SELF-AUTHORSHIP
Most of us arrive at leadership having absorbed a great deal about who we are and what a leader should look like, sound like, and be. From early socialisation, through education, through the organisations we've worked in, we accumulate a version of ourselves shaped far more by external expectation than by conscious choice.
Self-authorship is the practice of changing that relationship — not once, but continuously.
It is the ongoing, conscious practice of choosing who you are, grounded in your values, attuned to what your body knows, and alert to the narratives about who you 'should' be and how to be you that would, if unexamined, make those choices for you.
This is not a destination. It is a practice — the sustained commitment to showing up as the author of your own identity and it is, in my experience, one of the most demanding and most liberating things anyone can undertake.
SELF-AUTHORSHIP COACHING
Self-authorship coaching is for senior and emerging leaders · A series of ninety-minute monthly sessions · In person in Bristol, the South West and South Wales, or online · Self-funded or commissioned by your organisation
The coaching works across three dimensions simultaneously:
Critical reflection — examining which narratives and discourses have shaped your sense of self and the values, beliefs, and perspectives you've learned so that you can consciously choose which you live by.
Somatic awareness — attending to what the body already signals about where there is authenticity and where there is cost, and developing the skills to regulate in times of stress, so you can make your choices consciously, even under pressure.
Practice and becoming — living self-authorship as an ongoing discipline of consciously choosing who you are becoming, not a destination to be reached or a process that can be completed.
The work is yours throughout. You bring what matters most. The three dimensions provide the structure through which we examine it together.
My role is to create and hold the conditions for that examination — to ask the questions, hold the frame, stay with you in the complexity, and open the doors for you to see differently, think differently, and lead differently.
Working in a large, diverse organisation, Matt’s insightful and thought provoking coaching has allowed me to develop and push boundaries around my personal leadership capabilities. Matt listens and hears, providing a safe space for both external and internal dialogue allowing a deeper understanding of ‘self’.
Kelly Ward, Head of Operations, Public Health Wales
WHO COMES TO THIS WORK
This is for leaders who sense that the next stage of their development has to happen at the level of who they are, not just what they do. You're likely a good fit if you're drawn to genuine self-examination rather than another framework, want to understand what's actually shaping your leadership rather than manage its symptoms, and you're ready for something deeper and more demanding than a training day — real transformation.
The leaders who come to this work arrive with different questions. There is no single profile, but there is a single desire — a greater understanding and clarity of themselves as people and as leaders.
Some are navigating a specific tension — a role that no longer fits, a workplace dynamic that is draining them, a corporate culture that asks them to be someone they're not. Others want to find a way to change what they see.
Some are seeking depth, looking for meaning or a sense of purpose in what they do. Others want to break out of constraining convention and define their authenticity themselves.
Some are feeling uncertain who they are as a leader in the age of AI. Others are tied to a 'professional' identity in a culture now demanding authenticity and emotional presence.
Some built their leadership on vision and certainty — and are now being asked to lead without either. Others came into leadership to make a difference and are wondering when they became a compliance function.
Some are stepping into leadership for the first time and want to lead in their own way rather than the way they've seen modelled. Others were promoted for their expertise and are discovering that leading people asks for something different.
Some are wondering where they stand in the world of inclusion. Others are uncertain how to lead across a polarised workforce.
What they share is this: a readiness to look beneath the surface of their leadership. Not at what they do, but at who they are when they do it — and who they want to consciously become.
Leaders from every sector come to this work
THE PRACTICE
There are two ways into the work: the full self-authorship practice, which unfolds across three progressive programmes, or Issue-Focused Coaching for a specific challenge.
Discovering Your Practice — seven sessions over seven months
The entry point and foundation of the work. We begin with Mapping Your Terrain — a ninety-minute conversation in which we build a map of the arenas of your professional and personal life and how these inform, condition, or restrict your sense of self. The map belongs to you and it becomes the ground from which the practice begins.
We then embark on six monthly coaching sessions of ninety minutes each using your map as a guide. In these we work across three dimensions simultaneously: critical reflection on the influences shaping how you think and how you lead; somatic intelligence and what your body is telling you about where you are and aren't congruent and how to remain regulated in stressful or difficult situations; and practice — the ongoing work of making more conscious choices about who you are becoming.
Within twenty-four hours of each session I send a post-session note, recapping the session with a reflection prompt and somatic activity to support your development.
A thirty-minute between-session call is available when something surfaces for you before the next full session.
Throughout, I curate a selection of books, articles, podcasts, and resources matched to what is most live for you at that point in the practice.
Developing Your Practice — six sessions over six months
The second programme deepens and extends the work begun in Discovering. With the foundations of critical reflection and somatic intelligence established, the focus shifts to developing greater fluency and intentionality in the practice — moving from examination to conscious authorship in the full complexity of your leadership context.
The same structure applies: six monthly sessions of ninety minutes, post-session notes, between-session call, and curated resources.
Living Your Practice — ongoing
The third programme has no defined ending — because conscious self-authorship, once established as a practice, doesn't have one either. Think of it less as a programme and more as a permanent commitment to leading from examined ground: a sustained relationship with the work, and with the practice of becoming.
Clients commit to a minimum of six months of ninety-minute sessions at a time, reviewed and renewed as the practice continues to develop.
Issue-Focused Coaching — six sessions over six months
For leaders who want to work on a specific challenge, question, or decision without committing to the full self-authorship programme. Six ninety-minute sessions, cognitive and somatic in nature, focused on what is most live for you right now.
Issue-focused coaching occasionally becomes the entry point into Discovering Your Practice — when what surfaces in the work points to something deeper than the presenting issue.
HOW COACHING BEGINS
Every coaching relationship starts with a free discovery call — a chance to talk through what you're looking for and whether this work is right for you.
If you're coming to this work for yourself, we agree at the outset what you want from the coaching and how we'll work together. What you bring stays confidential, within the professional boundaries set by the ICF Code of Ethics.
If you're commissioning coaching for a leader, we agree the goals of the coaching, how progress will be reported, and the extent of confidentiality before coaching begins. Ideally this happens in a three-way conversation between you, the leader and me, so that everyone starts with the same understanding.
Pricing is discussed in the discovery call.
TESTIMONIALS
Matt has been supporting me over 6 monthly sessions to navigate what I do next as I transition out of my current role as a Co-Director of a small arts agency. His approach mixes strategy with warmth and openness, and has enabled me to be really strategic and future-facing about what I do next while ensuring that it's rooted in my values. As a busy leader of a small organisation, there never seems to be enough time to focus on you, and working with Matt has enabled me to intentionally carve out time to think deeply and reflect on what comes next. It's been a joy.
Euella Jackson, Creative Entrepreneur
Under Matt's guidance I have come to appreciate that even the most carefully considered ideas contain preconceptions that deserve to be questioned. Matt's breadth of knowledge was evident in his highly effective support of my self reflections. His approach has always been thoughtful and without
judgement.
Will Potter, Director, Will Potter Partnership.
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Matt’s coaching has significantly strengthened my confidence and provided much-needed clarity around my vision as an aspiring start-up founder. Through thoughtful questioning and perceptive insights, he has helped me refine both my long-term direction and the specific gap in the market that my organisation is well placed to fill. His friendly and welcoming approach created a safe, supportive environment in which I felt able to explore possibilities far beyond what I had previously considered. I would highly recommend him as a coach.