Working with Organisations
We work with organisations where leadership capacity genuinely matters and where pace, pressure, and complexity aren’t occasional challenges but part of everyday life.
We work with purpose led, knowledge based organisations where leadership is human critical. Decisions, relationships, culture, and performance all rest on how people are able to think, relate, and lead under sustained pressure.
Often the issue isn’t that leaders aren’t capable. It’s that the conditions they’re working within make it harder and harder to lead well.
What’s usually going on
In many organisations, leadership strain doesn’t arrive as a dramatic moment. It builds quietly over time.
It can look like:
capable leaders carrying more than is sustainable
teams coping rather than working well together
decisions taking longer or feeling heavier than they should
friction creeping into relationships
neurodivergent difference present, but poorly held
change happening structurally, but not landing humanly
Traditional leadership development often struggles here because it focuses on individuals or tools. What’s actually needed is attention to the wider system leaders are operating inside.
That’s where this work sits.
This work isn’t about fixing people or rolling out programmes. It’s about creating the conditions where leadership can function properly again.
The work starts with conversation.
How this work tends to show up
The work is always bespoke and shaped around context. Rather than starting with formats, we start with what’s really happening.
Depending on the situation, the work might involve:
When leadership capacity is stretched
One to one coaching with senior leaders who need protected space to think, feel, and lead without constantly operating in survival mode or over-functioning.
When teams are under sustained pressure
Working with intact leadership teams where pace, growth, or change has begun to fragment communication, trust, or shared responsibility.
When change has a real human cost
Supporting leaders to attend to the emotional and relational impact of change, not just the organisational plan.
When organisations want leadership that actually works for humans
Neurodiversity informed leadership coaching and training, designed to support difference by default rather than retrofitting inclusion after the fact.
Formats are secondary. Understanding the system comes first.
The importance of Place
For some organisations, this work takes place away from the usual working environment, including at Pippingford Estate in the Ashdown Forest. Not as an escape, but as a way of creating the conditions for perspective, regulation, and different kinds of thinking.
Leadership and organisational work at Pippingford
Pippingford Estate offers a different setting for leadership and organisational work one that brings together thinking space, human connection, and meaningful environmental contribution.
Set within a privately stewarded part of the Ashdown Forest, Pippingford provides an environment that naturally slows things down and widens perspective. It’s a place where leadership teams can step out of familiar patterns and do more honest, connected work.
This isn’t a retreat in the usual sense, and it’s not an offsite designed to entertain. It’s a place to do serious leadership work differently.
Why place matters
Leadership work is shaped by environment, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Stepping out of meeting rooms and hotels changes how people think, listen, and relate to one another. At Pippingford, the scale of the landscape and the way it’s stewarded create conditions that support reflection, regulation, and more spacious conversations.
Nature here isn’t a backdrop. It’s an active part of the work.
The work
Work at Pippingford often supports:
senior leadership teams under sustained pressure
organisations navigating growth, change, or uncertainty
teams needing to reconnect around trust, purpose, and shared responsibility
leaders who need space to think systemically rather than reactively
The work can include facilitated leadership conversations, team coaching, organisational reflection, and strategy work that stays rooted in real human dynamics rather than abstract models.
ESG with substance, not performance
A central part of work at Pippingford is meaningful environmental contribution.
Teams contribute directly to conservation and land management work on the estate, supporting biodiversity, habitat restoration, and long-term stewardship of the forest. This isn’t offsetting or symbolic activity. It’s practical, place based contribution with tangible impact.
For organisations who care about ESG and want that commitment to be credible rather than performative, this approach allows leadership development and environmental responsibility to sit together in a way that feels integrated and real.
How this is different
Not beige hotel rooms
Not leadership theatre
Not tick-box volunteering
This is leadership work that respects complexity, honours humanity, and contributes to something beyond the organisation itself.
Pippingford is for organisations who want leadership development to mean something for their people, their work, and the wider systems they’re part of.
What People Are Saying
“You don’t realise how much you need this day until you get to the other side of it!
At first the prospect of working on myself for a whole day terrified me. It felt ego driven which is a real trigger for me but the combination of Emma and Lavender Cottage is difficult to put into words. It’s like you are transported to a different time and place where you have breathing (and as needed yelling!) space to, in my case start to discover who I really am and where I am going. The walk after lunch is so powerful as the metaphors nature brings and how Emma teases them out at just the right moment was at times very emotional. Emma’s ability to hold a safe space for you is so embracing and yet she knew just the right times to push a little bit harder, even if it felt uncomfortable.
Take the day, it will change the course of your life forever.”
— COO - Retreat Client
As someone who has struggled with imposter syndrome and been hard on myself both at work and in my personal life, working with Emma has been a game-changer. She has this amazing ability to guide and support you in such a subtle way that you don’t even realise the huge impact she's having. Emma doesn’t just give advice or feed you positive affirmations. Instead, she empowers you to come to realisations on your own. It's like she helps you discover that you already have your own toolkit (the mental and emotional tools you need to handle tough days without letting your confidence take a hit); she's just showing you how to find and use it. This approach has made me feel more resilient, self-positive and self-reliant, and it's truly transformative.
— Online Client - Founder
Working with Emma has been a truly transformative experience. From the moment you step into her retreat, you feel immediately at home. The space she creates is a sanctuary where you can fully relax and open up. Her unique approach to coaching weaves nature, mindfulness, and deep self-reflection, making every session an inspiring journey of personal growth. Emma has a gift for helping you tap into your inner strengths, clarify your goals, and find balance in both personal and professional areas of life. Her coaching goes beyond just achieving goals—it’s about holistic, lasting transformation. I’m incredibly grateful for the profound impact she’s had on me. Thank you, Emma!
— Online Client & In Nature Client - NED & Executive
I have been working with Emma for 6 months now and her coaching has enabled me to make affect meaningful change in my life by doing less, not more.
The reflections I am compassionately invited to carry out have empowered me to have greater awareness of my own mind and behaviour, to make small and mighty changes, bringing more joy and less.... noise.
I was lucky enough to meet Emma in person and have a coaching session in nature, I would highly recommend this, Emma + nature is powerful for propelling yourself forward to what you want to achieve!
Emma is a rock you can anchor yourself to, while allowing you to work through the tough challenges life inevitably provides and see clearly what you can do to impact how you live your life (It is more than you think!).
I am grateful for Emma's approach, which feels very gentle and yet is extremely powerful for affecting the change you seek. You will learn so much from Emma through her guidance, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Be prepared though, Emma is clearly experienced and talented coach. Proven in her awesome questions and a razor-sharp way of challenging you exactly where and when you need it. Go for it, you will be so pleased you did and as a bonus you will come away with a more profound respect for nature.
— Online and In Nature Client - Director
The work I have done together with Emma has been so enlightening. Her approach is not about generating action plans and to-do lists of self improvement, but about deep self reflection and understanding of what drives my beliefs and behaviours and what I need to thrive in every aspect of my life. Her choice to work in harmony with nature is inspired. She truly is a talented coach.
— Online & InPerson Client - Founder
Emma has a natural ability to balance psychological safety with the right amount of challenge to encourage the best out of her clients. I'm a relative newcomer to coaching, and have found my sessions with Emma invaluable in building a mental toolkit to navigate my professional journey. She is able to help me see beyond my own insecurities, and uncover and embrace my strengths. Each session has built on the last, and I always leave feeling positive and confident. Can't ask for more than that!
— Online Client - Executive & Head of