Hello. I'm Annie McDowall.
A warm, experienced, & intuitive coach.
I care passionately about helping purpose-driven organisations to do their best for the world.
About Annie
I've been coaching since 2009. I love facilitating people's thinking, whether working one to one or in teams. I believe that when given the space and support to create our own solutions, we do our best thinking and build our resilience and resourcefulness.
Then we make the difference we want to see in the world.
As well as coaching and facilitating teams, I'm Chief Executive of a London-based charity, working for people with learning disabilities and autism. I spent seven years as services director for a large national charity, coordinating information and advocacy services and developing national policy affecting children and families.
When you have a challenging mission, you depend on your people for your success. That's why I believe that investing in and growing your people is of paramount importance.
It was experiencing the benefits of coaching first hand that made me realise the power of coaching in effecting change. I decided to train as a coach myself, both so I could be of better service to my charity, and to develop a practice of my own. And so I could offer affordable, high quality coaching to people whose work was all about challenging poverty, cruelty, displacement, disability, global instability, and more.
I completed the Coaches' Programme at the School of Coaching, which was then led by Myles Downey, a generous and inspirational teacher. I qualified at Senior Practitioner level in 2010, and have continued to learn and develop ever since. I've worked with diverse charities and purpose driven organisations including Tearfund, Samaritans, Asylum Aid (now Consonant), and many others working in sectors as diverse as EU enterprise development, refugees, services for older people, advice agencies, youth justice, and second tier capacity builders.
My approach
My approach is warm, person-centred, confidential, creative, and flexible. I offer person-centred coaching for individuals, groups, and organisations. Helping people to develop awareness and confidence, to fulfil potential, and to clarify and reach aspirations is at the heart of my practice.
Many people approach me at a time of transition and change. Working with me will help you to boost your resilience, grow in confidence, and embark on new journeys and adventures, perhaps entering a new phase of life, with clarity.
I create space for you to explore issues of interest or concern to you and, if you're being sponsored by your employer, your organisation. Working with me gives you space to reflect and think creatively and to make considered choices about your actions.
I help you to unlock insight and clarity, to understand yourself and what drives you, so that you can grow to be the best you can be.
Personal transformation leads to organisational transformation, enabling excellence to emerge. In these days of rapid change, I offer you tools and strategies to help you to manage all your challenges.
In 2019 I started to offer C-me Behaviour Preference Profiling. This is a particularly helpful tool that helps people to excel at what they do naturally.
I've found C-me particularly powerful when working with teams, as it helps each person to understand their strengths and what they need in order to flourish. Unlike many profiling tools, it isn't expensive and it's very straightforward to administer.
The best bit, I think, is that people who've had their C-me profile done love it! It's a great tool for learning and development and can be used in an ongoing way in supervision and performance appraisal.
Annie McDowall
What my clients say
Annie McDowall's advice, help, methods and words were tremendously helpful to me personally and to the organisation I worked for. I was experiencing a time of deep changes in my role as well as within my organisation. Annie helped me navigate those changes, especially taking on a management role. After I left the organisation, Annie helped me understand what I wanted to do next and how I could go about reaching this goal. I strongly recommend choosing Annie as your coach!
Alexandra Yaghil Agarwal
Annie McDowall provided coaching and mentoring for a colleague and me, helping us to work through a period of considerable change. Annie's support was practical, honest and illuminating, helping us to see things from a new perspective. She was both challenging and affirming. She used a range of coaching techniques in a way that made absolute sense. Her support was instrumental in making the change process a success.
When I decided to move-on to self-employed consultancy, Annie moved seamlessly to a mentoring role when she saw that was what I needed, enabling to move confidently forward.
I highly recommend that you consider benefiting from Annie's calm, collected and thoughtful approach and her vast experience as a senior voluntary sector leader.
Phil Jew
Annie McDowall offered me invaluable time and space to think about the challenges I face as a CEO of a very small charity, helping to significantly reduce a sense of isolation and 'stuckness' that featured heavily during a particularly challenging period for the charity.
Annie is congruent and transparent, and enabled me to be open to a process of thinking creatively about these challenges. She gently offered me an opportunity to address both the helpful and unhelpful aspects of my communication, which after many successful years in the sector had become dulled.
Annie is warm, and this combined with her own skills and experience lend themselves to a collegiate setting that felt supportive. I have definitely felt the benefit of Annie's coaching, and would not hesitate to recommend her. Thank you Annie!
Kathrine Quiller
I joined one of Annie McDowall's Space to Think groups for CEOs and Senior Managers of charities. I found it an enormously valuable space dedicated to thinking over and discussing the problems of running an organisation, from practical strategies for managing time, staff and raising funds, to considering strategic development and Boards. Annie is organised and consistent, calm and thoughtful in her approach. She gives vital help to people running organisations who need a place to confidentially discuss issues and concerns outside their organisations in a supportive environment with others who “get it”.
Alice Milton Doyle
