About

Two decades of real organisations.

I started as a teacher, in classrooms where trust had to be earned from people who had every reason not to give it. That turned out to be the foundation for everything that came after.

From there, through middle and senior leadership in a large national charity, working directly with CEOs and senior leadership teams through periods of significant organisational change, I have spent twenty years applying those same instincts at every scale. I stay until the work is done and the capability lives inside the organisation.

My approach is grounded in instructional coaching methodology, the principle that real skill is built through deliberate, repeated practice, not reflection alone. The same approach that produces the best teachers in the most challenging classrooms is what I bring to leaders.

Everything I do is in service of one thing: helping people respond rather than react, so that teams, relationships and organisations can find their momentum and hold it.

Teams rebuilt from the inside and the outside

Whether the work starts with a leader changing how they show up, or with stepping into a fractured dynamic and helping reset it, the aim is the same: a team that can hold together, speak honestly and carry the direction forward.

Two decades in organisations that do not stand still

Charities navigating funding pressure, restructures, leadership transitions and change programmes that had to land properly, or not at all. The complexity was never theoretical.

From classroom to C-suite

From teacher to middle leader, regional director and senior leader in a large national charity, I understand what leadership feels like from every seat in the room, and I work with leaders at all of them.

20+ years in complex organisations leading people & change
Instructional Coach and Ofsted Outstanding teacher
People & Change Leader Creator of the Momentum Framework for people and change leadership
Masters in Researching Practice University of Cambridge
Human leadership in the AI era Instructional coaching AI tool in development, launching 2026

What this practice is built on

Three principles that do not bend.

Respond. Don't react.

The skill is being able to pause, process and choose how to act under pressure, rather than being driven entirely by what the other person or situation is doing.

Real skill is built through deliberate practice.

Reflection matters, but insight alone is not enough. New behaviour becomes available through modelling, feedback and practice again, until the response you need is there when you need it.

Capability should live inside the person or organisation.

The goal is not dependency on Claire. The goal is that the methodology stays and the capability holds without her in the room.

Where next

Where would you like to start?

For Leaders Working with Teams Get the Feedback Conversation Kit

Questions before you commit to anything? Email me at hello@clairegothard.com