GAYL LONG

“I had the distinct pleasure to work numerous times with Gayl between 2013 and 2018, inviting her skilful and highly flexible approach to individual, team and group coaching.

Her attention to intent and outcomes and her courage to use more novel approaches allowed for exciting and rich team discussions and developments – including open feedback between individuals and leaders alike – enabling the development of true trust and purpose.

I admire Gayl for her courage hidden behind a calm and empathic professional approach. I have seldom worked with coaches who moved the needle on teamwork as much as Gayl.”

“Gayl’s work was invaluable. It made a great difference to me, as an experienced leader in business, to have someone of her calibre and insight to assist me with exploring options and ultimately making a decision to move out of mainstream business and into the charity sector. I would have no hesitation in recommending Gayl and her In8 Resources approach to friends and colleagues. Her personal warmth combined with her many years of direct HR work mean that she brings an insight and credible professionalism that is unbeatable.”

“I had the pleasure of working with Gayl during my Short Term Assignment in the UK being in a leadership position for the first time in my life. Gayl’s coaching has turned around my life. People around me tell me that I have a different energy, I am much more relaxed and positive. I have better relationships with my team, colleagues and better results in my job. I am a just a new person today. The coaching received during the last three months has been the most valuable development measure during my 13 years at work. I cannot recommend Gayl highly enough as a Coach.”

“As a team coach, Gayl’s work has had a highly beneficial impact, helping the team to improve trust, communications and effectiveness. Her skill and experience as a facilitator and coach, combined with her friendly and engaging style, really helped us to achieve our desired outcomes.”

“Gayl worked with us with on leadership and team development, introducing both theoretical and practical elements. She helped us understand both our individual styles and preferences, as well as our team strengths and dynamics and made us think about our leadership roles. I enjoyed Gayl’s thorough and professional approach, finding the sessions interesting, challenging and enjoyable, and we came away with some tangible actions. As a result, we are more focussed on leading rather than managing, coaching & developing our reports, and using our individual strengths more cohesively to achieve team goals and the business strategy.”

I had some very challenging situations and was feeling confused and paralysed.  I was struggling to see how the future would get better.  Through her trust and faith in me I was able to see more positive examples of where I had overcome difficult situations in the past and gradually increase my confidence and courage to face some difficult decisions.  This was a real turning point for me and I feel blessed to have worked with Gayl at this time.  I have worked with other coaches in both personal and professional context before and since and I still believe that this was one of the most powerful relationships I have had.  I found Gayl sensitive, supportive and suitably challenging and I’m pleased to say that life is now looking very good!”

Having never had a coach before and been advised that “it would be good for me”, my initial engagement must, on reflection have been, to say the least, a tad defensive!

However after our first session I was on board and Gayl’s approach was absolutely perfect. She is incredibly perceptive and drills down into key issues with ease.

Having been with the same management team for quite some time I needed a bit of reconstruction in certain areas and I cannot speak highly enough of the work Gayl put in to support me and ultimately adapt my style and approach to empower me for onward success.

The process is tough at times but ultimately rewarding.

I would consider us to now be firm friends which I think demonstrates what a great judge of character she is!!”

“I have no hesitation is recommending Gayl as a coach.  She really gets to know you and the goals you are trying to reach from a career and personal perspective.  She challenges you to think and look at the inner you drawing out all the needs that are not being met and gives confidence to build frameworks to achieve these goals.”

“I’ve been working with Gayl now over the past six years.  In that time my career has taken a number of turns and at each of those I’ve been able to guide my way through with her expert coaching.  Her methods can be adapted to any situation and we’ve specifically found walking and talking to be of particular benefit.  My leadership style has matured during that period and I’ve been able to find coping methods to overcome periods of stress, conflict and where decisions are to be made.  Some of the key areas we’ve covered have been; understanding triggers and seeing flash points before they occur, building relationships and managing those stakeholders who can both help and influence my career, and being able to see beyond the immediate to plan a career path that helps me achieve my goals.  Gayl’s style has been to coach but never lead, encourage where necessary and to always question.  Thanks.”

