Testimonials from Talentology clients
“I engaged Katherine at Talentology last year to prepare my No.2 to step into the Managing Director role this year and to support her direct reports while she was on maternity leave - a critical period for the business.
I’ve seen the impact she’s had across the team. She builds trust quickly, communicates effectively with different personalities and brings clear, experienced judgment to complex situations.
She listens carefully, digests information quickly and offers practical, well-considered direction. Importantly, she has acted as a trusted sounding board and stabilising presence, helping us maintain clarity, momentum and continuity during a key leadership transition.
She has strengthened the capability and confidence of the team while reducing pressure on senior leadership at a crucial time. She’s become a genuine asset to the business”.
“What a week. A huge thankyou to Katherine Ray and Jackie Elliott of Talentology and Heuristic Group Coaching for partnering with us and building this Academy.
True mastery at work and incredible insights and deeply moving coaching experiences. The cohort loved this week. Watching the spark of ideas and relationships has been phenomenal. The joy of seeing learning and connections happen is so fulfilling as a fellow Onfidoer and a treasured custodian of our culture and sense of belonging. I got the feels this week for our investment in our people.
What amazing bright sparks they are! An honour and a joy”.
We found Talentology whilst doing research into the implementation of a mentoring framework for Ordnance Survey. We were looking for a consultancy that could help us to shape our thinking, bring external insight and help create a mentoring framework with supporting resources. Talentology offered just that, from creative thinking sessions, to planning, brainstorming and content creation.
Katherine was able to hold a mirror up to our thinking as well as bringing world class external insight. She offered constructive challenge and shared new ideas and ways of doing things. She is a true professional who deeply listens to the needs of her clients and then delivers way above what is expected, she is also a joy to work with.
We would recommend Katherine to anyone who is looking to implement Coach & Mentoring cultures into their workplace, and we look forward to working with Katherine again in the future.
We wanted to pilot a reciprocal mentoring programme to help create mutual awareness and understanding between mentoring leaders and mentoring partners to help build an inclusive culture.
Talentology partnered with us to design and deliver a high impact programme, which helped equip all participants with not just the skills, but the mindset to establish a strong relationship with equal challenge and learning for both the leaders and the partners.
Talentology really listened, interpreted and tailored the programme to the context of the organisation, and was instrumental in delivering a first-of-its-kind programme for us at Howden which truly moves the dial on inclusion where it matters.
We have had so many participants tell us about the shift in how they think and are now moving to launch this wider in the business – with much interest already. Thank you, Katherine!
I was introduced to Katherine via a mutual contact in our network. I needed an external provider to design and deliver some leadership training for a small group of line managers to support them with their development, and increase their confidence and capability in managing people. Katherine came highly recommended and I immediately felt at ease discussing the challenges we were facing and appreciated her expertise, patience and friendly approach.
Katherine took time to really listen and understand our requirements and advised how to build a training programme that would deliver on the specific needs of the participants. She designed bespoke training modules that were carefully tailored to us and incorporated our company values and goals. We were constrained to delivering the training virtually via Zoom, however Katherine suggested a blended learning approach to strike a balance between theory and interaction which really enhanced each session.
The training programme was a great success with a 100% improvement in confidence levels across all participants, and several requests for more training once it was completed. I really enjoyed working with Katherine and would certainly recommend her services to others.
Katherine worked with us on delivering a number of workshops for our HR team, focusing on helping them to become “CEO of their careers”. This was part of a wider strategy for us to increase the capability of our HR team through a number of different interventions.
Katherine was great throughout the process, probing and understanding the current state of the team and our key needs going forward. Using this insight, Katherine pulled together a tailored programme, which received great feedback and will really help us going forward.
Katherine had a lovely style and way of working which meant that creating the programme with her was a collaborative and easy experience. Furthermore Katherine was great at understanding our team and needs so that the session she created really addressed these.
Overall I would highly recommend Katherine and Talentology and look forward to working with her again in the future.
Katherine worked with us on a number of projects – introduction to mentoring and delivering a workshop on resilience. I worked with Katherine in a previous organization and knew she could be trusted to deliver great content and high quality material.
Katherine is a pleasure to work with. She has a wealth of experience, a really flexible style, she is a great listener and has a really good sense of humour. When she works with you she feels part of your team which is a testament to her warm and friendly style.
She also went out of her way to get to know our company and really tailored the content to suit us. We got great feedback from the attendees so we would have no hesitation in working with her again in the future.
Katherine has been working closely with us here at Kindred Group since 2016 and supported me through developing a highly effective coaching course tailored to our culture and management population. As well as delivering a highly effective course setting us up for success in delivering a coaching culture, Katherine has also been doing some 121 coaching with some of our senior leaders within the business. Her style, professionalism and effectiveness has proven invaluable for those leaders and has seen positive change within their departments.
Katherine is an absolute joy to work with and even through a difficult period of change within our business, has proven to be reliable, effective and extremely flexible in how she could support us. Her vast experience and knowledge, in HR and beyond, has also provided me personal support and guidance in ensuring that what I can offer the business is a success.
