Redwood Ellis - Employee Engagement

Helping people think better, lead better and feel more confident doing it

I’ve spent more than 40 years working with people - training them, coaching them, mentoring them and, perhaps most importantly, helping them understand themselves and each other a little better.

My career has taken me from British Airways, where I worked in training and cultural change, to coaching and mentoring individuals and leaders, and into the offshore oil and gas industry, where I now deliver Crew Resource Management and human factors training to teams from around the world.

On the surface, those worlds can look very different - they really aren’t.

Whether I’m working with a senior leader, someone stepping into management for the first time, a woman navigating a period of change, or an offshore crew making decisions in a high-risk environment, the fundamentals are remarkably similar.

How do we communicate?
How do we behave under pressure?
Do we trust ourselves and each other?
And what gets in the way of us performing at our best?

Those questions sit at the heart of everything I do.

Coaching and mentoring

I’m an ICF-accredited coach, trained through Animas, and have coached and mentored hundreds of people across different industries and stages of life.

Some people come to me because they want to become more confident. Others are dealing with a new role, difficult relationships at work, changing priorities, overwhelm or that uncomfortable feeling that something needs to change but they’re not quite sure what.

Quite often, the answer isn’t about becoming a completely different person. It’s about understanding yourself better, trusting yourself more and finding a way of working or living that feels more like you.

My coaching is person-centred, so there isn’t a standard programme that everybody gets pushed through. We start with what is happening for you and work from there.

Leadership, teams and psychological safety

A significant part of my work is with leaders and teams. Through Crew Resource Management training in the offshore industry, I work with people operating in complex, high-pressure environments where communication, decision-making, situational awareness, teamwork and the confidence to speak up genuinely matter.

It has reinforced something I’ve believed throughout my career: The best teams aren’t the ones where nobody makes mistakes. They’re the ones where people feel safe enough to question, challenge, admit they don’t know and speak up before a small problem becomes a much bigger one.

That is why psychological safety has become such an important part of my work.

Creating that kind of environment doesn’t require leaders to have all the answers. It requires curiosity, trust, self-awareness and the willingness to listen.

Experience matters. So does staying curious.

I bring a lot of experience to my work, but I never want experience to turn into thinking I know everything.

I continue to learn and develop, with additional training and CPD in areas including Positive Intelligence, menopause and confidence, and coaching in neurodiversity.

I’m fascinated by people: why we behave as we do, why some environments bring out the best in us while others make us shrink, and why intelligent, capable people can sometimes lose confidence in themselves.

I’m equally interested in what helps us get it back.

And outside work…

I’m based in Rutland and, when I’m not coaching or heading off somewhere further afield to deliver training, you’ll often find me following Leicester Tigers rugby - helped by the fact that my nephew plays for them!

My happiest times are usually the simplest ones: being with family and friends, sharing good food, travelling, having great conversations and staying curious about the world.

I’ve also spent much of my life around neurodivergent family and friends, so I’m very comfortable with difference and with people who think, communicate and experience the world in all sorts of ways.

Why Redwood?

In our garden stand five beautiful Redwood trees, planted more than a century ago by a local explorer. They have become part of the identity behind Redwood Ellis.

Redwoods are remarkable trees. They represent qualities that resonate strongly with the work I do - strength, longevity, wisdom, connection, communication and safety. They also thrive through connection.

Their roots may not run particularly deep, but they intertwine with those of the trees around them, creating strength together. For me, that feels like a pretty good metaphor for people too. We are stronger when we feel connected, supported and able to be ourselves.

That is what I hope Redwood Ellis helps to create.