Coaching for Confidence

We interviewed Emma Taylor , Curium's Chief People Officer, an experienced leadership coach with a background in management and personal development. With years of experience helping individuals grow in their careers, Emma has a passion for coaching and mentoring. In this interview, she shares her insights on coaching, building confidence, and supporting others with their professional journeys.

Why do you coach, and what inspired you to start?

I’ve always believed in helping everyone to reach their full potential. My background in management taught me a lot about leadership and decision-making. Early in my career, I had to have many difficult conversations that I was not ready for. That experience made me realise how important it is to see things from all perspectives rather than just your own. And to do that, you must be good at asking questions. I guess this is where the inspiration for coaching started. Today I am not only fortunate to have a role where coaching is at the heart of everything I do.

Additionally, I coach a selection of young, mainly female leaders, who are at the start of their leadership journeys. This additional coaching is not only rewarding in the usual ways that you would expect, but it is also teaching me about what approaches might work better for our younger generations and the unique challenges they are facing in today’s working world. This, in addition to the, at times, intense studying I did for my recent coaching qualification, has made me tap into what is meant by ‘lifelong learning’. There is no end point, there is always something new I can experience or someone from whom I can learn.

How do you approach coaching?

For me, coaching is about helping people find their own answers. A big part of that is saying things out loud—when you voice your thoughts, they become clearer and ‘real’. People often come to me feeling stuck, but once we can break things down together, fear disappears, and a way forward is more reachable.

It is often like detective work. I need to listen carefully and find those sparks of excitement and opportunity that will ultimately shift mindsets. It’s about asking the right questions at the right time and guiding solutions, rather than just giving advice.

Can you share an example of how coaching has helped someone?

There are so many examples it is hard to pick one.? However, the common thing is that whatever the obstacle or goal is, it is always the use of simple, clean questions that can have the biggest impact on the outcome.

I am finding that coaching opportunities can present themselves to us not just at work but in day-to-day relationships too. Recently I met a friend of mine to help her prepare for her return to work after her maternity leave. She felt anxious and overwhelmed by the prospect, but after just an hour of listening to her and asking some very simple questions we managed to turn her fear into a genuine passion to literally run back to work. This is the power of coaching, and she did that, not me, I may have put the guard rails up slightly along the way but that was it and the shift wasn’t about changing her situation, it was about changing how she saw it.

What makes a great coach?

I believe self-discipline is key. A coach’s job isn’t to take on someone else’s problems but to help them work through their own agenda in a safe place. It’s hard to not “fix” things for people, sometimes it’s so easy to see the answer for them, so this is where the self-discipline comes in, effective coaching is about empowering others to solve issues themselves.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to improve their confidence?

Start by talking things through, saying whatever is on your mind out loud, whether that be with a coach, a friend, or even just writing it down. Keeping thoughts in your head makes them feel bigger than they really are and induces a feeling of being overwhelmed which erodes confidence. We need to shrink the list of things on your mind, to leave space for that confidence to grow. Breaking everything down into small steps leads to small wins. Confidence doesn’t come from one big achievement; it builds over time with little moments of success.

Final thoughts?

Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them. When people realise they have the power to change their own situation themselves, that’s when real progress happens, goals are met and confidence returns.

This is why at Curium without even realising it most of the time, we apply a coaching mindset to our consultancy approach to get sustainable results faster. We put people first, we keep things simple and make things real for our customers, and not just our coaching clients. This is why, for International Women's Day 2025 we are offering free coaching sessions with one of our 6 powerhouse female coaches!