Learning to Flourish helps leaders use their signature strengths to become more effective, calculated risk takers and better strategic thinkers. Entrepreneurs and managers are more creative, motivated and successful when they know drives them, a discovery process we facilitate using our Spark your Drive® positive psychology model.
"Katie has moved my mindset from reactive to proactive and helped me reframe my goals."
- Nashir Jiwani, Director
Diageo Asia Pacific
Coaching for Performance Appraisal
Training for managers and senior staff to have effective performance appraisal conversations
Organisations that wish to raise performance appraisal conversations beyond box-ticking into meaningful training and upskilling
"...discussion centred around strengths rather than weaknesses, conversation was more focused, it was easier to set purposeful targets"
- Practical 3-part programme of 90-minute group sessions delivered online or in-person
- Includes training in Spark your Drive coaching methodology and subscription to Spark your Drive online tool
- Managers learn how to use signature strengths to focus development conversations on opportunities to outperform
- Staff learn to use signature strengths to inform development planning
Team Uplift Workshops
Sessions to improve the performance of mid-management and service delivery teams. These sessions enable teams to understand and harness the signature strengths of each member and use these cohesively to drive performance
Teams that want a step-change in performance, feel stuck with current levels of performance or simply need new ideas or reinvigoration
"...really helped raise awareness with individuals and the team…It exceeded my expectations and the impact was very evident."
- Rona Doig, Head of Student Development, University of Edinburgh Business School
- 2 x 90-minute online sessions or half-day in-person workshop
- Includes online Spark your Drive signature strengths profile
- Team members get to know each members signature strengths and how to work effectively together
One-on-one Coaching Sessions
Series of one-on-one coaching sessions to help leaders identify and apply their signature strengths to lift their performance.
Senior executives, leaders and entrepreneurs.
"Amazing, thought-provoking coaching. Katie helps me with my mindset to deal with growth barriers, risk taking and handling pressure and stress"
- Sam Brennan, CEO, Fresh Car Valeting
“One-to one coaching with Learning to Flourish has simply been the best coaching experience in my professional life- thoughtful, reflective, stretching and fun. It delivers.”
- Professor Angela Timoney, NHS Lothian Director of Pharmacy
- Series of individual coaching sessions, normally 60-90 minutes in length
- Helps leaders identify their signature strengths and goals
- Helps leaders resolve challenges in a new light using their strengths
- Provides space for leaders to have discussions in a confidential setting
Leadership Development Programmes
Performance coaching for leaders and senior executives for improving leadership effectiveness
Organisations that want to find leaders to promote into succession gaps, have leaders whose performance is ‘blocked’ or that need determine who their highest potential leaders are
“Learning to Flourish’s coaching has been one of the most successful parts of our programme. Feedback has been universally positive."
- Yvonne Brady, Development, Diversity and Inclusion Partner, Shepherd + Wedderburn
- Experiential 6-part programme of 90-minute group sessions delivered online or in-person
- Includes either one-to-one coaching sessions or training for participants to coach each other
- Participants learn how to use leadership signature strengths to achieve progression and promotion
Performance Tools for Coaches
Equipping coaches with psychological performance tools so they can have effective coaching conversations.
Organisations that want to transform internal coaching conversations from remedial improvements to outperformance using positive psychology
"SPARK questioning inspires people to believe they can create change"
- Experiential 3-part programme of 90-minute group sessions delivered online or in-person
- Includes training in Spark your Drive coaching methodology
- Participants learn how to use signature strengths to focus coaching conversations on opportunities to outperform
- Includes subscription to Spark your Drive online tool
Shepherd and Wedderburn
Shepherd and Wedderburn’s emerging leaders realise their leadership potential with Learning to Flourish performance coaching.

