Testimonials

Gill is a highly recommended Leadership developer with very rich experience. I have collaboratively worked with Gill over the years delivering training to a multitude of organisations in Africa and she has always stepped up to the challenge with a very optimistic and wide view approach. Our clients love her delivery style and she is great at adapting the training to the right environment. A trainer that will challenge and provoke the group’s thinking regardless of seniority. I would recommend her as a commendable person to work with and an invaluable trainer with a unique style.

The Women in Transport Lead programme has been very instrumental and transformational for me. I didn't realise that I had so many limiting beliefs about myself, until I joined this course . This course has helped me to reflect, acknowledge and learn about tools and techniques to deal with my limiting beliefs. My perspective has changed from a negative to a positive one. I now acknowledge my skills, abilities and achievements, knowing that I am more than enough.

If you want to discover your true potential – the Women in Transport Lead programme is the course for you. Engaging, challenging and thought provoking – and you will feel unstoppable at the end of it. I have learnt so much about myself, my strengths and how I want to lead and support others, in my own way. Every conversation is tangible and relatable, and instantly useable both personally and professionally. I would recommend this course to anyone, from those looking to ‘find’ themselves or regain their confidence (as I was) to those who are looking to build a structured career path.

The Women in Transport leadership programme is built in a way that forces you to look inwards and identify and reflect on your actual strengths, values and areas for improvement and tie these together to unlock your true authentic leadership potential. The workshops centre around key themes introduced by the workshop leads, supported by professional speakers, and utilises a mix of group and independent work to learn and improve your leadership techniques. This programme creates space to think and forces you to uncover your subconscious beliefs that hold you back and challenge then head on. A fantastic programme that I feel truly privileged to have experienced, thank you Lead for providing me with this great opportunity!

"LEAD is such a worthwhile and valuable programme. The topics explored and support provided by the group and coaches creates a world of opportunity for your development."

"The course is excellent and surprisingly insightful. It will provide you with real tools you can use in your current role and the next steps you can take to progress towards your ultimate career goal."

I was fortunate to attend the workshops Gill conducted for PSI as part of a global management development programme. I can honestly say that Gill is one of the most knowledgeable, enthusiastic and amazing facilitators I have ever met. She has a quiet confidence that makes people want to come to her for advice, her opinion, and to hang on her every word when she is presenting a topic. I still hear colleagues in the company talk about her and the workshops she facilitated months after they were finished. I recommend Gill as a management development facilitator wholeheartedly!

As a Leadership Developer and Trainer, Gill is outstanding. She engages delegates/clients and helps them grow by instinctively using just the right amount of 'stretch' to get immediate insight and results. Gill is one of the most gifted and genuine people you'll come across. She is absolutely committed to her own growth, is great fun to work with, delivers insightful feedback to her colleagues, has a sharp mind and is always willing to help. She will challenge and support you in taking action whilst helping you to see things from a new, enlightened perspective.

Gill helped me develop my public speaking skills in preparation for a key event. I recommend her wholeheartedly as a coach and mentor. She helped me move from fear to absolute confidence and enjoyment engaging with an audience of 300. Even when working towards a short-term goal like this one, I found Gill’s focus always to be on my long-term development: mindset, confidence and self-belief.

As a coach, Gill draws on deep business experience, intuition, fun, honesty and some killer questions. I appreciated her commitment to my goals and her willingness to think creatively with me and I recommend her to you.

I'm always appreciative of Gill's blog. Each month, there are insights, it's thought provoking and relevant and I really value what Gill shares. There is invariably something which brings a fresh perspective. Very often the links, quotes and stories are pertinent to different clients that come to mind for me too - and then the ripple effect is in motion. A big thank you: ))

The approach that Gill took to delivering the ILM Level 5 Leadership and Management course was first class. Her approach challenged my perceptions of new theories and really stretched my interpretation of those I already knew about. At the same time we made the leadership models and techniques relevant to my workplace, and applied them to the real-life challenges I was facing at the time. Working with Gill has really developed confidence in my own abilities, and given me the knowledge and techniques to model great leadership for others going forward.

"The most stretching, thought provoking and useful coaching I have experienced, benefitting both me personally and the team I was leading, as a consequence of my greater effectiveness. A valuable contribution to winning the Northern Rail franchise."

