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 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 can be an 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.
All my coaching programmes are flexible and will be personalised to your needs. Together, we will focus on you developing your skills and work out what you need to achieve your goals.
Some examples of areas I can help you with include (but are in no way limited to):
Coaching sessions are via video call, which allows me meet with you wherever you are in the world.
I am Joel Chippindale. I am a CTO coach and also have 20 years experience building, scaling and leading software development teams, mainly in start-ups, including CTO roles at Econsultancy, FutureLearn and Unmade.
I believe in the importance and value of building inclusive, empowered, 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 use a combination of coaching techniques to help you make the most of your skills, knowledge and experiences and help you develop your capabilities.
I will also, where it is helpful to you, offer advice based on my hands-on experience of leading engineering teams.
Please get in contact if you want to find out more.
You can email me at joel@monkeysthumb.co.uk or book a video call about coaching using Calendly – no need to email first.
Joel is a fantastic coach. I would usually come to a session with some big topic on my mind, something worrying me, something I wasn't sure how to proceed on, and inevitably by the end of our session I would have a clear path forward and a weight lifted from my shoulders. That, alongside the work we were doing to develop longer term strategies for areas I wanted to work on, means I wholeheartedly recommend Joel as coach!
Joel started coaching me just as I was stepping up into a new leadership role. He challenged me, asked thought provoking questions, helped build my confidence and supported me to develop the tools, techniques and capabilities to navigate difficult and ambiguous situations. His coaching helped me to excel in my new role and I highly recommend him to anybody looking for coaching to support their development at any stage of their career.
Joel is magic. I was really impressed with how much progress I was able to make with his support. He is a natural at making you feel proud of yourself and your work. He encourages you to seek out your own answers and helps you build the confidence to make the changes that you need to make.
After a coaching session with Joel, I always feel my mind is clearer and more focused.
Joel mentored me when I was early in my engineering leadership role. He was extremely helpful, and I really valued his extensive experience as a CTO and tech lead, which meant he could offer useful advice and support, as well as working through some tricky problems with me. He was particularly useful in helping me work out how to focus on strategic priorities even when there were urgent and important other activities competing for my time.
I was a bit sceptical about the coaching approach - I didn't really believe that I could possibly have the answers, and wanted someone else with more experience to advise me, not ask me questions! However, I actually found it very effective. Joel asked incredibly insightful questions, which allowed me to really dig into the issues I was experiencing, and look at them from different perspectives. He helped me tackle some difficult relationships and situations at work, and supported me in identifying actions that I could take even when I felt that certain things were beyond my control.
Joel is a thoughtful and insightful coach with a talent for helping you get to the uncomfortable nub of a problem! He helped me both to understand complex situations and take a step away from them in order to find useful approaches and strategies for doing my job better and enjoying it more. I recommend coaching and mentorship for everyone at every stage of their career and would certainly recommend working with Joel.
Joel's coaching sessions were fantastic! I came away from each session feeling positive and confident. Joel listens and reflects back in a way that brings clarity and focus. He asks questions to help you dig deeper, which I found so insightful. He offers tools, practical solutions and direct advice when asked. Not only did I achieve my goal, to take my next career step into a role that is meaningful, challenging and exciting, I also have more clarity on what I value at work, more confidence in expressing my opinion in difficult situations, and better able to navigate professional relationships. And most importantly, I feel bolder! This has opened my eyes to the value of career coaching. I highly recommend Joel!
Joel was the founding CTO and subsequently COO of FutureLearn from launch and built the company over 5 years, laying the foundations for its successful fundraise at a valuation of £100m in 2019. He is not only a clear expert in his technical field but also one of the best managers and leaders I have had the privilege of working with. He was a core part of the senior leadership team of FutureLearn and highly influential in all aspects of strategy and operations. The high-performance, supportive culture that we built at FutureLearn was heavily influenced by Joel's leadership instincts and expertise. I strongly endorse Joel as an outstanding CTO and extremely valuable all-rounder in a start-up/scale-up company.
I also offer consultancy services to provide wider support for your organisation.
You can also find me on Twitter, on LinkedIn and on my blog.
