Helen Hopper
I work with individuals and groups to build leadership capability, develop teams, strengthen key relationships, and bring strategic change to life through people. I specialise in working with bright people with deep technical expertise, who want to bring the same depth and edge to their management and leadership. I draw on theory, research and practice from clinical, psychotherapeutic and occupational psychology to illuminate and understand patterns of beliefs, behaviours and relationships, and engage in a shared process of discovery about how they can evolve or shift. I also use my management consulting background, and recent experience as COO of a fast-growth mental health charity, to locate my coaching and facilitation work squarely within the current and future needs of organisations and their stakeholders.
I began my career as an IT systems integrator with Accenture, then moved into change management of large-scale programmes in the public and telecoms sectors, with an increasing focus on people and performance. I have experienced the challenges of leadership first-hand in a global plc and in a law firm and worked as a consultant for three decades to organisations across Europe and America.
This included seven years at SHL/CEB, a global occupational psychology firm, where I gained a rigourous grounding in the science of evaluating and developing leadership capability, and the art of applying this to make a positive difference to individuals, teams and organisations. I co-founded h3 in 2010 as a community hub for coaches and facilitators who enable growth through learning.
My recent clients span a range of sectors and include Freshfields, KPMG, Russel Reynolds, RPC, BCGDV, Total Media, OBG, Government Internal Audit Agency and Nutmeg. I am a Director at h3, a volunteer at mental health charity The Listening Place, a Trustee at digital youth charity The Mix, and co-author of The Art and Psychology of Board Relationship Dynamics: The Secret Life of Boards, published by Routledge.
Examples of my work and style:
• Key areas of my coaching practice include self-awareness and self-confidence, relationship building, setting the agenda, holding authority, building sustainably performing teams, strategic influencing, contributing at board level and enabling change through people and culture.
• I work with individuals and also coach leaders with their teams. This includes working with boards and executive teams to develop and assure their collective capacity to set direction and lead. • I design and facilitate events from team building sessions to conferences, creating experiences through which people can connect, resolve problems, imagine their future, and work out how to take action to bring it to life.
• I assist individuals, teams and organisations who have had tough experiences or are experiencing extreme pressure or distress. This work involves supporting people to work through, make sense of, and learn from these challenging situations, so that they can move ahead.
• I design and lead leadership development programmes and facilitates masterclass workshops on specific elements of personal development including honest conversations, active listening for mental health, personal brand, and handling ethical dilemmas.
• As a volunteer with The Listening Place, I provide face-to-face support for people who feel that life is no longer worth living through active, compassionate non-judgemental listening, and supervise and train other volunteers to do this vital work.
Qualifications
Education:
Politics, Philosophy and Economics BA (hons) 2.1 Oxford University.
Psychology BSc (hons) 2.1 Open University
Certificate in Psychotherapy and Counselling - Regents University
Senior Practitioner (coaching) – European Mentoring and Coaching Council
Psychometrics:
Level A & B Qualified in Psychometric testing, and regularly using Lumina Spark, Hogan, MBTI Step 2, FIRO b, OPQ, LDF and Wave.
What clients say
“She challenges you to look at things from a totally different angle which is so empowering you make positive changes that really stick.”
“Stimulating, insightful and prepared to help me delve deep in search of practical and lasting changes.”
“You have an uncanny knack of crystallising the underlying issue or question and helping me see myself and my situation differently and more clearly.”
“What I love about Helen is the combination of intellectual rigour and hugely practical advice which ‘just makes sense’ and helps you to turn even those killer issues around.”
Personal interests
I live on an old farm in Sussex and enjoy pottering, rambling and running in the local countryside with family and friends. I’m an avid reader and love to watch films in the old school way at the cinema. By nature a maker, I’ve usually got a few projects on the go, anything from reupholstering chairs from the 1920s and 30s, to making damson gin