In this months blog, Justin Ayling, Director at Embankment Group interviewed Dan Carpenter, an executive coach operating in the Ecological sector.

Dan has had a varied career. He is a Chartered Environmentalist with 20+ years’ experience across environmental consulting, public sector and tech-led organisations. He has held senior roles including Associate Director and Chief Ecologist, leading biodiversity strategy, digital transformation and innovation. As founder of Digital Ecology, he specialised in data-driven systems and BNG. More recently, Dan has started on a journey towards becoming a qualified executive coach.

Having known Dan for a number of years now, we sat down together in a lovely hotel in the Cotswolds to discuss how his new offering may benefit Ecologists considering a career change, a step-up in role, as well as senior leaders honing in their skills. sector. Enjoy!

Justin: What led you into coaching and why focus on the ecology sector?

Dan: I came to coaching because I found myself at a bit of a crossroads in my career and a coaching conversation helped me to realise that coaching itself is incredibly valuable for people like me!

Most people at some time in their life need to talk through their thoughts and ideas in a safe space to figure out what they are really thinking and feeling, and what they actually want.

Coaching goes a step further and helps people take action towards their goals.

I realised that I wanted to help people find their way through tricky patches in their lives, to think through their options and to come out the other side with a plan. My experience and personal values mean that I really want to support those in the ecology sector as a coach, because I want to help deliver better outcomes for the environment. I believe that coaching leaders in the environment sector and other purpose-driven businesses is a key part of delivering those outcomes.

So I am starting my journey towards becoming a qualified coach to help environmental leaders excel.

Justin: What are the most common challenges you see senior ecologists and leaders facing?

Dan: I think there are two key challenges that ecology leaders face as they progress through their careers. The first is that transition from field-based roles and close contact with projects, to roles with either a strategic or commercial focus.

These more senior roles require a different set of skills from those we need when we start a career in ecology, and often we have to learn them as we go.

For many people we have had no formal training in some of these skills, but hopefully we have picked some of them up as we have gone through our careers. That can be daunting and can create a sense of imposter syndrome, which you talked about in your recent newsletter.

The second is that often people feel that their values are misaligned from the realities of a more senior role. Many people start ecology because they deeply care about nature and the environment and hold a strong set of values associated with nature recovery. However, the commercial realities of an ecology business can sometimes feel at odds with those values, and that can feel very unsettling for some people.

Justin: How does coaching help individuals navigate career transitions or leadership pressures?

Dan: Coaching is about building a partnership between the Coach and the Client in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires the client to maximise their potential. Coaching is about creating a safe and creative space for people to address challenges, generate ideas and create action towards achieving our professional goals.

Career transitions are a key example of where coaching can help identify what you want from your career and create an action plan for achieving it. It can also help in times where leaders are feeling stifled and need support to think through the options and identify actions for taking their business forward.

Justin: What does a typical coaching engagement look like in practice?

Dan: People come to coaching when they are looking for support and challenge to develop and progress in their careers, or their business. To get the best out of coaching you need to approach it with clear goals in mind. Coaching typically is carried out over 8-12 sessions, usually an hour each, with sessions every 2 weeks. This can of course be varied to suit the client.

Coaching is a short-term intervention to help unlock individual creativity and move people towards their goals; it is not supposed to be a long term intervention. But some people do return to coaching again and again throughout their careers where they feel they need that support and challenge to progress.

Justin: Who would benefit most from this kind of support?

Dan: Everyone can benefit from coaching at some point in their life, but typically people who are contemplating a career change, a step-up in role, as well as senior leaders, look to coaching to support their development. Coaching can also work for teams and organisations bring in coaches to offer support to senior leadership teams to help improve working relationships and performance. Some large organisations offer coaching to anyone regardless of their role.

Change is key motivator for people to seek coaching, whether that is a career change, an organisational change (such as restructure, buy-out, or something similar) or even a change in leadership. Change is a source of anxiety and coaching can help people through periods of change, helping to identify strengths and create action plans.

Justin: What makes coaching different from mentoring or line management support?

Dan: A good line manager is part HR function, part mentor and part coach, their role being to get the best out of their team. And there can seem like a lot of overlap between these different modes. Mentoring is about offering advice and guidance, passing on knowledge, skills and experience to others. But coaching is different. Coaching helps clients to think creatively about solutions to their problems, supporting them to take action to achieve their goals. Coaches generally do not offer advice or solutions, but create an environment where clients find the path forward themselves. For many clients, a coaching session is one of the few occasions when they get time to think and that is so important in unleashing our creativity and identifying the actions that will help us in achieving our goals.

Justin: What outcomes should someone expect from committing to coaching?



Dan: The key outcomes from coaching should be ideas and actions to help you achieve your professional (and sometimes personal) goals. For some coaching can be quite challenging as it forces us to consider our own realities and those beliefs which may be holding us back. But coaching should give you renewed insight into what is important to you and the creativity you have to overcome challenges and succeed. You should expect to do some deep thinking, but you should emerge from coaching with new insights about yourself and your capabilities. You may emerge transformed!

You can reach out to Dan on dan@dan-carpenter.co.uk or drop him a line on 07530 954391