Before I worked alongside leaders, I was one.
I spent 25 years in education, much of it in senior leadership, including two headships.
Today, I work with CEOs, headteachers, principals and senior teams as an international school strategic partner and executive coach and mentor.
I bring first-hand leadership experience, independent challenge and a deep understanding of the pressures that sit behind the role.
I know what it is to inherit teams. To carry responsibility for results you cannot entirely control. To make decisions that will be questioned by people who were not in the room when you made them.
I know the 6am inbox.
The board paper being rewritten at midnight.
The conversation you have been meaning to have for three weeks and still have not.
The quiet cost of being the person everyone else brings their weather to.
Since leaving headship, I have coached, mentored and advised more than 5,000 leaders in the UK and internationally.
Alongside my coaching work, I have led British Schools Overseas inspections, worked as a school improvement partner and ISQM assessor, and advised international schools and school groups on strategy, leadership, governance, organisational effectiveness, academic outcomes and readiness for scrutiny.
The context changes.
The weight of leadership often does not.
The leaders I most admired during my own career were not always the loudest people in the room.
They could stay steady when the room was not. They could hold a difficult decision without needing to be liked for it. They remained curious about what they might be missing.
And they had somewhere — often one trusted person — to say what they could not say elsewhere and think out loud.
Many senior leaders do not have that space.
I wanted to create it: a place where the hidden part of leadership can be seen, assumptions can be challenged and a leader can leave ready to act on what matters.
I listen to what is said, what is avoided and what changes in the telling. Patterns, hesitation and the language a leader repeatedly uses often reveal where the real issue lies.
I begin with what is already strong. Strengths are a source of energy and impact; under pressure, they can also become stretched, overused or misdirected. Understanding both sides creates greater choice about how to lead.
I look beyond the immediate problem to the wider system: the people, relationships, priorities, culture and structures shaping what is happening. As I sit outside the organisation, I can ask the questions that may not be asked within it.
Reflection matters when it changes what happens next. We translate the thinking into a decision, a conversation or a practical course of action that you can carry forward.
Twice a headteacher, with 25 years in education and senior leadership
International school strategic partner
Lead Inspector for British Schools Overseas
School improvement partner and ISQM assessor
ILM Level 7 qualified executive coach and mentor
Accredited workplace mediator
Strengthscope® Master Practitioner
Member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
I am French and British, based in the UK, and work in both English and French. That dual perspective has shaped how I listen: to language, context and the different meanings people may attach to the same situation. I believe the strongest leaders stay curious and stay kind — usually in that order.
I work with leaders and organisations in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
The qualifications and professional experience matter. What matters just as much is that I have made many of the decisions I now work through with other leaders.
I understand the responsibility they carry, the pressure surrounding them and what clear, courageous leadership can require.
You do not need a polished brief or to know precisely what kind of work you need.
Bring what is on your mind.
In a free 30-minute introductory conversation, we can establish whether I am the right person to work with you and what that work could look like. I will tell you honestly if I am not.
There is no obligation to take anything further.
Executive and Leadership Coach and Strategic Partner to International Schools
Space to think. Strengths to navigate. Courage to act.
npowrie@nadinepowrie.com