Gayle Tong

Coach Practitioner - European Mentoring and Coaching Council

I’m a retailer at heart with over 20 years’ experience working in a retail environment.  I’ve realised it’s this retail experience that has made me the coach I am today.    

I’ve been a qualified coach for more than 5 years and with a background in learning & development, it means I love understanding what makes people tick.

My style of coaching is informal, its conversational and it’s all about you.  I’m not all about models and theory, although I do believe they have their time and place. I’m actions focused, I’m direct and there is no fluffy stuff involved.  I’m a big believer in taking small actions that all move you forward.

My clients have told me after our sessions, they are able to see situations with more clarity and that by unpicking and breaking down their challenges into smaller pieces they become much more manageable.  They have also said that I am brilliant at making them examine and reframe a situation to see the positive part they played by playing back to them what they’ve said and haven’t heard.  It’s these bits that help them to process and progress!

Gayle Testimonials

“Gayle really helped me to finally work out what my career goals are now, if they've changed since returning to work, why they've changed etc.....

Importantly as a full time working mum life can feel incredibly hard and stressful, Gayle was incredible at working through this topic in particular and creating a plan with me to manage the tough times better so I don't miss the good times!”

Strategic Account Executive, Media

“I would recommend Gayle as a coach to anyone who needs coaching. Her honesty, simplicity and authenticity was what I liked the most in our interactions. I also quickly found many options to reach my goals quite effortlessly thanks to her.””

TS, Retail, UK and International

“Gayle is a fantastic coach and has successfully supported and coached many colleagues across our business. Gayle’s approach is definitely collaborative, both listening to understand and questioning to challenge. She is very output driven, asking you to really dig deep and find the right solution for you to take a big step forward, however unfamiliar or uncomfortable that might be! I would highly recommend Gayle; she will absolutely help you achieve clarity and confidence, and in this unstable world, who wouldn’t want that!”

KB, HR Director, Retail, UK

Areas of Expertise:

  • Developing a successful leadership approach

  • Understanding and building confidence in personal and professional lives

  • Career progression and development, exploring options, working through redundancy and preparing for a new role

  • Handling the maternity transition

  • Building profile, presence and self-awareness

  • Communication styles with teams, peers and leaders; relationship building

Professional Background:

I started my career in retail management working my way up to managing a top 20 turnover store for a high street retailer.  I’d always had a passion for learning and development, so I moved into retail training.  Over the course of 11 years, I worked my way up from training officer to Learning and Development Partner with responsibility for learning and development across the business.

This was not a traditional L&D role and as part of the Senior Leadership Team, I was involved in lots of projects from e-learning to People Values to strategy workshops as well as developing, delivering and facilitating management and leadership development.  It was here that I developed my passion for coaching and achieved my qualification and accreditation.

Recent Assignments:

  • Introduction of a coaching programme supporting Line Managers at all levels

  • 1:1 coaching for Senior Leaders including 360 feedback and PRISM Brain Mapping for all clients

  • Coaching mediation for senior leaders 

  • Development and delivery of confidence workshops

  • Facilitation of People Values workshops for a board-level group of leaders 

Accreditation and Training:

  • Member of the EMCC, ICF and AoC

  • EMCC EIA Accreditation to Practitioner Level

  • CIPD Certificate in Organisational Coaching and Mentoring

  • PRISM Brain Mapping Practitioner 

  • BSc (Hons) Retail Management

  • C-me Colour Profiling Activator

  • NLP Practitioner

  • Mental Health First Aider