"The benefit of Learning to Flourish’s coaching has been exponential during the pandemic, an exceptionally challenging time to work.”
- John Morrison, Partner, Corporate Finance
“I’ve received great feedback from our emerging leaders; they are really benefiting from the Learning to Flourish coaching and challenge.”
- Gillian Carty, Chair
“Learning to Flourish coaching has been one of the most successful aspects of our Emerging Leadership Programme. Feedback on the coaching sessions has been universally positive.”
- Yvonne Brady, Partner, Head of Development, Diversity and Inclusion
- Shepherd and Wedderburn, a leading UK law firm headquartered in Edinburgh, chose Learning to Flourish to help establish its emerging leaders development programme
- The new programme was designed to recognise talented individuals and fast track their leadership potential
- The firm’s diversity, development and inclusion team believed the programme would be most successful if it could identify a diverse set of qualities in emerging leaders so that the best opportunities could be identified for each participant’s distinctive development
- Partners selected Learning to Flourish because our Spark your Drive performance coaching approach focuses on the unique strengths of leaders, a process which inherently recognises diversity in talent
- Taking place over 20 months, the programme includes psychological profiling, stakeholder feedback and structured coaching of each participant
- In the programme’s first 12 months, 45% of participants were promoted to partner or director
- The programme was expanded in the second year after applications to participate doubled. Shepherd and Wedderburn deepened its engagement with Learning to Flourish, offering ongoing performance coaching to individuals outside the programme
Fresh Car Valeting
Award-winning entrepreneur Sam Brennan use Learning Flourish executive coaching to help scale his business and accommodate the increasing complexity of his leadership responsibilities.
"Amazing, thought-provoking coaching. Katie helps me with my mindset to deal with growth barriers, risk taking and handling pressure and stress"
- Sam Brennan

- Fresh Car Valeting, a mobile car care platform, chooses Learning to Flourish executive coaching for founder entrepreneur Sam Brennan
- Accommodating rapid expansion saw Sam build his leadership skills and impact but at the same time the added complexity sapped his energy
- Sam decided to seek executive coaching with Learning to Flourish for it’s ‘psychological expertise in mindset transformation’
- Coaching returns Sam’s energy levels and boosts productivity with the insight that ‘the way to move forward is not to do more – it’s through fine tuning’
- Fresh plans to provide Learning to Flourish executive coaching to its entire leadership team to support ambitious rollout of new technology to 31 million drivers in 2021
University of Edinburgh
Business School
Edinburgh Business School invigorates the high performing leaders of its Student Development Team using Team Uplift workshops from Learning to Flourish
"A great tool that really helped raise awareness with individuals and the team…It exceeded my expectations and the impact was very evident."
- Rona Doig, Head of Student Development

- The University of Edinburgh chooses Team Uplift workshops from Learning to Flourish to serve leadership development needs of its Student Development team
- Student Development wanted to stretch its performance as a team by improving the fit of the different capabilities of individual team members
- The Business School selected Learning to Flourish for it’s DRIVE performance psychology model that helps individuals recognise and use their signature strengths in a team
- Team Uplift helps Student Development raise performance by deepening the understanding and connection between team members
- Business School deepens engagement with Learning to Flourish with joint online programmes on the role post-traumatic growth for leading through Covid-19
Diageo
Learning to Flourish helps Diageo develop its future leaders with a half-day group workshop to help high potential individuals demonstrate and communicate their personal strengths with confidence and humility
"‘Find the athlete, teach the game…for those who are joining at very early stages of their career, strong personal initiative and drive are as important as or more so than job-specific skills’"
- Gary Merrylees, Diageo Talent Manager

- Diageo, one of the world’s largest producers of spirits and beers, chooses Learning to Flourish leadership strengths workshop for its Leadership Pipeline Programme
- Participants – high potential future leaders – needed support for personal development planning
- The company’s Scotland division was interested in Learning to Flourish’ DRIVE performance psychology model, having worked with Katie since 1995
- With workshop, Diageo’s young leaders learn to meet the company’s s standards for executive performance by employing their signature strengths revealed by DRIVE
The Melting Pot
Scotland’s centre for social innovation uses our DRIVE strengths workshops to help leaders of start-ups build their resilience and courage to succeed.
"People are complex and Katie brings the wisdom of understanding what drives different individuals and helps them to thrive"

- Melting Pot is Scotland’s main hub for social innovation and it’s Good Ideas Academy helps entrepreneurs to turn great ‘ideas’ into real social enterprises, charities and campaigns.
- Learning to Flourish has run Strength Sessions for more than 50 academy participants, including the Good Ideas Camp for inductees followed by one-to-one coaching
- Melting Pot selected Learning to Flourish after CEO Claire Carpenter ‘saw Katie in action’ presenting on meaningful risks for the third sector.
- Social innovators become more resilient