Alison Haill Tells Her Story

Today, I am an Executive Business Coach, CEO of the boutique international coaching consultancy, Oxford Professional Consulting. I coach with clients from a variety of different sectors and industries, different nationalities and different cultures in the UK and round the world:

• top level executives, entrepreneurs, professionals and business owners
• in companies large and small
• across sectors.

According to the objectives of each client and using materials I have designed myself or purchased from trusted partners, my coaching with clients falls into two categories:

• women-only programmes
• programmes for men and women (click here )

I am based in Oxford, UK, with my husband, our sons having grown up and left home. The first 13 years of my career were spent teaching abroad, working as an expatriate in 4 different continents.  Once back in the UK, I made regular trips to different parts of the world as visiting teacher or lecturer, such as to:

• Brazil
• Egypt
• Singapore
• Poland
• Norway
• Oxford, UK.

I founded Oxford Professional Consulting in 1998 and today I love my work and my clients as much as ever. Working them is a real pleasure and I learn from them every day.

I like to work with ambitious leaders and professionals, high achievers with an appetite for personal and professional growth, ready to take action.
I select clients carefully because I know who best appreciates my style and commitment to their success. 

I now offer women-only coaching, alongside our mainstream work with senior leaders male and female (at Oxford Professional Consulting).

My aim is to empower women to realise their full potential, using the proven techniques, insights, experience and materials that I have learnt and use myself. These have been tried and tested by hundreds of women, proven to add resilience, renew confidence and build success for woman leaders and entrepreneurs.

Our women-only programmes cater for:

• Female entrepreneurs, CEOs of their own business
• Women leaders in larger organisations or corporates

It wasn’t always like this!

My working career started in Brazil.

I chose Brazil because I’d just completed a university degree in Hispanic Studies, including one module in Brazilian literature. Not a great reason for starting my career in Brazil, you might think. But that’s what I chose to do.

I chose Rio de Janeiro, where I arrived alone, aged 22, with no job!

Here’s where it all began

Luckily I quickly found a job and a natural talent for teaching so I worked in Rio, teaching English in the top language institute in Brazil.

Over the next 15 years of working internationally, I gained teaching qualifications and became a well-qualified experienced teacher of Business English to professionals, working across the world. From Rio de Janeiro I went to Barcelona, then to Slovenia, Croatia, Egypt and Singapore – and finally Oxford.

Back in the UK, I became Head of Professional Courses in a language institute in Oxford. As the senior specialist in Business English, I worked with many interesting international executives and professionals for 7 happy and fulfilling years.

But I knew inside that I could do more.

I wanted to give more value to more people than was possible where I was.

The “Oxford Professional” brand was born

I started my own training business in 1998, focusing on what I knew best while studying related subjects, like cross-cultural skills, business communication and executive coaching. As I followed my own interests and those of my clients in this way,  I became even more valuable to them than before. And my teaching became coaching.

The Breakthrough

The breakthrough came in 2006 when I was sought out by a new client, a global organisation with head office in the US. A senior South American manager needed help with his communication.

“He has excellent managerial skills, track record and experience. He will rise a long way”, I was told. “But if he doesn’t change the way he speaks, he won’t rise any higher in the company.”

We worked well together and within 3 months he got his first promotion, two more following over the next 18 months. I realised I had found my vocation and it was no longer just English. It was helping ambitious senior managers change the way they communicate to achieve career objectives and personal potential.

Wider impact

However, I wanted to give these opportunities to a wider community and soon found a way. I spent the next 3 years training leaders at all levels in UK schools to transform how they manage and lead others.

I taught them the coaching approach to leadership, using the skills and techniques that I use as a coach myself and believe in.  This approach gave them solutions to the people management problems they had struggled with. Moreover, they noticed motivation in their teams increased. Team-work and morale improved which saved time.  They themselves are enthusiastic role models to their colleagues.

Legacy

Today I am an Executive Business Coach and Leadership Communication Specialist, working with international organisations, senior business managers and ambitious professionals in the UK and globally.

As a legacy I’d like to leave the world with a clear idea of what coaching is and what it achieves, namely:

• How coaching benefits the individual coached and also their organisation, family, private life
• It stretches high fliers beyond what they can do on their own
• It boosts and stretches under-performers in a constructive empowering way
• It should be – and can be – accessible to all.

Clients come from a wide range of sectors and they share with me a commitment to:

• Treat staff with integrity
• Give high levels of customer service and satisfaction
• Leadership that empowers others
• Continuous self-development 
• Excellent communication skills
• Staff engagement, high morale and job satisfaction
• Provide excellent results for their company. 

Read more here.

What do clients value in me?