Whether you’re a seasoned CTO or someone new to leading in a software engineering team, your role in the ever-changing environment of a start-up or scale-up is complex.
As your career advances, you are expected to take more responsibility for how you spend your time, set your goals and define and develop your role. While this is often exciting and rewarding, it can also be stressful and lonely. Knowing who to turn to for advice and support might be hard.
Working with a coach is a pragmatic and effective way to tackle the challenges and stresses of your role. My coaching can help you navigate change, build your confidence, accelerate your learning and development and support you in achieving your goals.
Areas that I can support you with include (but are in no way limited to):
As a first-time CTO at a growing tech-startup Joel’s coaching has been instrumental in helping me step up to my new leadership role and to work through some of the most challenging aspects of scaling a company. After only a few months I have seen really positive results. I couldn’t recommend his coaching any higher!
My coaching programmes are flexible. We will explore what you are looking to achieve during an initial chemistry call and design a programme that will work best for you.
The length of the programme, frequency and length of sessions and the amount of support between sessions will all vary depending on the programme we agree on for you.
Explore coaching optionsCoaching sessions are via video call. This allows us to meet when and where works for you.
This can be anywhere in the world. I have coached engineering leaders from Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the USA.
I am based in the UK and if the time difference between us is large this may mean that the times for our sessions are more restricted. For example, if you are live on the Pacific Coast of the USA sessions are likely to have to be before 10am.
Joel’s coaching was crucial to my personal development when I had to 4X the team and handle plenty of new challenges. He also helped me develop techniques for dealing with future challenges, which I’ve put to use successfully since our coaching finished.
I am Joel Chippindale. I am a CTO Coach who has coached over 70 engineering leaders. I also have over 20 years experience building, scaling and leading software development teams, mainly in start-ups, including CTO and COO roles at FutureLearn and CTO roles at Econsultancy and Unmade.
I believe in the importance and value of building inclusive and sustainable teams and have experienced the challenges of nurturing the cultures, skills and practices that enable teams and individuals to achieve their full capabilities.
I offer a combination of coaching and mentoring to support you to make the most of your skills, knowledge and experiences and help you develop your capabilities.
Where appropriate, I can offer suggestions and guidance based on my hands-on experience of leading engineering teams at start-ups and scale-ups.
I share these quotes from some of my coaching clients to offer you a tangible sense of the experience and benefits of being coached by me.
I really valued Joel’s extensive experience as a CTO, which meant he could work through tricky problems with me. He helped me focus on strategic priorities even when there were urgent activities competing for my time.
I highly recommend Joel to any CTO seeking a coach with a nuanced understanding of organisational dynamics, coupled with the flexibility needed to navigate the complexities of growth.
Joel’s skilful blend of coaching and mentorship allowed me to develop my own leadership style while providing valuable tips on becoming a successful CTO. I recommend working with Joel, if you’re looking to sharpen your CTO skills.
Joel has an impressive ability to create a safe space and calmly discuss a range of topics and to provide useful input. His technology background allows the conversation to veer into technical challenges for guidance. His coaching would benefit anyone who is going through a difficult and stressful challenge in engineering leadership.
The coaching programmes that I offer are personalised for you and the cost will vary depending on the programme we design for you. Coaching programmes start from £3,500 +VAT .
I also offer coaching scholarships to engineering leaders at startups or scaleups who identify as being from a group that is underrepresented in technology and cannot afford coaching yet.
Let’s have a call and we can explore your needs and how the coaching and mentoring that I offer can support you.
Let's talkOr your can email me at joel@monkeysthumb.co.uk.
Joel stands out not just as a coach but as a mentor, especially suited for senior technical leadership challenges. His advice is grounded in a deep understanding of tech, allowing him to toggle between coaching and advising as needed.
His calm and reassuring presence creates a safe space for open, honest dialogue, allowing vulnerability and growth. Each session felt like a reset, leaving me optimistic and more aligned with my professional goals.
If you’re at a crossroads in your tech career, do not hesitate to engage with Joel. His coaching goes beyond professional development; it is a world-class partnership that offers a transformative experience, equipping you to navigate both current and future challenges.
I coach engineering leaders who want to improve their performance at work.
The majority of my clients are the most senior technology person in their start-up or scale-up, perhaps the CTO, or Head of Engineering, or Director of Engineering. But I also coach people in a wide range of senior engineering leadership positions, including Directors and VPs of Engineering.
In the words of Bill Gates, “Everyone needs a coach”.
You need a coach if you want to improve your performance. If you want to serve your teams better. If you want to accelerate your development. Or, if you feel stuck.
I have written more about this in my blog post, “How does a CTO know when they need a coach?”.
My coaching programmes are flexible and we will build a programme that works for you.
In a typical programme we would start by exploring your goals for coaching and set an ambitious vision for where you want to be at the end of the programme.
We would then have regular coaching sessions and I will use coaching and mentoring to support you to:
I will recognise many of the challenges you face from my own experiences of being a CTO and so, where appropriate, will also be able to share these experiences with you.
I will also be available to offer support between sessions.
I can also support you to get feedback from those you work with.
The length of the programme, frequency and length of sessions and the amount of support between sessions will all vary depending on your needs.
Most of my clients have their coaching paid for by their employers.
Companies pay for coaching because of the high return on investment from the impact it has. It is a pragmatic way for companies to support the development of their best senior leaders by working through their challenges and transforming their learning directly into results for the organisation.
I can support you to think about the impact of your coaching programme in order to make the business case for your coaching. Let me know if you want to cover this in our chemistry call.
Mentoring is when you learn from the experiences of others. This can be very valuable and can accelerate your learning.
Coaching starts from the position that you are capable, resourceful and whole and that the answers to your challenges are already within you. A coach is a thinking partner who will support you in discovering these answers.
Coaching can be much more powerful in building your confidence and skills, and in arriving at solutions to your challenges that really work for you and your context.
I offer a combination of coaching and mentoring to ensure that you get the support that you need.
You are probably busy. You probably have a role where you are never “done”. In this environment it can be difficult to feel that you have the time to be coached.
Coaching supports you to focus on what is most important. This helps you spend your time wisely and have a greater impact in less time. Most of my clients feel like they have more time rather than less as a result of coaching.
If you feel that you are too busy for coaching then this is likely to be a sign that you coaching would be particularly valuable for you.
Each coaching relationship is different, and as we work together we will learn what works most effectively for you.
We will learn which how to adjust the coaching approaches that work best for you and also explore the balance of challenge vs. support, of coaching vs. mentoring.
I also recommend the following to get the most from your coaching relationship
Be ambitious. You are more capable than you believe and with coaching support you can go further than you you give yourself credit for. If you don’t have clear goals when you start your coaching that is OK and we can work together to identify where you are going.
Be open. Coaching is a thinking partnership and the less you hold back, the more effectively we will be able to think together. I will keep everything you say confidential and hold you in unconditional high-regard in order to provide you with a safe space to explore your ideas and feelings.
Take action. Our sessions will provide you with space to understand yourself and your situation more clearly, challenge self-limiting beliefs and commit to actions to make change. However this will just be talk unless you also take action between our sessions.
Offer feedback. We will learn how to work together more rapidly if you offer direct feedback about your experience of being coached. This will help us both adapt our approaches so that you can get the most from your coaching programme.
I can also recommend Evgeny Shadchnev’s article How to work with a coach that provides great advice for getting the most from your coaching relationship.
For any further questions, please send me a message.
If you’re ready to get started, then book a complimentary “chemistry” session. As part of this first meeting, there will be ample opportunity to ask any further questions you might have.