At the point of taking up my Senior Lecturer post in Newcastle I had worked for over twenty years, but my funded career time had amounted to less than ten. I’d achieved multiple career milestones: several research grants as PI, various management experiences, assisted in the design and delivery of two multi-million-pound programme grants, developed independent collaborations in the UK and beyond: all whilst juggling multiple periods of parental leave.

Consequently, when offered coaching – something I’d never even considered let alone had the opportunity to do – I was acutely aware of several key professional areas I needed to develop. I also knew I needed support to better understand my options and priorities for the next phase of working life.

The coaching was a real eye-opener and a massive accelerant. I had no real idea of what to expect. It was a genuine surprise how much it made me think and how, after the third or fourth session, I was finding it very thought-provoking, even hard. The sessions were enjoyable, the topics often slightly unexpected and often challenging. I learnt to go in with an open mind and an open heart.

My coach was a great listener and had wide and varied experiences herself. Her gentle questions and prompts helped me articulate some of my deeper thinking and motivations, my hopes, fears, and difficulties, and re-package these in a constructive way which I now see the benefits of day-by-day.

A particular benefit of the sessions was how I was able to better understand how my slightly less than conventional career experience had allowed me to harness a wider set of opportunities to learn, grow and change. Whilst we covered professional, career and strategic discussions around work these were considered within the interplay with life more generally. My broader experiences and skills were brought to bear on my workplace experiences through reflection and critique, all grounded in very practical suggestions or observations which have had long-term impact.

I never imagined that coaching could be so positive. I count myself very privileged to have been able to take part in a transformative process and would encourage anyone sitting on the fence to give it a go.

Dr Gerard Walls is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queens University Belfast.

It was a few months following my PhD viva that I realised I urgently needed a plan. It dawned on me that while I had been preoccupied with securing that PhD Fellowship, converting my results into outputs then securing postdoc starter grants, that I’d completely neglected to think about the final step: the transition to independence.

As medical students and trainees, we adapt to become excellent doers, helpers and followers, so it’s perhaps understandable that we defer thoughts about being ‘the boss’ until the time is nigh.

While I was fortunate to have had many fantastic opportunities, ultimately, there is a safety in knowing that you’re on a formal pathway as a trainee. But, of course, there was a moment looming where that pathway would end. The local clinical academics and scientists were very supportive of my career progression, but I was struck that I hadn’t witnessed anyone emerge from the chrysalis of training and become their new Group Leader selves. In other words, there was no template to follow for my reinvention as an independent academic clinician. That was a bit unsettling for someone with a psychological propensity for homologous recombination.

Soon after this epiphany, I attended a course organised by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the Royal Marsden and the ICR called Pathways to Independence, at the University of Cambridge. Over dinner, an early career researcher recounted his recent experience of working with a professional coach, claiming it was integral to his recent post-CCT transition. When I next saw the next advert from CRUK regarding their coaching opportunities via Meyler Campbell, I responded quickly.

I was sent the biography of my coach, and he’d accrued an amazing array of life experiences, skills and hobbies, and all around the world. That his background wasn’t medical nicely broke the usual moulds of development that I’d been exposed to. Beyond my huge respect for all his achievements, our personalities really ‘clicked’. He understood what I meant when I articulated various scenarios and he seemed to recognise my vulnerabilities. This was someone I could trust.

After we established some ground rules to maximise the usefulness of the coaching, I identified a few scenarios that I felt under-prepared for – these included leveraging a team, negotiating contracts and dealing with difficult colleagues.

Coaching is very different from mentoring. Rather than being given the answers, coaching is about finding the answers within yourself. Coaching involves exploring and challenging your perceptions, and this requires an honesty and introspection. A coach is really just there as a facilitator, though mine also imparted some advice too – flexibility was one of his principles as a coach.

Over the planned 5 sessions, we deconvoluted the problems that I foresaw for my next career stage, at a pace that suited me, and with many de-tours into related topics. Coaching requires regular engagement and plenty of effort during the sessions (online meetings), but in truth I really enjoyed those interactions, even though I was actually being set quite difficult mental tasks.

Looking back, of course it’s impossible to ascertain exactly the impact that my coaching had, but I sense it was huge. I have absorbed and applied the learning over the last 18 months as if it was my plan all along. Not immediately, as it took a while for the sentiments to embed, and for relevant scenarios to arise. But now in certain situations, I have a few additional abilities that I didn’t have before, which I put down to my coaching.

I also believe there is great confidence to be taken from knowing that you’ve done a little work on your weaknesses! And, importantly, I was more than ready for my new role as a result of this experience.

Daniel A. Tennant is Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Metabolism and Systems Science, University of Birmingham.

Coaching was not ever something that I’d considered as being useful for me. I felt that I was able to weigh up the evidence and make decisions on next steps without the need for help or facilitation – indeed, this had worked for me in the past reasonably well, so why not in the future. When the offer of coaching was made available by the CRUK team, I therefore didn’t immediately feel that it would be helpful.

However, as a University-located researcher with multiple, often competing responsibilities – teaching, research, citizenship, management – I was starting to struggle to with the implications of my decision-making. I’ve never been good at saying ‘no’ to anything, and while the consequences of this hadn’t caused problems in the past, they were starting to. I had got to a point where I was reacting to things reflexively, and couldn’t really see what the next decision should be.

So, I said ‘yes’ to the coaching, and was put in touch with Marie.

Her CV was almost alarmingly successful – she had clearly deftly navigated much more difficult problems than I’d ever come across, I was worried she’d think of me as a bit of an idiot! However, sessions with Marie were fantastic – she was disarmingly charming and with simple (but direct) questions induced me to talk about my day-to-day professional life in a way that I never usually do. I could candidly examine all aspects of my job in a safe space, and work through the concerns and decisions I’d been coming across. Over the course of her coaching sessions, Marie’s questions made me more deeply consider the decisions I had made, as well as those I would be making in the future.