Lucy Daykin has helped coaching go global at Grant Thornton International. Her ability to see the bigger picture has brought many benefits to the professional services firm and made her Coaching at Work’s 2021 international coaching champion. Liz Hall reports
Lucy Daykin, Grant Thornton International (GTI)’s head of coaching is a “big picture person” and intrapreneur who loves playing with different systems, including technology, cultures and the natural world.
Her capacity for zooming out and far-reaching vision, and for innovation has helped her professionalise coaching globally at the professional services firm. This work saw GTI win the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) Global Coaching Award in 2020. And in 2021, Daykin won the Coaching at Work award for Internal Coaching Champion of the Year for her ambitious work building a global coaching culture in GTI over the past three or so years.
GTI has a 68,000-people strong network with member firms in 147 markets. And it now has coaches in 60 of its member firms, including smaller countries in Africa and some areas of South East Asia and the APAC region.
“This is really rewarding for the team and I. Coaching globally has grown exponentially at GTI over the past few years, and I’m very proud to work with a phenomenal team of professionals who believe in all the work we do to realise our vision of growing a coaching culture.
“Being able to grow a coaching culture in the way we have takes a lot of work, passion and energy and we’ve given that our full tilt for the last three years,” says Daykin.
“What I’ve been able to realise globally as an intrapreneur is a game changer for our global network. I never expected the shift in culture [through coaching] to get the legs it did,” she says.
Before GTI, Daykin worked in the Grant Thornton UK firm as head of commercial coaching, specialising in executive, team/system coaching, and in creating a coaching culture, setting up coach supervision and bespoke coaching interventions for future fit organisations. Her team worked with the wider board effectiveness team, on coaching, leadership and culture.
During this time, she set up the Grant Thornton EMCC European Quality Awarded (EQA) Exceptional Coach Programme in the UK to develop partners globally, providing leaders with a quality assured internal coach.
While at the UK firm, Daykin pioneered the Apprenticeship Levy for a Coaching Standard in the UK. Before that, she worked in talent development and then as part of the leadership, coaching & culture team in business consulting at Grant Thornton. “We worked with our clients [nationally and internationally] to unlock growth and potential with the C-suite and board, through vision and purpose work, executive coaching, leadership development and the wider system of culture transformation.”
Daykin realised in 2018 that the business needed to develop professional coaching across its global network of member firms after seeing how coaching changed the culture in the UK and Canadian LLP firms. “I knew this would support us to grow a global coaching culture and help us be future fit. After sharing my vision with the senior leadership team at GTI, I joined GTI [in 2018] to grow coaching globally,” says Daykin, who is now based in New Zealand. GTI also offers a Manager as Coach foundation programme for its people managers, and now offers partner coach masterclasses for its global coach alumni.
Benefits
Over the past few years, during which GTI has been developing partner coaches, Daykin has loved hearing the many stories of people benefiting from coaching, including being better able to cope “when a family member passed away, or with a tragedy in the family, or challenges around mental health and wellbeing.
“And coaching has helped people be better leaders.
“I know the power of coaching from being coached myself – both life and executive coaching. And on an organisational level we’ve got some momentum of people, including CEOs from member firms, who are very committed.
“Alongside the obvious benefits of learning coaching skills on the Exceptional Coach Programme we also offer European Individual Accreditation at Practitioner level [on completion of all the elements of the programme].
“The year-long programme has provided a psychologically safe space for our leaders to be honest and real, have connection and support with the fellow coaches in training, support wellbeing and mental health, and to grow deep relationships that go beyond borders.
“I often talk at the beginning of the coach training programmes I run globally for GTI that it’s more than just coaching skills, it’s way more enriching than you’d ever dream, you learn about yourself in ways you don’t expect, you may connect with your spiritual self.
Technology
GTI has been quick to embrace the advantages of technology. “We began our journey with the Exceptional Coach Programme offering it to our partners and senior leaders in our APAC, EMEA and Americas regions. As the pandemic started in early 2020, we swiftly adapted the in-person programme to be 100% virtual.
“This opened up the opportunity for more member firms to be part of the journey, “ she says.
“One of the benefits of tech is of course that we don’t have to travel so much for work. GTI is fully committed to being digital first, and travelling only if absolutely necessary. It’s aiming to be carbon neutral by 2025.
“At GTI, we’ve adapted massively in terms of being able to work in a virtual space. We’ve seen the real power of using virtual reality; we’ve learnt that this can be fun.
“It can provide freedom and access to people who wouldn’t normally have access to how to coach or even having a coach. I’ve been working in Africa a lot where there might be power shortages and the internet might cut out but people still show up even if they’re late.
“What I’m most proud about is that it’s not just about developing coaching skills but offering access to coaching to lots of people who wouldn’t normally have access. I’m passionate about diversity.”