"I was thrilled to be accepted on to the Women in Rail mentoring scheme and to be paired with Gill. My goal was to explore all aspects about securing promotion by the end of the year. My sessions with Gill have been thought provoking and challenging but underpinned with good humour and a positivity that I have really appreciated. Such great listening skills and inspiring ability to translate other’s words. The advice offered has been invaluable and gave me the much needed confidence boost to finally achieve my goal."

I would recommend the SparkSync "Growing Your Leadership Edge" course to anybody who is in a leadership position, this would enable them evaluate the way they are leading and enable them consider the important aspects of improving their leadership and more importantly the way they relate to their workmates.

“Gill’s coaching was an important addition as we became not just a team but a winning team. In business we often review our results and their effectiveness in achieving business objectives, but that misses how we got there. Gill’s one-to-one coaching provided me with the framework for review, reflection and personal development. Her coaching approach was often challenging, always constructive and enabled me to improve my effectiveness as a leader.”

Empathy, challenge and the ability to give tough feedback in a gentle or humorous way are key attributes needed in coaching supervision and Gill possesses these in abundance. The ability to cut through a client’s perception of what the problem is and help them confront the underlying issue is something that cannot be undervalued; Gill achieves this with humility and skill. She is willing to give enough of herself with individual anecdotes and self effacing modesty to win total trust. A session with Gill provokes the mindset and confidence to make changes and confront realities. I cannot recommend her highly enough.

"Since I attended the SparkSync Leadership Programme, I have become a better team player and leader to my team as I listen more to my colleagues’ side of the story. This has benefited the department and the bank at large, since we are able to work better as a team and are therefore more productive."

"Gill has supported individuals and the team in new and improved leadership thinking and team working to deliver our objectives. Understanding and modelling improved behaviours has allowed us as individuals to 'be at our best', and also to facilitate others in the team to do likewise. This has improved the team working, and most notably has been a significant contributory factor in winning the Northern Rail franchise bid and the London Overground concession. Thank you Gill for your support."

“As PMO Workstream Lead for Arriva UK Trains’ Northern Franchise bid, I was one of the team Gill regularly coached. Her coaching was definitely the most effective coaching I have participated in. Gill understood the pressures we were under as a team and was very adaptable with her approach. This was very powerful for me personally but also resulted in a more cohesive team.”

Gill’s approach to coaching is calming, reflective, assuring and affirming. I had the pleasure of working with Gill in the midst of a major bid. The time spent with Gill during a hectic bid period allowed time to reflect on how I was contributing to the bid and enabled a refocus on how best to contribute to the team going forward. I would heartily recommend the investment in Gill’s coaching during a major bid as the time invested in the coaching sessions accelerated and enhanced my own and my team’s performance.

"Gill supported Southern at the inception of our ambition to transform our leadership approach towards a more coaching style. Gill was instrumental in working with us to develop, from a blank sheet of paper, a comprehensive and effective approach to deliver this strategy. Gill was creative and expert in guiding Southern to achieve a scalable product with complete knowledge transfer to our development team. The business results have seen tangible improvements in employee engagement scores with organisational health measures improving alongside them. Winning a National Training Award together was the cherry on top of an excellent business partnership."

"As Vice President Process Optimisation for American Express Business Travel Europe Ltd, I was initially sceptical about how coaching skills for my leaders could directly benefit my business group. But it is clear from the exceptional business results achieved that by developing coaching proficiency in my leaders our existing strategies and actions taken to improve business performance were amplified. Under Gill’s direction my business leaders were engaged in a series of coaching courses to increase employee engagement, retention and create more value as a business support group. In just six months from launch date, employee engagement improved by more than 10 per cent, with 100 per cent retention of our most talented leaders. Where our customer satisfaction results had previously plateaued, they improved by 15 per cent. These business results can be directly linked to the Buonacorsi coaching and the improved skill set of my leadership team to drive results."

"Gill creates a great learning environment, enabling all participants to share and contribute in discussions, actively learning from others’ experiences. The ILM Level 5 Certificate in Leadership has both challenged and encouraged me, while helping me to understand the type of leader I both am and can be."

"I have had coaching with Gill for the last 3 years and look forward to every session. Gill's depth of knowledge and ability to listen, then support and empower you to come up with your own ideas, creates sessions that leave you feeling driven and able to tackle whatever challenge the session had focused on. My leadership and work improves after each session I have. I would recommend Gill to anyone who wants to explore their professional capacity in a positive, exploratory and evidence-based way."

