The Manager Academy
You were promoted because you were brilliant at the job. Nobody taught you how to lead the people doing it.
A 3-month group coaching programme for first-time managers – built on the FIRST™ framework, with your own individual Belbin behavioural report, weekly live coaching, and a cohort who genuinely get it.
Starting 1st October – Thursdays, 12:30- 1:30pm
Built for anyone leading a team for the first time
Whether you’re a Founder you’ve just been promoted in an SME, a growing business, or a larger organisation, the Manager Academy is built around the exact same problem: you’re good at the work, but nobody’s taught you how to lead the people doing it alongside you. It’s proved especially popular with managers in construction, technical, and logistics settings, alongside SME managers and founders more broadly.
Newly promoted managers
Leading a team for the first time, often including people who used to be your peers.
SME managers & founders
Wearing the manager hat for the first time in a growing business, without an HR team or L&D department behind you.
Managers in larger organisations
First management role within a bigger business, needing practical tools rather than corporate theory.
Anyone who feels like they’re winging it
Capable at the job, but quietly unsure whether you’re doing the “people” part right.
Do any of these sound familiar?
This is what most founders tell me:
Promoted, not trained
You got the job because you were excellent at the work, yet nobody’s shown you how to lead the people now doing it.
Avoiding the hard conversation
Feedback gets delayed, performance issues drift, and small problems quietly become bigger ones.
Still doing everything yourself
Delegating feels slower and riskier than just doing it, so you end up carrying the whole team.
No one to talk it through with
You’re the manager now, which can feel isolating — there’s no one at your level to ask “is this normal?”
My FIRST™ coaching framework
Built specifically for people leading for the first time – whether that’s a first management role or a first business. We’ll meet weekly for 12 sessions, in small groups of like-minded managers, working through:
F
Foundations
Getting clear on your role, expectations, and the identity shift from doer or peer to leader.
I
Influence
Building the skills to delegate, give feedback, and have the conversations you’ve been avoiding.
R
Resilience
Managing pressure and self-doubt, so leadership doesn’t cost you your confidence or your wellbeing.
S
Strengths
Understanding your own strengths and your team’s – so you can lead with what’s already there, not against it.
T
Trust
Building genuine trust and psychological safety, so your team brings you problems early, not late.
Why leaders choose to work with me
I founded my first business at 27, taking a whole team with me after we left our previous organisation with bad management. Since then I’ve built and led teams across two countries, retrained as a Business Psychologist, and worked with first-time managers and founders across dozens of SMEs, as well as facilitated leadership development for organisations including John Lewis, Taylor Wimpey and SC Johnson.
MSc
Business Psychology, Univ. of Hertfordshire
10+
Years Coaching & Leadership Training
Belbin
Accredited Team Roles Practitioner
100+
Clients supported
What happens next
