P-Three - Executive Coaching

Grace & Green - Team Strategy Day

Wahaca - Executive Coach

““Over 5 months of coaching with Polly, I can’t quite believe the impact and difference it has had in this short space of time. Her supportive and empowering approach has truly transformed my professional journey, making me a more confident and capable leader.

Her insightful guidance has equipped me with essential skills to face challenges head-on and get out of my comfort zone to stretch me through a period of growth. I would recommend to anyone seeking out a coach, particularly if you have imposter syndrome or going in to your first leadership role.”
”

— Head of People & Culture, Wahaca

Help to Grow - business leadership programme - Coach

Help to Grow Leadership Programme

I'm proud to be working as a coach and facilitator with the School of Business at the University of Leicester on the Help to Grow leadership programme for small and medium-sized businesses in the East Midlands and East of England. It’s an opportunity for senior managers and business owners to learn new skills, reach more customers and boost profits.

Accredited by the Small Business Charter, Help To Grow is a 12-week practical programme that combines both online and face-to-face learning. The programme covers key areas of leadership including:

“Polly Robinson continues to be a massive asset to the University of Leicester School of Business and has undertaken important roles in the work that we have delivered to support small businesses in the UK. This includes the government-funded Small Business Leadership Programme (delivered in 2020/21) where she was the business coach and the Help to Grow Management Programme (currently being delivered) where she is the cohort facilitator and occasional module lead.

Polly always receives fantastic feedback for the guidance and advice she provides and she is reliable, efficient and always willing to adapt to support our needs. Polly continues to assist us with her marketing insight/knowledge and always goes above and beyond to ensure the programmes are a success.

It is a pleasure to work with Polly and I look forward to continuing to work with her on both current and future programmes. She will bring her abundance of talent and ability to anything she takes on.”

— Steve King, Accreditation and Business Manager, University of Leicester School of Business

• Strategy and innovation

• Growing national and international markets

• Leading for high performance

• Building vision and brand

• Engaging and inspiring teams

• Creating customer value

• Adopting digital technology

• Adopting responsible business practices

• Financial management

I work with participants guiding them through the programme, coaching them on practical business and leadership challenges and leading weekly peer-to-peer coaching sessions. Through the programme, I have worked with businesses in all sectors from legal and professional services, manufacturing, IT and food and drink.

For more information about the Help to Grow programme visit the University of Leicester website or the Small Business Charter Help to Grow information here:

The programme is 90% funded by the government.

Form the Future

Executive Coach

Season & Taste - Restaurant Leadership Training

Season & Taste is a group of restaurants in Bristol including Bravas, Gambas and Cargo Cantina.

I devised and delivered a leadership development workshop for a group of managers and the owners. We focussed particularly on developing a coaching style of management to get more out of employees. The workshop concluded with everyone building their own personal action plan to take their learnings from the workshops to apply to their day-to-day work.

Session 1: You
Welcome & Intros


• The difference between leadership & management


• Understand your own management and leadership style 


• Coaching Style of Management
Emotional Intelligence
What is Culture

Session 2 Your team
Employee Engagement

• Creating happy, strong, engaged motivated teams


• Community and why it matters


• How to get the best out of people


• Managing performance and giving feedback


• Handling Tough Conversations


Personal Action Plan


Beckford Group - Hospitality Management Training

The Beckford Group is a group of Bath and South West-based hospitality businesses. I designed and delivered a series of leadership workshops for the General Managers. The General Managers are responsible for six restaurant, pub, hotels in Somerset, Bath and Wiltshire (Beckford Canteen, Beckford Bottle Shop, Beckford Arms, The Talbot Inn etc). They lead the front-of-house and kitchen teams.

• Strengthen the leadership team

• Boost productivity

• Grow revenue and increase profitability

• Strengthen the brand/ stand out in the market place

• Improve employee engagement & wellbeing

Over two half-day face-to-face workshops we explored:

• The difference between leadership & management


• Understand your own management and leadership style 


• Emotional Intelligence


• Building leadership confidence

• Creating happy, strong, engaged motivated teams


• How to get the best out of people
How to boost retention


• How to give effective feedback


• Improving communication


• Managing stress and building resilience

The teams engaged in some positive discussions about their experiences of managing a team, their leadership style and confidence.

Burnt Chef Project - Managing Stress & Building Resilience Workshops

The Burnt Chef Project is a globally recognised not-for-profit Social Enterprise, committed to making the hospitality profession healthier and more sustainable by focussing on people's wellbeing first.

Life in hospitality goes hand in hand with long, irregular hours, physically demanding work on your feet all day, fast-paced service where we’re expected to be happy and charming, even if we don’t feel like it. The data on stress and poor mental health is well-recorded.

I regularly run workshops for their members on managing stress and building personal resilience. These workshops are suitable for chefs, front-of-house teams and office staff, wanting to learn how to improve their own wellbeing and support hospitality teams.

• The Context - Stress, Pressure and Mental Health concerns in Hospitality

• What is wellness

• Stress versus Pressure

• Work / Life balance and Setting healthy habits

• Perspective and Circles of Concern

• Managing Overwhelm

• Supporting others

Baker Hospitality - Leadership Training

Baker Hospitality is a growing independent hospitality group based in Essex. The Sun Inn, Dedham opened in 2003, followed by Church Street Tavern in Colchester and most recently, The White Hart Inn on Mersea Island in 2022.

I created a blended programme of in-person and online leadership development workshops for the groups managers and assistant managers. Some of the participants had been in the business for many years but have been promoted as it has grown, others were relatively new to the business. None had had any formal management training previously and a priority was for them to get to know each other and improve communication and learning across the group.

Over 6 sessions we explored:

• Leadership Styles and approaches - what’s your leadership style. The difference between leadership & management

• Learn when to direct, delegate, and coach with ease and to adapt your approach as needed

• The emotionally intelligent manager

• Adult-to-adult management – building autonomy

• Situational leadership - adapting your style

• Tools for successful delegation

• The importance of culture - vision - purpose - values

• Building trust and empowering people using coaching skills

• Team engagement

• How to get the best out of people

• How to retain and develop people

• Managing performance and giving feedback

• How to handle difficult conversations

• Managing stress and building resilience

• improving work / life balance

• Dealing with change and things outside your control

• Learn how to have healthy boundaries and habits that build resilience in yourself and those around you.

• Create an action plan that will allow you to live and work sustainably and avoid burnout.

• Building your impact as a leader - planning for the future

• Lead others with confidence.

• Find out tools to boost your impact and presence.

• Increase self-awareness

• Create a self-development plan

Henley Business School - Coach

I work as a Learning Coach with Henley Business School, part of the University of Reading working with senior leaders to help them achieve the outcomes of the senior leadership apprenticeship programme.

I specialise in:

• Strategy

• Leadership

• Innovation & Change

• People Management.