I would highly recommend Katherine and look forward to continuing our business partnership for years to come.
Katherine has worked with us @ Huddle on a number of projects - introducing mentoring to the business and developing and facilitating a workshop for non-leaders who aspire to leadership. This was to introduce our leadership behaviours to the business and support our Huddlers’ personal understanding and skill development. She is also working with us on a Personal Brand workshop to be launched shortly (in the summer). Her coaching style, quality development ability and energy levels made her a great culture fit for Huddle.
I particularly valued Katherine’s reliability and quality of delivery. Materials were delivered when she had committed and they were to a very high quality. Her attention to detail was great and she took great pains to ensure our brand was represented in the quality of printing she obtained, ensuring the materials were excellent, which they were. When facilitating Katherine takes time to listen and engage with all delegates and to ensure they all feel involved.
Working with Katherine was a pleasure. She listens and builds on ideas and delivers great quality results on time. She has a very easy-going nature and puts a lot of effort into building good working relationships with delegates in the workshops, which has led to great feedback from sessions.
Katherine has recently developed a one-day short course for CIPD Training on gender equality, aimed at HR professionals - Achieving Greater Gender Diversity (in the workplace) - and the ease of working with her on this piece of work made it an absolute pleasure. Katherine immediately understood the brief and was able to draw on her substantial experience and knowledge of effective training delivery to create a valuable and practical course for our customers.
Katherine’s passion for the promotion of diversity and HR best practice in general is clear and I was impressed with her vast amount of knowledge on the subject and her efficiency in developing the course.
Katherine is a fuss-free, driven and highly experienced consultant who is an expert in her field and I would not hesitate to recommend her.
Katherine supported us with our launch of our new potential model – creating materials for managers and individuals to bring the new approach to life and embed it across the organisation. I connected most with her vs other people I met. She just ‘got it’, and was straightforward and really easy to work with. I felt like we were on the same wavelength.
The other was her depth of expertise and experience in the subject – she was the voice of experience having implemented something similar at Unilever. She worked really quickly… in a time where I was really struggling for resource she was my angel! And it was really collaborative without being overso – asking the right and enough questions to ensure it was delivered in line with my expectations, but bringing her own creativity and thinking to make it even better!1:1 EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP COACHING
"The coaching sessions with Katherine allowed me to take a deeper look at some challenges and questions I had about my leadership and communication style. Taking very practical, real situations and going through them and discussing the rationale behind each one, we explored other ways of approaching and dealing with the situations which really helped me to see different options available to me. The sessions helped me think of new ways, new options and reframing the narrative I was sometimes too close to.Katherine was very attentive to how I presented and worded my narrative. She picked up very easily important aspects and values for me and making sure her questions were aligned to them. She helped me address aspects of my communication and narrative whilst keeping my values and integrity at the heart. In this sense she helped me develop more skills as a leader without making me feel that I should change who I am".
Country Director
"I’m not sure what I really expected from the coaching sessions, but the interactions with Katherine definitely exceeded expectations with their ease and impact. I now have a more positive outlook and approach and a better way of communicating around role changes and being a co-founder. I think the best part of this experience was the work we did around putting the emphasis on the value I bring rather than thinking negatively and seeing mismatches as failings. This was personally very useful and definitely gave me a way of articulating what I was already feeling and trying to realign. This will be useful in the future as it helps me understand other team members or hires. This will definitely be a lasting impact of the coaching. I’d recommend coaching to founders of a scaling business and helping identify where their value lies. It’s a real challenge as you scale and you end up in positions that may not fit."
CEO and Co-Founder - Tech start-up1:1 EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP COACHING
"Katherine helped me think clearly about holistic and specific approaches to: authentically connecting with my peers to improve internal communications, honing the power of my top personal strengths, self-care, and updating my personal narrative.I found Katherine to be 100% present, thoughtful and able to draw out the real issues that needed to be addressed. Conversations could get uncomfortable, but were safe, and the process was handled with a maturity that was also friendly and warm.It was interesting how much ground was covered, coherently, with just monthly sessions over a four month period. That the connection could be sustained was, I think, a testament to Katherine’s preparation, consistency and dedication to helping. It also coincided with a challenging and, honestly, dramatic time with work. I am very grateful I had Katherine available to help. Had I not, it would have been much more difficult. Thank you".
Chief Development Officer
Katherine’s coaching had a very clear impact on my approach to work, my prioritization and my focus. She really helped me to step outside of my day-to-day and focus on my career objectively, focused on how best to make progress. Clarity of thought: Katherine is excellent at helping you untangle the problems you face, identify their root causes and then develop a focused plan forward. Highly personable: Katherine’s style is very personable and encouraging – it feels like a real collaboration, and her guidance is always empathetic and thoughtful. Action oriented: While Katherine helps you unpick the context behind challenges, there is always a clear path of progress and next steps set out to ensure you’re tracking, and constantly referring back to the original goals set out from the off.I highly recommend Katherine as an outstanding coach, with an excellent consultative manner rooted in an understanding of people on a personal level".
Director - Advertising