“I whole-heartedly recommend Gayl as an excellent coach. She has a wonderful ability to bring clarity to any situation and create momentum for goal achievement. Skilfully and empathically, she provides an optimum balance of challenge and support. She champions people to be all that they can be.”

I had some very challenging situations and was feeling confused and paralysed.  I was struggling to see how the future would get better.  Through her trust and faith in me I was able to see more positive examples of where I had overcome difficult situations in the past and gradually increase my confidence and courage to face some difficult decisions.  This was a real turning point for me and I feel blessed to have worked with Gayl at this time.  I have worked with other coaches in both personal and professional context before and since and I still believe that this was one of the most powerful relationships I have had.  I found Gayl sensitive, supportive and suitably challenging and I’m pleased to say that life is now looking very good!”

“As an executive coach, Gayl skilfully helped me to increase self awareness, drawing out my strengths and weaknesses and helping me to develop and focus on goals and strategies for personal and professional improvement and success. Gayl’s coaching was very often challenging, but always useful and worthwhile for its successful and sustainable outcomes. As a team coach, Gayl’s work has had a highly beneficial impact, helping the team to improve trust, communications and effectiveness. Her skill and experience as a facilitator and coach, combined with her friendly and engaging style, really helped us to achieve our desired outcomes.”

“Gayl is an energetic, smart and effective coach. Her sessions are both enjoyable and tiring helping you to learn about yourself and your team. I will definitely be contacting Gayl in the future and would thoroughly recommend her to others.”

“Gayl worked with us with on leadership and team development, introducing both theoretical and practical elements. She helped us understand both our individual styles and preferences, as well as our team strengths and dynamics and made us think about our leadership roles. I enjoyed Gayl’s thorough and professional approach, finding the sessions interesting, challenging and enjoyable, and we came away with some tangible actions. As a result we are more focussed on leading rather than managing, coaching & developing our reports, and using our individual strengths more cohesively to achieve team goals and the business strategy.”

“I have had the privilege of having a coaching plan with Gayl which has greatly helped me in making a couple of life changing decisions. Gayl’s approach is gentle but challenging. She does not take the first reply as final, asking relevant questions each time you give her an answer to get to the bottom of the topic. She uses a wide variety of resources and spends as much time as is necessary with you. She loves her job!”

“Gayl, is a professional, compassionate and caring coach. She brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge to make the coaching session meaningful and relevant. Gayl makes it a safe environment where all matter of topics can be discussed. I would recommend Gayl as a personal coach it has helped me develop as a manager/leader and as an individual. “

“”Working with Gayl has been truly transformational for me. From the first session, I knew she was the coach for me. The right balance of being focused and compassionate, action orientated with allowing our conversation to flow. Every single session has led to insights I did not have previously and clear next steps. Gayl is genuine and has a true desire to help you achieve great things. She will help you explore what is holding you back and then inject a good dose of positive energy to help you achieve it. She takes a holistic approach to supporting you with your goals, using a variety of techniques such as meditation, NLP, visualisation and more. She also takes extra effort to send articles, etc in between sessions which have been really valuable. Gayl, thank you for all you do and for being you.”

“Gayl has the ability to work with you to create a program that will engage with a team, open up a topic and then facilitate that in a team coaching environment. She guides you /the team through a process of understanding and enables them to see the challenge that they are trying to address. This is done in a challenging but open way and then enables the team to draw out the conclusion(s) themselves. Very creative, very pragmatic and delivers.”

“A great day with Gayl completing a section of work on team alignment. My team have come along way, thanks to Gayl we have some positive results to show for it. Very well planned, organised and executed. Thank you.”

“Gayl has worked for me on coaching assignments and has done a great job. Gayl takes time to fully understand what the underlying issues are and then she finds ways to overcome the problems. She knows her areas of expertise and is always thorough. Gayl has integrity and I trust her to do a good job.”

