Interview With Geraldine Gallacher, founder of The Executive Coaching Consultancy

It was a pleasure to interview Geraldine Gallacher, founder of The Executive Coaching Consultancy, this week.  I have spoken to Geraldine several times before and have always found her hugely inspiring, at the same time as being very down to earth.

Geraldine set up The Executive Coaching Consultancy (https://executive-coaching.co.uk/) in 1994 and has helped to coach many women through the various stages of their careers.

Tell me about your career so far.

I’ll split it up into 5-year chunks.  My first 5 years were as a Graduate Trainee at the Ford Motor Company.  I did an MBA when I was young so went straight in as a MBA graduate in the Marketing department.  It was an all-male environment and whilst I really enjoyed it and had a lovely time, I wasn’t that interested in cars!

With the lack of female role models and lack of interest in cars, after 5 years, I decided to make a change.  I did 2 years consultancy for a company called Maritz Performance Improvement and then moved to the Burton Group.  Ultimately, I ended up as Head of Group Management Development, looking after the top 300 senior executives.

Why did you start The Executive Coaching Consultancy? 

At the Burton Group, I realised that none of the female Execs came to the programmes we were designing as they were just too busy.  Our training suppliers were also booked out days and weeks in advance and no-one was parcelling their time up into hourly chunks.  This was when I noticed a gap in the market and set up The Executive Coaching Consultancy in 1994.

For the first 10 years, we coached mostly men and then we noticed industry was losing women around maternity transition, so decided to target that group.   It was the right thing to do.

We now have 45 coaches internationally – and 20 of those are UK based.  The majority of what we do is around the female career journey and helping organisations at the different stages of the female career.

What does success mean for you?

For me now it’s about doing a job which I enjoy.  I always want to have some element of work in my life.  The company has such a clear purpose – helping to improve business by having more women leaders – and that keeps me motivated.

Would your answer have been different when you were younger?

When I became a mum, my focus changed.  I had to balance things much more and needed flexibility.  Being a mum gave me a broader perspective on life.  It taught me new skills – more empathy, more understanding. Having less time, I had to be more controlled and measured about what I put into work.

In the early years, I was delighted to be doing a job that was so flexible.  I was my own boss which was really good as a lot of the research we do shows that one of the most important factors in a woman’s transition back to work after having a child, is her relationship with her manager.  So, I could call all the shots.

Once Cameron (my son) went to secondary school (I also have a stepdaughter who is 8 years older), I got a renewed career vigour, as he was more self-sufficient.  It’s interesting how I can map some of the successes and some of the ghost periods of my work to the various stages of being a mum.

What would you have told your younger self?

I think I would have said make sure what you do is something that genuinely interests you.  If you are going to do something every day you really need to be interested in it.

Equally make sure you have a breadth of experience too.  Try different things to help to figure out what you want.

Did you worry about being a mum and having a career too?

I worried a lot when I became a new mother.  And really a lot of that worrying about whether I was a good mum, with hindsight, was a lot of wasted energy.  I wish I had been more confident during that period that everything would have been alright and that I could genuinely combine my career and being a mum and not lose out on either.

When he went to university, I remember sitting in his bedroom thinking what would I do if I didn’t have such a compelling career?  I would be bereft had I built my life around him in that 2^nd decade of  his life.  I think he admires the fact that his mum is just as much a careerist as his dad.

Let’s talk about confidence.

I remember clearly my 1st appraisal at Ford and my boss said that my confidence wasn’t commensurate with my ability.  I still remember that to this day!

At the time, I chastised myself but now I realise I was the only female and all the other guys seemed more confident but I just displayed it in a different way.  I think I was confident but asked for help more and probably did self-deprecate a bit too much.

With the males, there was a lot of ribbing each other.  We don’t tend to rib each other; we have fun but not at the expense of each other.  We are more sensitive.  The guys just go for it!  I noticed this with my son too.

I think this helps them deal with criticism more.  We tend to protect ourselves from it and it lands more heavily later on in life when it’s in the form of negative feedback at work.

A lot of the women we coach are very strong about bringing their children up in a gender-neutral environment.  What frustrates them is that when they go to any form of playschool or any group activity, it’s there – you be a nice girl and the boys are allowed to be rowdy. And you, as a parent, can’t protect them from that.

What about me-time?  What do you do in your spare time?

I’m an extremely enthusiastic amateur portrait painter. I’m off this weekend to Edinburgh to join my mum at the Edinburgh drawing school for a weekend course. Can’t wait!

Thank you for your time Geraldine.