Paul Williams

Upon reflection but formally unbeknown to me, I believe I started coaching whilst a Store Manager for Safeway Stores. My passion there was the development of my team members and this led to my move from operational management to HR. Firstly, Management Development and then moving into Organisational Development roles.
It was in the latter that I encountered my first formal coaching program in the late 90’s. This was delivered by ‘Lane 4’ and based around Sir John Whitmore’s work. This peaked my interest and, in the early 2000’s, I then went on to take a Gestalt coaching program led by Peter Bluckert. Watching Peter at work was a fantastic experience.
In 2004 I moved to Kuwait to head up the L&D function of the Middle East’s largest franchise business, Alshaya. During my time with Alshaya, I always championed coaching and delivered a number of different programs aimed at building a coaching mindset across the management and leadership functions.
Over the last few years, I decided to formalise my coaching experience, firstly undergoing my ICF coaching training before obtaining my ACC in 2025.
I have a young daughter and worry about the future of work for her. Having opened 4 Retail Academies and led the internship programs in companies I have worked in, I have strong belief that coaching skills should be delivered as part of preparing young people for the workplace and I aim to try and carry out work to promote this.
Examples of my previous work are:
-Designed and implemented coaching programs in complex corporate organisations.?
– Coached identified talent at differing levels of an organization, to support them in their personal growth whilst they help deliver business growth.?
-Encourage a culture of ‘coaching as a mindset’’ within Senior Managers, driving improved engagement within their teams.?
-Coached Executives & senior management through their career transition journey, supporting them to make life changing decisions.?
– Written and facilitated numerous executive and leadership development programs.?
– Led major cultural change programs for clients, supporting adoption of new vision, values and focused on delivery of business objectives.
– Team building through coaching and interventions to improve cohesion and collaboration.?
– Designed and applied assessment centers for clients, leading to delivery of supporting development solutions, especially around customer centricity.?
– Designed and implemented graduate programs for clients, specifically focused on improving nationalization.?
– Created curriculum and opened retail academies in KSA and Bhutan.