About Rebecca Hourston

Rebecca (Beks) is an inspiring, highly credible, warm and dynamic Executive and Leadership Coach, Speaker and Programme Facilitator with a blue-chip Marketing background. A senior, qualified coach for 12 years, she has worked with individuals and groups at CEO to senior manager level from numerous top-tier organisations, including JP Morgan, KPMG, Freshfields, Unilever, Linklaters, HP, The Walt Disney Company, McCann WorldGroup, Microsoft (MSN), Blue Rubicon PR, Bird & Bird, BDO Stoy Hayward, Merlin Entertainments, and Cancer Research UK.

Clients say she brings both energy and intellect to her work, find her extremely grounded, straight-talking and easy to open up to, like her focus on practical and directly applicable action, and appreciate her sincere caring for them to succeed.

Qualifications

• BA (Hons), Cambridge University
• Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) from The Coaches Training Institute (CTI) since 2005
• CTI Co-Active Leadership & Leadership Mastery Graduate
• Licensed Firework Career Coach
• Organisational & Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC) Fundamentals Graduate
• Member of the Association for Coaching

Areas of Expertise

Women’s Leadership Development, particularly:

• Career Progression
• Presence, Profile, Impact & Gravitas
• Work-Life Balance
• Confidence & Resilience
• Networking & Influencing
• Powerful Communication
• Navigating Organisational Politics
• Time Management
• Coaching Skills for Leaders

Working Parents Development & Retention

• Maternity/Paternity Transition
• Making flexible work WORK

 

Example Client Outcomes

• Female Partner, Professional Services: coached through Partner promotion process and beyond. Increased ease with networking and greater self-belief. Promotion achieved and coaching sought for a further year.
• Female CEO, Pharmaceuticals: sounding board to challenge assumptions and provide tools to better handle challenging situations.
• Female Director, Media & Advertising: increased confidence around return to work post-Maternity, improved communication and networking strategies, better involvement with seniors than before coaching.
• Female Deputy CEO, Not-for-Profit: became a more powerful communicator with more presence and gravitas. Large audience stage presentations successfully delivered when previously this had held the client back.
• Female Senior Managers’ Leadership Programme, Professional Services: for over 6 years (one of the only externally run sessions not to be cut during the recession) designed and led numerous group workshops contributing to goal of retaining talented women.

 

Background

Having pulled out of an interview to become a spy, Rebecca embarked on a career in Marketing with L’Oréal, principally managing leading cosmetics brands ranging from Lancôme to Maybelline. She was promoted to Head of Consumer Affairs for L’Oréal UK where she led a large team and sat on a divisional Management Committee. Her blue-chip corporate background has given her first-hand experience of the high-pressure work environments typically faced by her clients. In 2004 she set up her own coaching company, Move Mountains, which she ran successfully for over a decade, alongside working as Director of Programmes for Aspire, an award-winning provider of executive coaching and leadership development for women. She joined Talking Talent in 2015 as Executive Director heading up the Working Parent coaching programmes, and is a member of the management board. She has an international outlook, having lived in Kenya, Paris, Rome (she speaks fluent French and good – if rusty! – Italian), London… and now Bath, where she’s just emerged from a major house renovation with her husband and three boys aged 9, 6 and 3.