Karen Chamberlain
Associate
Karen is a seasoned coach and facilitator with over two decades of leadership development experience. She brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her work, specialising in coaching both individuals and groups and facilitating team development.
Over 90% of Karen’s work is repeat client work and referrals, a testimony to her impactful client- and learner-centred approach. She is described by her clients as enthusiastic, intuitive, invested, committed, resilient, reliable, trusted, and professional. A recent coaching client shared, “I am particularly appreciative of how you fostered an environment of trust and openness, making it possible for me to explore my potential fully.”
This illustrates Karen’s strength in building and nurturing strong and long-lasting relationships. As a trusted advisor, she helps clients to join the dots and gain clarity on their goals and strategies. She then helps to create personalised and adaptable plans that align with their business needs, culture, and people strategy. Karen works across a range of industries, from logistics to hospitality, service to product, and engineering to manufacturing.
During her 25-year career in the wider field of learning and development, Karen has worked and engaged with people at all levels, including board members, senior managers, new and established leaders, and team members. After joining DHL in 1990, she worked her way up into a leadership role in the customer accounts department, and thrived on bringing out the best of her team as they collected debt through to litigation. Being passionate about developing people, Karen took a change in career direction and has never looked back.
Her workshops are highly participative, with a combination of theory, practical work, and reflective time to accommodate the range of learning styles within a group. She provides the right balance of support and challenge to help others become even more effective and to harness their strengths. One client shared how they appreciate her “huge pot of deep resources”.
Achievements
- Implementing a management development programme for high potentials including the assessment process, planning and design. Over 30% of participants were promoted into management positions within the first year.
- Strengthening the coaching capabilities of the senior leadership team at Usborne Books at Home and the design and facilitation of their seasonal `coaching focused’ leadership development events.
- Leading the successful virtual delivery of a customer-focused suite of workshops in 2019, resulting in improved customer service measures. This enabled rapid adaptation to facilitate creative virtual workshops and coaching during 2020.
- Co-delivering a `Looking at People’ podcast series exploring the SCARF model and sharing insights. https://kcsunshine.co.uk/looking-at-people-podcast-series-number-6/
Qualifications and other relevant skills
- Qualified user of the MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator).
- Certified Practitioner of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming).
- Clarity 4D Practitioner.
- Accredited Strengths Profile Practitioner.
- Regular coaching supervision through facilitated group sessions and peer coaching.
- Seeks ongoing variety of CPD and is currently attending a Sketch Notes course.
Voluntary and personal achievements
- Education: Supporting school career fairs, facilitating strengths-based exercises and providing employability workshops. Karen offers monthly business, personal development, and careers mentoring. She fulfilled the role of Parent Governor and was influential in winning a school campaign in 2018, liaising with the Department of Education, MPs and the press.
- Citizenship: Covid vaccination roll-out team in 2020/21.
- A London Marathon runner in October 2021, Karen raised over £2500 for Wood Green Animal Charity. Demonstrating resilience and adaptability, Karen flexed her training plan over 2.5 years due to the pandemic, including an extra `virtual’ Marathon in October 2020. Running continues to fuel Karen’s tank, supporting her physical and mental health.
