Mel Firth Coaching Testimonial

Tell us about your role at Dreams

Head of Retail - South at Dreams.  My role involves maximising profits, controlling costs and building a genuinely people-centric environment that supports customer service, which is at the forefront of how we do business. So quite a key leadership role.

What considerations were at the forefront of your mind when you decided to have coaching?

The most important thing for me was to become the best version of myself that I could be. I’m quite into self-development, I wanted to spend more time understanding myself, my leadership style, my qualities and how they all played a part in my day-to-day role. You can never stop learning.

Having completed my programme at Windsor, I continued to recognise that my core values and leadership style ultimately determine how store colleagues engage and help shape the culture of the organisation. It is important to me that my impact on the wider team is a positive and memorable one.

I had a great experience on the Emerging Strategic Leaders programme and learnt so much about myself. I interacted with people from different societal leadership backgrounds, that had very different viewpoints and it made me realise that having coaching with somebody outside my industry would be really helpful in getting a broader perspective.

Leadership is translatable in any sort of environment that you're in and this was just about making sure that I was on track with what I promised myself in the programme.

What led you to choose Windsor Leadership Coaching rather than any of the other coaching providers?

The choice to go with Windsor Leadership Coaching was predominantly due to my experience on the programme. It genuinely enhanced me, not only as a leader but also as a person, and I almost didn't want it to end.  It made sense to pursue coaching from Windsor Leadership, as I’d already had such a positive experience on the programme and wanted continuity and the same level of superb support through the next part of my career.

The Windsor programme and coaching are much more conversational.  This suited me personally.  I’m open about what I'm thinking and feeling, this plays a huge part in being relatable, the programme completely played to my strengths and style.  I’m willing to recognise that things aren’t always perfect or going to go as planned. Importantly, that it's okay to open up and talk about some of those challenges with other people.  I look to create this environment within my team, where people have a platform to be the best version of themselves through open and honest conversations. This is Windsor through and through.    

What has been your experience of coaching and are there any personal breakthroughs you might be willing to share?

My Windsor Leadership coach has been outstanding. I can't begin to tell you how much my coach has helped me personally.

In most of my previous coaching a lot of the focus had been on what I needed to do better, finding out my strengths and weaknesses in order to work on the weaknesses.

Coaching with Windsor Leadership is quite the opposite. My coach took time to explore my leadership style and focus predominantly on the positives, the areas of strength, in order to truly excel on a day-to-day basis. It makes the coaching conversations a lot more positive. 

Would you recommend our Coaching to others, and if so why?

Yes, I would definitely recommend Windsor Leadership coaching to others. The past couple of years have been quite turbulent in any leadership role.

There has been so much flux and change. Having somebody who's there with me throughout all of this has been phenomenally reassuring.  Talking my journey through has been hugely helpful, to have someone saying, ‘yes, I think you’re on the right track’ or ‘actually have you considered this’.

My coaching with Windsor Leadership really was a case of right time, right place, right person. The timing was just unbelievable for me, so I'm really grateful.