Coaching for inspiration - apecs logo
ACTP

Testimonials

It’s been my honour and pleasure to work with a wide range of clients. Some of them were kind enough to send me feedback and share their experiences

My working style has been described as supportive with a healthy dose of tough love. I bring humour and levity to most conversations. I stay calm when you are not. 

“You have rare leadership qualities which you have shown me I too can hope to acquire.”
Peter
Senior Vice President
“Alexandra combines strong leadership skills, a result-oriented personality and an extensive banking experience. This makes her a unique individual, capable of understanding and giving advice on day-to-day issues at the office as well as support one’s career aspirations.”
David
Team Manager
“I chose to take coaching from Alexandra as I had been a past colleague and had admired her organisational skills, efficiency and her nouse in a large corporate setting. Initially my priority was developing better time management skills for myself. It soon became obvious that there was a bigger need to grasp prioritisation itself, and even more than that, developing techniques for clear thinking. She has clearly helped me to develop these for myself, in my own way. Over the months I have worked with Alexandra, I have found myself better able to cope with a job that has become more demanding as the global financial crisis has become prolonged. In turn, this is enabling me to think strategically about the possible directions my career could take and to start making choices.While everyone will have their unique set of development or self-improvement needs, I am happy to recommend Alexandra’s work and approach, particularly as she is a good listener who asks the right question and consequently has been prepared to assess specific needs objectively rather than working to a Dr Phil type manual or textbook.”
Jim
Senior Portfolio Analyst
“After a few successful roles in IT and strategy, I took the decision to review where I was at professionally and define where best I should continue my journey. I had met Alexandra at a leadership conference and had been impressed by her style and energy.Today, I am so glad to have made this choice. Alexandra guided me through a complete assessment process, from the identification of my core values through to the understanding of my strengths and how I could play with those differently. As a result, I improved both my self-confidence and impact in my current job significantly, and the next step in my professional career became clearer.Alexandra has a unique style which I find both energising and reassuring. She has strong people skills – a lot of intuition, she is very good at listening and understanding what is said and unsaid. As well, Alexandra brings structure, in the form of rational and relevant tools in her coaching. The journey is very clear from start to finish, with a list of steps, so you understand where you are and can see the progress day after day. Each potential question or issue is noted and dealt with during the session or later in the process. This definitely helped me to always stick to my objectives and make steady progress.”
Philippe
Head of Strategic Projects
“I used to feel overwhelmed at work and felt I was not really in control. Taking the lead on projects, or speaking in public was a bit of a challenge, I felt uneasy whenever confrontation arose and I was not able to push my point across or negotiate a win-win situation. Alexandra helped me identify the problem, provided explanations as to which cognitive mechanisms were involved and provided a clear method to help manage stress, lack of self confidence and communication. She also shared her personal experience, as well as examples from other clients on a no-name basis, which was very helpful. I now have tools to manage my stress and anxiety in an efficient way, and with a bit of discipline, I am now able to speak more confidently in public, handle projects on my own and manage conflict appropriately. I have made significant progress in that field, and would definitely recommend her services to friends.”
Fred
Structurer
“Alexandra is an exceedingly perceptive and supportive partner, able to quickly cut to the essence of complex problems in and outside of a business context. The work done with her has led to specific improvements in my professional and indeed personal life. The techniques I have learned have also established a solid foundation upon which I can build in the future.”
Edward
Managing Director
“Alexandra ran very well structured sessions and provided me with highly relevant follow-up work. She encouraged me to think outside my comfort zone and helped me to structure and deepen my thoughts. I thoroughly enjoyed our sessions as they gave me the opportunity to share my own experiences with her and have my conclusions challenged. Alexandra is an excellent listener, she will carefully analyse the information she is given before providing her own feedback. She gave me numerous tips that were directly and immediately exploitable. I strongly recommend her for anyone who seeks advice for career progression.”
Pierre
Team Head
“Alexandra, you balanced active listening with being honest, challenging and yet encouraging. I left each session with a clear plan of action and a determination to implement. I have gathered the courage to take the risks required to progress in my career. Thank you!”
Winnie
Finance & Operations Director
“After a successful career in banking, I decided to build a portfolio of entrepreneurial activities away from the City. Alexandra gave me the confidence to successfully start a new career that somewhat diverged from what my peers were doing. She helped me make my motivations and skills more explicit for me to be more assertive and credible in front of potential new business partners. By gently challenging me when needed, and asking the tough questions that friends and family cannot easily raise, Alexandra helped me accelerate my career plans by a number of months.”
Damien
Former City Banker turned Entrepreneur
“Alexandra has a unique ability to combine the theoretical and the practical. She also knows when to be firm and when to give positive affirmation. I have successfully tackled challenging personnel issues with her guidance and support. Thank you!”
Lisa
ExCo Member and Managing Director
“I found Alexandra’s advice and guidance very helpful. She listened, evaluated and clarified my issues directly. Her perspective was spot on. She challenged and supported me in critically rethinking my approach (looking for a new career opportunity) and in the end provided me with a positive focus.”
Andy
Senior portfolio Analyst in Transition
