About Us
The Coaching and Leadership Academy specialises in high quality coaching and leadership development programmes. As a registered City and Guilds awarding body, we offer internationally recognised qualifications at ILM L5 and ILM L7 levels to support your career progression.
Simon Whalley and Helen Smith are experienced, qualified learning practitioners who can actively guide you to success. We are collegiate in our attitude, supportive in our approach, innovative in our design and methodical in our implementation.
Simons and Helen’s experience from diverse sectors ensure our programmes are engaging and linked to real world situations.
Simon Whalley
Simon has spent 35 years helping people to be their best selves. He is passionate about living authentically, caring for the environment and a visionary; enabling leaders and coaches to achieve their ambitions.
Simon works in the environmental sector, having held leadership roles with Natural England and Cumbria Wildlife Trust as well as running leadership programmes for the SMT of the Marine Conservation Society.
Simon is a keen conservation photographer, enjoys natural spaces and brings them into his work, reconnecting people with nature, and helping them understand the benefits of the outdoors.
Qualifications:
P.G. Diploma in Informal Education, MBA, PG. Diploma in Coaching, M.A in Photography. P.G Certificate in Environmental Management and Conservation, MBTI qualified. Member of the Association of Coaching, CIPD Chartered Member.
Dr. Helen Smith
Helen is a proven business growth expert and critical partner with over 20 years’ experience working with universities, business managers and entrepreneurs. Strategic rigour is part of Helen’s tool kit facilitating success by matching growth strategies with robust support plans.
Helen is passionate about assisting others achieve their goals using a coaching and mentoring approach and is dedicated to embedding quality standards to achieve business growth. Helen’s strategic areas are Team Development, Change Management, Coaching and Mentoring, Team Leadership, Problem Solving, Innovation, Leading and Building a Winning Team.
Qualifications:
DBA, MBA, BSc., CIPD Chartered Member, Senior Member Higher Education Association, Certificate of Education (Distinction), ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching and Mentoring plus Coaching Supervision, NLP Practitioner & Facilitator, Belbin Practitioner, ILM72 and MTQ48 Approved Assessor, Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, CMI Member of Association of Management and Education.
Helen combines expertise in coaching and leadership in her McGraw-Hill 2023 publication:
A Coach’s Guide to Team Building: Understanding Functions, Structure and Leadership.
Our Values
- Excellence – We aim for excellence
- Integrity – We say and do what we promise
- Action – oriented – We make things happen
- Passionate – We focus on what we are best at and do the best we can
Our Work
Our next ILM L7 programmes will start in late February and Sept 2024, they are about 12 months in length. If you are interested please contact us for dates, costs and for us to answer any other queries you have.
The courses are online, usually early evening sessions. All sessions will be delivered via a Team meeting link sent to you upon registration.
In addition to these above sessions, we will also arrange some one-to-one time to assist your progress with the assignments and starting to coach
Collaboration
Helen is a founder member of the Greater Manchester Coaching Hub supporting minority groups to meet GM Commissioning Authority leadership agenda through a lottery funded collaborative alliance. Further details on Enhancing Leadership
Helen contributes to the Coaching Supervision Partnership which indicates their ongoing commitment to CPD and continued learning.
Simon is the founder and a director of the Eden Valley Artistic Network, a network of 140+ artists in North Cumbria.
Simon was a founding member of the Steering Group of the Cumbria People and Nature Network, which aims to assist organisations and individuals to collaborate.
The Coaching and Leadership Academy 