“All our programmes have 50/50 gender split and we celebrate the diversity all our member firms bring to the various global cohorts. We’ve started with the most senior leaders in our firm to have strong buy-in and for coaching to form part of our global strategy.”
Personally, Daykin finds AI and technology “fascinating”.
“I’m really excited about the future of technology. I’m curious about the metaverse, about the power of how we can connect with more people in ways that are more accessible.
“There’s something about global connectivity: I love working in the global space because you’ve got a massive eco-system to play with,” says Daykin.
She’s also interested in exploring “the eco-system that goes outside the constraints of society, knowing how people are in Asia and Africa compared to the East and looking at how the natural world is, for example. I’m intrigued by [both] David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 and the tech space, looking at different systems and where the connection points are, to help us move into different spaces.”
Nature and development
Daykin’s early career was in outdoor development. “I used to take groups out into the wilderness and nature to explore leadership and self-development. There was huge learning for myself as well.”
Nature has been an important “catalyst” in her growth and development. “I’m a lifelong avid learner. I’m always striving to be the best person I want to be…I feel like I’ve had lots of doors opened along the way, and held strong to a vision of seeking to open doors for others, combining coaching with meditation and nature.
“I’ve gradually moved from the outdoors to the indoors; I’m a digital native. But I [still] find time to connect with nature – I love the ocean, the mountains, the forests, anything expansive, blue oceans, blue skies.
“There’s a beauty in being able to work in harmony with and learn from the natural world. If we can be more connected to it, we can be more connected to ourselves, and the more aware we are of [our] impact [on the environment] day-to-day.
After working in outdoor development, Daykin knew she “wanted to continue with development so I started to get into psychology, and NLP. I met people who were using NLP whether climbing rock faces or going down rivers to help people get past their perceived limitations to reach their full potential and live better lives.”
She went on to train as a coach, to become an EMCC Masters level coach, accredited team coach and coach supervisor, able to assess people on GTI’s internal coach programme.
Travel has been a big part of her journey. She’s spent 15 years living and working in many different countries, including in the US, Australia and Canada. She’s backpacked, including in South East Asia and India. She was part of PricewaterhouseCoopers’s flagship leadership development programme, developing leaders all over the world, including in Poland. “I honestly believe that was my education, learning from other cultures.”
Underpinnings
It was partly being exposed to other cultures that brought her to “more of a spiritual place…focusing more on an inner life”, including through meditation and mindfulness, which, she says, “I’ve integrated into how I coach and how I train coaches.
“I lean on NLP a lot – I’m a master practitioner, it enables me to work in certain ways with some of the accountants [in GTI], enabling me to really help people navigate when they’ve got issues with somebody, such as [using] three chair work.”
Drawing on meditation too, she “loves the energy of presence with a coachee and working with whatever is in the moment and trusting that the right question and technique will come to me at that moment, and noticing energy, what’s happening in the room, being person-centred and taking a very sensory approach.”
Apart from positive psychology, mindfulness and NLP, she’s leant into psychotherapy, and has drawn on the work of Brené Brown on the power of vulnerability, leadership literature, David Rock’s work on neuroscience, and work on emotional intelligence, among others.
Next steps
“Over the last two years, [at GTI], we’ve accelerated what we’re doing instead of slowing down and saying let’s wait and see how it’s panning out.
“We want to continue expanding what we’re doing, maintaining EMCC accreditation and starting to build in more team coaching, coach supervision, CPD masterclasses, and a practitioner and foundation programme in line with the EMCC.
“We’re focusing heavily on the US and India and we pretty much want to take the whole partnership through the programme courses.”
GTI is offering more masterclasses to maintain the growth of coaches, in collaboration with the UK and Canadian firms. “There’s an opportunity for the alumni to practise skills along the way and to learn something new, making sure they can renew their accreditation with the EMCC.
“We also will continue to offer a suite of programmes for managers and try to look at lots of levels where we can weave coaching into leadership development.
“We’re also looking to expand coach supervision and the masterclasses to different time zones, growing the Exceptional Coach Programme and coach supervision to maintain quality assurance.”
Personally, at some point, she’d like to have her own business. “I’ve been an intrapreneur at GTI and I’m looking forward to being an entrepreneur at some point, working with different people in different companies.
“There’s something about being experimental, unlocking new ways of being human in coaching and leadership…. experimenting with different systems at play.
“I’m really curious about the edge of human potential. I like to meet with people who understand what those edges might be, and being experimental with [being at the edge].
“I’m excited to see where the entrepreneurial space goes … And I’m excited for the coaching profession because it’s at a good place to support more people to have a better life, and better connections with others.”
In the meantime, she plans to learn how to fly. “That’s the next thing I’m going to have a go at!”