“Alexandra gave me tremendously useful coaching on communicating about a sensitive topic at work. She helped me very quickly identify my goals and ensure they were realistic. She offered great advice, tips and even role playing to help me strategize and practice, all personalized to my specific situation. After our session I walked in to a meeting I had been dreading feeling calm, grounded and prepared. I was really impressed and would work with Alexandra again in a heartbeat. I can’t recommend her highly enough!”
Elisa
In a career transition after obtaining a PhD
“Alexandra provides excellent help and guidance. She is extremely professional, operates with integrity, delivers her services with sensitivity and credibility, and has a great intuitive style. I recommend her without hesitation.”
Sabine
About switching firms in Investment Banking
“Alexandra is smart and very knowledgeable about the financial sector. She has worked in different fields (trading, rating agency, risk management) and inspired me by sharing her experience. She has excellent management skills and very quickly knows how to deal with specific situations having some good vision. Recently, as a coach, she has been of very good advice helping me to progress in my career. I can only highly recommend her.”
Nathalie
Senior Analyst
“I loved working with Alexandra. She has a great ability to understand what does not work and to know how to solve the issue. By working with her I have realised things about myself that I would have never imagined. And by working with Alexandra, I achieved my goal of changing both jobs and industry.”
Adriano
Risk Manager
“Working with Alexandra has been a great experience. She is very knowledgeable and skilled with the techniques she uses. Alexandra’s style and techniques have really helped me get to the bottom of my issue and identify some ways forward with these.”
Angela
Team Manager
“The advice provided by Alexandra was clear and concise. In addition, her personal experience and anecdotes helped frame the issues and powers at stake as well as illustrate how change could be effected.”
Stéphanie
Director
“It has been great working with Alexandra. She has helped me take down some of my career blocks, and making it all seem so achievable.”
Donna
Medical Doctor
“Working with Alexandra during these tough times was not only refreshing but motivating in itself. She inspired me to go the extra mile in order to find the right answers for me. Through well-prepared advance work, probing questions and challenging me in the right way, Alexandra has helped me test my desired career path, to connect the dots and build a bridge between the shores of desire and passion on the one side and a tangible reality for my future based on my knowledge, my competencies and my experience on the other side. She knows how to extract the best part of your dreams, by seeing in you the rough diamond with high potential that needs to be polished up to its final shine and a fine value.”
Robert
Entrepreneur
“Alexandra has a critical ability to cut through complexity and see inconsistencies, and draws on analogy to see problems in new and unconventional ways. She has developed her own set of strongly-held values, which focus on making a positive difference to others, being open-minded, and having integrity. She is non-judgmental about others’ values and finds it motivating and energising to help people. She has an instinctive coaching style, which draws on her own life experience.”
Sam
Partner, International Law Firm
“Alexandra has become like a best friend to me. What I really appreciate is that I can think aloud and know that I have someone who is a ‘listening ear’ without making judgments. Instead she offers me very practical insights; as a result I am now starting to understand myself better and to make sense of my own complexities. This is helping me move forward in my professional life to a degree I hadn’t previously thought possible.”
Sally
Network Marketing Expert
“The coaching experience was very helpful: Alexandra’s professional experience and coaching skills enabled me to find out more about what matters to me.”
Omar
Vice President
“Alexandra helped me by bringing in a neutral perspective when it came to thinking about a career move. Challenging my ideas from a distance and in light of her own managerial experience brought about more clarity and balance into my decision.”
Dagmar
About relocating to another country
“You inspired me to broaden my horizons and to have the courage to take a risk.”
Stephen
Team Head
“Very useful sessions! They give me a chance to get to know myself and also provide me with many good suggestions to deal with different aspects of the real work. I really enjoy it! Thanks, Alexandra.”
Lingzhou
Senior Vice President
“Alexandra helped me to better understand how I function cognitively and how to use this improved self-awareness to enrich both my personal and professional lives. She is integrity personified and treats you and your affairs with the utmost confidentiality and is therefore highly recommended.
Wale
Finance and Business Development
“Thank you for all the support that you have given me. [With the coaching programme coming to an end] as well as saying goodbye to a good coach, it also feels like I am losing a good friend and ally.”
Andrew
Team Manager
“Working with Alexandra has been a very enjoyable experience, her professional approach and frankness was compatible with my working style. Over the past 6 months I have had the opportunity to develop my business and myself personally; I’ve also gained a new friend who I can trust. Thank you Alexandra for taking the time to support me during the early stages of my business; if it wasn’t for our sessions I may well have thrown in the towel!”
Nikki
On building up her own business
“I appreciated the time I spent working with Alexandra who not only challenged me to think about my career approach in new ways, but also offered her own experiences to help demonstrate how to apply the concepts she was recommending. She holds herself and her clients to a high standard and also requires you to take a very introspective approach to best understand where you have been in your career and where you can take it. I fully recommend Alexandra to anyone who finds they are in a career rut and who wish to move past it.”
Charlene
Sales Director

Let’s Explore Whether I’m the Right Fit for You

I hope you now have an idea about what your own coaching journey might look and feel like. By all means, come and tell me about your own situation: do get in touch and I’ll be delighted to have an exploratory chat to see if I am the right resource for you at this time.

You can also get a feel for who I am and how I approach some work life challenges by browsing my library of videos and articles. Use the alphabetical scroll-down menu to a topic of interest: several videos and articles will be displayed. I hope you find something useful!