Career, Confidence, Executive coaching, Imposter syndrome, Transition to a more senior role
Lorraine Petken
l help women in HR identify their career aspirations, realise their potential, and achieve their work goals in an empathic, supportive, intuitive but challenging way.
Location: Hertfordshire
Year Qualified: 2020
Areas of Expertise
Testimonials
Lorraine immediately put me at ease, and this helped me open up about my development ambitions and sticking points to date. Within the first session Lorraine helped me realise that there were several avenues to pursue and all were within reach. I left the session with an actionable list of people and resources to connect with in order to help me on my journey. At subsequent coaching sessions, Lorraine helped me to readily explore new ways of approaching my opportunities and challenges, all the while making me feel motivated and invigorated about what lies ahead
Vicki, Marketing, Looking to start her own business
Lorraine's coaching was invaluable, providing me with confidence in my new management role to problem solve independently and to clarify what I wanted to achieve and how I would do this.
Isobel, Equity Research, Recent promotion
Lorraine, helped me to make some much needed changes and restore my self-belief.
Alison, FMCG, Wanted to be promoted and take on more responsibility
Areas of Expertise
Career, Confidence, Executive coaching, Imposter syndrome, Transition to a more senior roleLeave a testimonial
Coaching Qualifications
- Certificate in Coaching, Accredited by the Association of Coaching
- Certified My Everything DiSC practitioner
Professional Background
Before certifying as a coach, I had a 12 year career in HR, operating at Head of HR level. I have a Masters degree in Human Resource Management and am an Associate member of the CIPD. My career was intersected by an unexpectedly long career break of 14 years, to bring up my 3 children and dog. Having this time away from work gave me the opportunity to re-evaluate my goals and values which had changed considerably over the years.
Returning to the workforce after such a long break was a huge challenge in not only finding an employer willing to give me a chance and having confidence in my ability but finding a role that gave me the flexibility to ensure my home life didn’t implode. It also gave me a renewed sense of purpose and first-hand experience of the complexity of balancing home life and work life.
I have worked across a number of sectors and industries including financial PR, financial services, property management, and HR consultancy in both large corporates and SME’s. I have set up and managed several HR functions, acting autonomously as a key decision maker. I coached managers and leaders, guiding them to maximise their teams potential as well as helping them to develop their own skills. My experience of working closely with the C-suite offered a valuable insight into top level business operations.
My natural style is one of curiosity so it was not surprising that where I found my greatest job satisfaction when I worked in HR were the 1:1 conversations, I had with employees. I loved and having the opportunity to give them a differing perspective when they faced challenges and helping them find their own solutions. This realisation led me to certify as a coach, formalising what I was already instinctively doing at work. I then took the leap to follow my own career goal and coach full time.
What drew you to coaching?
I most enjoy helping my HR clients identify their aspirations, realise their potential and achieve their goals. I am highly empathic with an intuitive approach to coaching which provides insight and allows me to challenge whilst encouraging and motivating in a supportive way.
To achieve this, I manage a conversational process, apply my coaching skills and competencies and develop a trusting relationship. Through this approach I help identify what’s going on for my client, what they want to achieve and how they will do it. Beyond this I see my role is to build self-reliance, self-belief, confidence and responsibility. I gain huge professional satisfaction from spending time with clients and seeing the impact that coaching has on their working and personal lives. It’s so rewarding seeing those ‘light bulb’ moments when a breakthrough realisation is made and a positive change is actioned.
From my own career in HR and life experiences, I find it particularly rewarding to help other HR professionals during transition points in their careers, moving to a more senior role, working within a new organization, through periods of significant change, or women going on, returning from maternity leave or after a career break.
As a certified practitioner of Everything DiSC, a personality and behaviour profile, I have additional capabilities in giving clients a greater self-awareness of how they behave at work, what motivates them and what their preferences and tendencies are. I can also help provide actionable strategies to help improve their interactions in the workplace and ultimately boost performance.
Fee Structure
Thriving in HR Coaching Programme – price available on request
Group Thriving in HR coaching Programme (max .10 participants) – price available on request
DiSC behaviour and personality report and feedback session – price available on request
20 min discovery call – Free, book here
If your employer is funding your coaching or you are an employer wanting to introduce coaching, a coaching skills workshop or a DiSC workshop to your team, please get in touch and we can look at a suitable package.
