The Bearing Method
A compass, not a script.
Good coaching feels like a conversation, but it shouldn’t be aimless. The Bearing Method is the structure underneath: four points we always cover, in roughly this order, so you leave with changed habits rather than good intentions.
The framework
Four points of the compass
Select a point to see what happens there. Most engagements loop round the compass two or three times.
North · usually weeks 1–3
Notice: where are you, really?
Before we change anything we get an honest picture. Not just how you think things are going, but how your calendar, your team and your peers experience you.
- A one-week calendar audit: decide, inform or habit
- Short 360° interviews with people you choose
- Your leadership story: what got you here, and what won’t get you further
East · usually weeks 3–5
Envision: where are you heading?
“Be more strategic” isn’t a goal. We describe the leader you want to be in a year in behaviours your team would actually notice, then pick the two that matter most.
- A one-page leadership brief you can share with your manager
- Two focus behaviours, each with a visible signal of progress
- A clear “stop doing” list
South · the middle of the engagement
Strengthen: build the missing skills.
This is the practical bit. We rehearse the conversations, redesign the meetings and write the delegation plans, using your real situations rather than case studies.
- Role-play for the conversations you’re dreading
- Tools: the delegation ladder, the feedback note, the decision log
- Short reading and listening picked for your situation
West · every week, between sessions
Walk it: practise in the real job.
Change happens on a Tuesday afternoon, not in a coaching session. Each week you run one small experiment and tell me how it went, so new habits get tested while the stakes are still low.
- One experiment a week, written in a single sentence
- A two-minute Friday check-in by message
- A closing review and a plan for the next six months
Inside a session
Sixty minutes, well spent.
Every session has the same shape, so your energy goes into the conversation rather than wondering what comes next.
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10 minutes
Arrive
What’s on your mind today, and what would make this hour useful?
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15 minutes
Review
How last week’s experiment went, what surprised you, what you’d change.
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25 minutes
Work it
One live problem, properly: questions, a framework if it helps, rehearsal if it’s a conversation.
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10 minutes
Commit
Design next week’s experiment and write it down in one sentence, in your words.
A typical engagement
Six months, start to finish.
This is the Executive program. Foundations follows the same path in three months, with fewer loops round the compass.
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Week 0
Free intro call
Twenty minutes to see whether we’re a fit. If we are, you get a short proposal and a start date the same day.
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Weeks 1–3 · Notice
Assessment and 360° interviews
A 90-minute kickoff, the calendar audit and up to eight confidential interviews with people you work with.
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Weeks 4–5 · Envision
Your leadership brief
We turn what we heard into two focus behaviours and an optional three-way conversation with your manager.
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Months 2–5 · Strengthen and walk it
Fortnightly sessions and weekly experiments
The core of the work, including one shadowing session where I sit in on a real meeting and debrief with you after.
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Month 6
Closing review
A short repeat of the 360°, a look back at the brief and a written plan for the six months after we finish.
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3 months later
Check-in, on the house
One more session to see what stuck, what slipped and what you want to do about it.
Your part
What you’ll need to bring
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Ninety minutes a fortnight
The session plus a little time for the weekly experiment.
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Honesty
Including about the experiments you didn’t get round to.
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One real problem
Coaching works best on the thing you’re actually stuck on.