“Gayl’s coaching has provided me with a safe environment in which to grow as a professional as well as a person. Each session has built on the successes of the last and been focused on the program goals. Feedback and quality measures have kept the program on track. Gayl’s clever use of her many and varied coaching tools have undoubtedly enabled me to understand my true potential and given me a great push forward on my journey.”

“I cannot recommend Gayl highly enough as a Coach. When I met with her in 2015, I wanted to start my own business but I was stuck. Through face-to-face and skype coaching sessions, Gayl helped me to develop my self-knoweldge and confidence, challenged me to identify the barriers to achieving my goal, and encouraged me to identify tactical steps, providing useful insights along the way. Gayl is extremely knowledgeable, competent, professional and personable, and I enjoyed my coaching sessions with her. By the end of the coaching period, I had set up my business and resigned from my job, and I honestly do not think I could have done it without Gayl!”

“I was privileged to receive coaching sessions with Gayl. She has a warm-hearted and empathic coaching style which made me feel at ease and understood. At the same time Gayl has the gift to use her caring intuition when she challenged my thinking. As a result, I got insights into some key questions that I would not have got otherwise. What I have taken away from the coaching is a strong foundation for implementing my next steps towards my big dream. Thank you, Gayl!”

“I was very lucky to have Gayl as my coach over a three month period during a very difficult time. I was taking voluntary redundancy and had a long notice period to work through. Gayl was absolutely fantastic, her approach, understanding, empathy and caring style really worked for me and helped me see the positive and take control of my own destiny! She challenged me, which drew out thoughts I’d not taken the time to reflect on, which was invaluable as I worked through the job hunting process. I always left my coaching sessions re energised and with a smile. I’d thoroughly recommend Gayl for her coaching.”

“I was so impressed by how much I managed to achieve with Gayl’s guidance on my short but intense career coaching journey. She helped me to uncover some assumptions I have been holding for many years, which allowed me to be honest with myself and to find out what I truly like doing. Thanks to her direct, empathetic, provocative and focused style we both explored a map of possibilities for the roles which might suit me and she empowered me to take my development in my own hands. I feel I am on the right track to find my next BEST move. Thank you Gayl, it’s been a pleasure having you as my career coach!”

“I would strongly recommend Gayl as a career coach. She was hugely helpful in helping me to take a step back, review my own capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, through a combination of methods including psychometrics, self-reflection and additional feedback from colleagues. By asking searching questions in a balanced way, she was able to spot hesitation and prevarication, which helped me to to reach a deeper understanding of myself and situation. I now look at myself and my skills in a more positive light that is already translating into what I feel to be an improved performance.”

“Gayl is just the greatest. She’s 100% genuine, 100% kind, 100% empowering and 100% challenging. Gayl helped me to see the positive impact I can have on my clients and was instrumental in helping me to feel brave and empowered to start my own business. Gayl also recommended and connected me to a great mentor to help build my skills. Proof that Gayl is focused on getting the best results for her clients no matter how that happens.”

“I can thoroughly recommend Gayl as a career coach. I worked with Gayl after leaving Mars Inc and she helped me get clear on what I wanted from my career and how I was going to go about getting it. Gayl is challenging, thoughtful, supportive and insightful. She brings a breadth of tools and perspective that is, in my experience, unusual in coaching today. If you’re looking to take the next step in your career or you are stuck in a career rut then Gayl will help you.”

“Gayl was wonderful in helping me through an important transformational phase in my career. I was looking for someone who could help me define my values and career purpose, and she supported me so well in the process to reaching those goals. We worked with various tools like the Firework Career Coaching Programme, the Birkman Programme, drawing, painting, creative exercises, words, visualisation exercises, meditation, surveys, unique abilities cloud defining, until capturing the essence of my values, purpose, skills and strengths. She was true and always working with a fantastically positive mindset that gives wings to go through the questioning and challenges. The empathy, advice and professionalism she brings to her coaching really gave me all the mental and technical support I needed to define my career pathway and value in a peaceful mindset. I couldn’t recommend her more.”