"Gill is a very positive and supportive coach. Gill looks at the whole person, drawing out personal strengths, values and aspirations to find an authentic approach to leadership development. Gill blends candour and sensitivity, humour and challenge with a keenness to celebrate personal success, helping to pinpoint the qualities that have brought job satisfaction and achievement and build on them. I would highly recommend working with Gill."

"I worked in partnership with Gill How from Buonacorsi Consulting to develop and evolve the Southern coaching programme as well as helping to shape and introduce an internal coaching service. Both these programmes are still running successfully in Southern using internal resources. The senior stakeholder involvement and sponsorship of the programme has been one its key strengths, and Gill was instrumental in achieving this. Gill is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that the delivery of any intervention is of the highest standard. In my experience this level of commitment and flexibility from an external consultant is extremely rare."

"Gill's guidance was exceptionally useful. She helped me identify my strengths and how to use them in the context of consultant interview and ongoing management practice."

"Excellent facilitation of the ILM Level 5 Leadership and Management Certificate, with activities to embed learning between Group Learning Days which really worked for me."
 

"After the strengths workshop for the new business with my Head Office staff, we all left feeling both energised and positive both about the business and our future roles.”

"Gill spoke at the CIPD Group that I chair, detailing the coaching programme that she was in the process of delivering for one of her clients and freely sharing her learning. The feeback from all attendees was excellent. She was engaging, supportive and an obvious expert in her field. I wholeheartedly recommend her."

"I really benefited from Gill’s approach – she made it particularly easy to accommodate training around our existing working lives by having a very pragmatic, step-by-step style which gave us the right tools to achieve the ILM Level 5 Coaching for Management qualification from the very start. I had every confidence in succeeding providing I stuck to Gill’s plan which, combined with her entertaining delivery, made for a pleasurable and productive experience."

"I was most impressed by the ILM Level 3 in Leadership and Management course run by Buonacorsi. The presentation was balanced between being informal, authoritative and highly personable; both Gill and her colleague Jane delivered the voluminous subject in bite-sized chunks. I found the course highly relevant to my job and felt empowered and more able to interpret and read both my immediate and larger-picture work environment, making light of what previously I may have found confusing or daunting."

"Buonacorsi’s ILM Level 3 course in Leadership and Management enabled me to develop problem-solving methodologies that I could realistically apply in the workplace. It was useful to understand how to adjust my leadership style in different situations and I have since used these techniques in my role. Course leaders Gill and Jane were lovely as well as being great facilitators. I would highly recommend this course to aspiring or first-time line managers."

"Having a background in training and development, I feel qualified to comment on Buonacorsi’s delivery of the ILM Level 5 Leadership and Management course. I was consistently impressed by Gill’s approach to training, in particular her ability to engage each of the participants in the issues under discussion; her willingness to adapt sessions – often on the spot – to make them more effective; her ability to respond to feedback at the end of each session to improve the next; and especially her capacity for engaging people through appropriate humour, respect and sincere interest in our professional experiences. The programme has encouraged me to engage in more meaningful dialogue around strategy, leadership styles and innovation with not just those managers who report to me but also with my own manager."

"The ILM Level 5 coaching qualification delivery was both professional and enjoyable (2010). The material and practice sessions within the course provided a great preparation before embarking on the delivery of coaching within the workplace. I've used the coaching skills gained on the course both as a coach within the wider organisation and to provide coaching within my team. The skills gained on this course are some of the most useful of any I've previously attended."

"The course delivery style on the ILM Level 5 Leadership and Management course was relaxed and approachable, with just the right amount of theoretical underpinning, reflective activities infused with practical discussion and well-informed and considered feedback from the facilitator. Gill inspired and encouraged us all and overall provided a safe and enjoyable learning space. For me, the programme led to the construction of two well-reasoned action plans that were both practical and well aligned to the strategic objectives of our organisation. I was able to implement those plans immediately and see the positive effect the course has had on me individually, my immediate team and upon what we do as a service."

Gill's holistic, positive approach as an executive coach supervisor is truly ‘formative, normative and restorative’. I have valued Gill’s powerful questions and accurate insights. I have appreciated the quality and often originality of her thinking, and her capacity to draw out clarity from confusion and complexity. Genuinely curious, Gill is prepared to challenge and give voice to difficulties, offering honest feedback and realistic encouragement in a way that prompts me to take on board her observations. She often does this with spot-on and supportive humour. She always brings fresh ideas, energy and commitment to my wider learning as a coach, mentor and supervisor.