individuals feel supported and able to speak freely. This workshop will focus on your role as a coach and how you can leverage this privilege to help move the dial on inclusion in the workplace. As well as gaining a deeper understanding of your role as an ally, you will:

• explore the power of privilege and how to use it to promote inclusion
• be provided with practical approaches to stimulate conversations to address the inclusion challenge in the workplace
• discuss the role of coaches as allies and how to contribute to promoting an inclusive culture
• understand how to use coaching questions to stimulate inclusion conversation.

Both Stephanie and Teresa hold an MSc in Coaching for Behavioural Change from Henley and are ICF accredited. Stephanie has published academic articles related to playfulness in coaching, is a LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator and curates the coaching section of the LSP Magazine. Between them, they have experience of hi-tech companies (Teresa) and law (Stephanie), and together they co-coach teams with a focus on creativity and play.

They also run workshops and offer 1:1 coaching and mentoring for coaches wishing to infuse more playfulness into their life and practice. Stephanie and Teresa’s book on playfulness in coaching is due to be published by Routledge in early 2023.

Claire was previously a Professor of Leadership and the Academic Lead of the Army Higher Education Pathway. She researched and taught leadership and leadership development with a special interest in diversity and inclusion, quiet leadership, coaching leaders, leadership derailment and women in leadership.

Outside academia Claire worked with organisational and academic clients from the private and public sectors before joining Henley Business School. She has 20 years' experience in the NHS, firstly in a scientific role and then in senior management in a large acute trust. She later became CEO of a London law firm. She has also enjoyed some years as an independent consultant and coach and combined this with being a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Nursing Institute. Claire is an accredited and experienced business coach working with a wide variety of senior clients.

Claire taught Leadership and Change on all modes of MBA. She managed a partnership with the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and delivered modules for the Reading Researcher Development Programme, specifically Leadership for PhDs. She has expertise in the design and delivery of programmes for external bodies in areas of expertise, providing consultancy and outreach to the Office of Communication (Ofcom), Amnesty International and the University of Oxford. This consultancy covers regular training and consultancy on diversity issues and a leadership training for Postdoctoral Fellows.

Jummy Okoya, a multisector leadership development and positive psychology educator and consultant, has over two decades of experience focusing on EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) and employee wellbeing. She is the lead EDI consultant for Cambridge Judge Business School and a leadership coach at both London Business School and Saïd Business School.

As a thought leader on EDI, she has recently been appointed as the Academic Director for inclusive practices and Chair of the Women’s Network at the University of East London. She also facilitates leadership development programmes for senior women at AstraZeneca.

Jummy holds a PhD in Human Resource Management and Entrepreneurship, an MSc in Business Information systems, and an MSc in Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and a chartered academic member of CIPD. Jummy is also a certified Leadership Circle Profile 360 assessment tool practitioner and a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coach Federation . With a number of nominations and accolades for her work, Jummy has been listed among the top 10 Diversity Allies for education in 2022 and, in 2019, one of the top 50 inspirational black women in the UK. She was also nominated for excellence in diversity in higher education in 2017 and has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship for her contribution to executive education by University College London.