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Professional and Research Mentoring

Mentoring offers a setting in which experience, expertise and reflective conversation can be brought together in support of professional growth.

Unlike coaching, mentoring includes more direct sharing of knowledge, perspective and practical guidance. It is particularly valuable when individuals or teams are entering unfamiliar territory, developing an area of work, navigating professional transition or seeking an experienced external perspective on the challenges faced.

I provide mentoring that is thoughtful, relational and responsive to context, drawing on senior leadership experience across universities and work with schools, dioceses and other purpose-driven organisations. The purpose is not to prescribe a single way forward, but to help people draw upon informed guidance while developing their own confidence, judgement and capacity.

Individual mentoring

Individual mentoring provides sustained support around a particular role, project or stage of professional development. It may be helpful for those who are:

  • taking on a new leadership, academic or professional responsibility, including headship, trust leadership or a senior diocesan role;

  • preparing for promotion, increased responsibility, or managing a significant career transition, such as after redundancy or retirement;

  • moving between sectors, for example from school to university, or from a single institution into system or trust-level leadership;

  • developing a piece of work with a clear external test, whether that is a grant application, a publication, a REF submission, an inspection, or a governance or accountability review;

  • seeking greater clarity about professional identity and direction;

  • managing the competing demands of leadership, expertise and organisational life.

Much of this work draws directly on prior experience within universities, supporting academics, researchers and professional staff with research development, publication, career progression and institutional change. The same approach applies just as directly to leaders in schools, multi-academy trusts, dioceses and other faith-based and public-purpose organisations, where the underlying questions - of judgement, timing, capacity and responsibility - are similar.

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Team mentoring

Teams sometimes need more than facilitation or training. They may benefit from an ongoing relationship with someone who can help them reflect upon their work, learn from experience and develop greater confidence in their collective judgement.

Team mentoring can support:

  • newly formed or changing leadership teams, in a school, trust, diocese, university or other organisation;

  • teams preparing for a significant external moment, such as an inspection, review, REF submission or governance change;

  • teams working across professional or organisational boundaries;

  • colleagues seeking to strengthen collaboration, shared purpose and mutual accountability;

  • groups developing a strategy, curriculum, publication or new area of practice.

The work may involve a series of structured conversations over several months, creating continuity while allowing the focus to develop as the team's work progresses.

Every mentoring relationship begins with a conversation about purpose, expectations and the kind of support that would be most useful. At its best, mentoring helps people feel less alone in demanding work - offering the benefit of experience without removing responsibility, so that individuals and teams can think more clearly, act with greater confidence, and continue developing their own distinctive practice.