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About this Episode:

In this episode of the Transformative Leader Podcast, I’m happy to bring you a conversation with coaching expert, Robert Stephenson, about the craft of coaching, the art of listening, and what each of us can do differently to be better coaches to those who rely on us for guidance. In our discussion, Robert explains the difference between the role of a friend, mentor, and consultant, and how the role of a coach differs from all of them. We also talk about different coaching methodologies, how coaches and be better listeners, and Robert shares his views on effective leadership, among many other topics.

Robert Stephenson is a Coach, Trainer, Mentor, Speaker and the Centre Director of Animas, one of the largest diversified coaching schools in the UK and Europe. As coach trainer with more than 10 years of experience, Robert has empowered over 3000 coaches in the Animas community to embrace the humanistic approaches to coaching. Robert’s true love in coaching is using the multi-sensory and multi-dimensional process of narrative coaching to allow new stories to emerge within a client’s world When he’s not developing new and exciting training courses, he is imparting his insights around coaching, leadership and beyond as host of the Animas podcast, Coaching Uncaged.

As Animas Centre Director, Robert’s burning desire is to ensure Animas provides high-quality training and a learning journey that serves the needs of our coaches-in-training. With a background that has roots in performance, theatre and education, Robert’s journey to the helm of Animas is as varied as it is fascinating.

Having originally trained as an actor and mime-artist, physical theatre was a big part of Robert’s early work. Rob also had a rich involvement in the education space prior to coaching – from working with young people in schools and nurseries, up to teaching on degrees at several universities. Within this, he went down the route of specialising in theatre and education within schools and worked collaboratively with a number of organisations. Examples include Creative Partnerships and A New Direction, where he delivered training alongside Educational Consultant Mathilda Joubert, a collaboration that sparked his initial interest in coaching.

In terms of his career in the coaching world, Robert has been on an incredible journey of self-development and consistently expanded both his training and coaching skill set. Initially training as an NLP Practitioner and hypnotherapist, Robert went on to pass his Diploma in Transformational Coaching. He has also added a number of other accredited coach training courses to his toolkit, including David Drake’s Narrative Coaching, and Simon Western’s Analytic Network Coaching. Robert’s more than a decade of coaching experience is one of the many positive elements that he brings to the training space, and in turn the mentoring and supervisory space.

Accredited by the ICF, AC, and ILM, Robert gradually worked his way up at Animas. He started by delivering specialist CPD courses, including the Certificate in Group Coaching and the Certificate in Youth Coaching, which he co-created with Animas Founder Nick Bolton. He then became a regular trainer on our main Diploma in Transformational Coaching course, after which he became the Director of Training some years later. Finally, with Founder & Chairman Nick Bolton moving onto pastures new and with Rob’s passion, dedication and vision for Animas, Robert assumed the role of Centre Director.

Guest Links:

• Website: animascoaching.com/

• Podcast: Coaching Uncaged

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robert-stephenson-2491a21/, linkedin.com/school/animascoaching/

• Twitter: twitter.com/CreativeRobert

• Facebook: facebook.com/animascoaching/

• YouTube: youtube.com/user/animascoaching

• Instagram: instagram.com/animascoaching/

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