Ed Williams

Ed’s leadership skills are being authentic, giving and collaborative.

“Without question, the work I did with Ed was transformational and has made a huge difference to the way that I now manage my business and my relationships.”

Ed Williams

About Ed

Ed is a highly experienced executive and team coach who works with senior and emerging leaders across all sectors. He helps them to think, feel and behave more effectively to deliver peak performance and enhanced results.

Working with Ed

Ed is a natural enabler who builds relationships quickly through empathy and sensitivity. When coaching, Ed quickly grasps the context in which his clients are working to help them fully appreciate the dynamics of the system within which they are operating. He creates a safe environment and rapidly builds trust through strong empathy and rapport. This enables him, where needed, to challenge unhelpful patterns of behavior and suggest new strategies that will enable clients to become more effective in their leadership roles.

Whether Ed is coaching or facilitating workshops or webinars, attendees can expect warmth, wisdom and results. His coaching style is a helpful balance of support and challenge, and with his natural ability to read people, he easily creates a safe space to bring out the best in those he works with. Ed believes in working with people’s strengths and offers feedback, observations and ideas to take these strengths further.

Ed flexes his style to the needs of his clients and draws upon a wide range of tools, frameworks and techniques including emotional intelligence, systemic coaching, personality type and psychometrics.

Ed’s qualifications

Ed is a member of the Association for Coaching (AfC) and has achieved an Advanced Diploma in Coaching (Distinction) awarded by Oxford Brookes University. He is a Certified Action Learning Coach (CALC) with the World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL). He is a qualified Myers‑Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) and Hogan® practitioner as well as a certified Team Psychological Safety facilitator.

Before training as a coach in 2005, Ed held senior management roles at Marks & Spencer including Head of Leadership Development & Learning, and Director of Corporate Responsibility. He has also held senior roles in not-for-profit and large public sector organizations. These experiences have given him a wealth of commercial and strategic insight which he draws upon when supporting clients with their own business and organizational challenges.

Ed’s path

As a young man, Ed lived and worked in Zambia as a teacher with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO). As a senior executive he took on a range of non‑executive appointments including Commissioner on the Barrow Cadbury Trust Commission on Young Adults and the Criminal Justice System, HR Advisor to the Royal National Theatre and Chair of Alone in London. In 2000, Ed was awarded an MBE for his work on the development and implementation of the charity Children’s Promise. Ed volunteers at The Listening Place which offers face-to-face support for those who feel that life is no longer worth living.

When you work with Ed, you quickly notice his social leadership strengths of being authentic, giving and collaborative. Across his work, he listens with curiosity and empathy and generously shares his decades of experience.