Coaching Testimonials

David Locklin

Chief Program Officer

Gai is an insightful, compassionate coach who brought out the best in me by creating a safe space for growth. Her approach balances empathy with a results-driven mindset, helping you uncover strengths I didn’t know I had.

Gai’s coaching is transformative. It combines practical tools with self exploration, leading to profound changes in mindset and action. The impact extends beyond immediate goals, fostering growth that benefits every aspect of life.

David Locklin

Chief Program Officer

Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs.   

New York, USA

André Cocuccio
UK Director, Marico Marine

https://maricogroup.com/

Working with Gai Foskett for these past five years has been an absolute game-changer for both me and my business. When I first embarked on this journey, transitioning from the public to the private sector felt daunting, and my aspirations to achieve what we now call ‘Rolls-Royce’-level of success just seemed out of reach. However, Gai’s unparalleled expertise, unwavering support, and strategic guidance paved the way for growth and achievement – both within me and the business alike. With her mentorship, I navigated the intricacies of that transition with confidence and finesse, turning those early ambitious goals into later tangible reality.

Gai’s insights and business acumen have been an invaluable asset, guiding me through uncharted territories and empowering me to make informed decisions. She never once hesitated to challenge me or to push me beyond my comfort zone, encouraging me instead to embrace change and seize opportunities that led to my adaptation and ultimately growth. Thanks to her relentless dedication and belief in my potential, my business achieved its best-performing year ever. Indeed, Gai’s impact extended far beyond that; she played a pivotal role in shaping me as a business leader and fostering a growth mindset that has since permeated every aspect of my entrepreneurial journey.

I cannot overstate the profound gratitude I have for Gai’s role in my success. Her ability to see the untapped potential within me has been truly awe-inspiring. Her support went beyond mere coaching sessions; she became a true partner, invested in my vision, and fuelling my determination to succeed. As I reflect on our transformative five-year collaboration, I can confidently say that Gai has been a key driving force, keeping me on track and at the head of my game. My sincerest thanks go to Gai for empowering me to reach new heights and for helping my business soar to all-new levels of success. I wholeheartedly recommend her services to anyone seeking to unlock their full potential and achieve greatness in their entrepreneurial endeavours.

Supply Chain
Manager NZ

My company introduced me to Gai as part of a developing leadership program. We initially worked through character, belief and value systems, identifying strengths and mutually agreed on areas of improvement.

Gai gets my highest recommendation as an executive coach and mentor.  Her unique ability to both recognise and explain challenges, and more importantly to help me to identify and create habits and methods to meet those challenges, has been hugely beneficial.   

Gai has a remarkable ability to ask the right questions to provoke deep self-reflection which – while it may be uncomfortable, or even painful – ultimately leads to positive change.   

Gai is kind, firm and focused on supporting her clients to achieve their goals.  Initially, I was fearful of the process and what emotions and challenges that would bring to the surface, however Gai helped me transition into thinking differently about my role but had under invested my focus on.  Working with Gai has made significant positive differences to all areas of my life, and specifically how I engage in the workplace.  I am genuinely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her.

With my new skills, I can adjust my actions and modify my behaviours for increasingly positive results.  Indispensable lessons, which have already had an undeniable and optimistic effect on my career and personal life.

Bernadette Murfitt Principal
Tumuaki Sacred Heart Cathedral School Thorndon

www.sacred-heart.school.nz

I feel stronger as a Leader and a Principal and I am backing myself more. I have a range of  strategies that I can use across my personal and professional life.

I am now:

  • Cool and calm under pressure
  • More mindful – not reacting to a trigger I am choosing my response in a very powerful way
  • Found my voice in a new way.
  • Know who I am at a values level- this is giving me the strength to be clear about what I want to communicate

I have changed how I respond to things. My language has changed. Coaching has helped me to determine what is acceptable behaviour and what is unacceptable behaviour. I also know what I need to let go of.

Since working with Gai:   I am way more succinct –  I have changed my language, changed how I have approach things,  I am also keeping things way more simple deal with the issue as the issue. I am listening carefully and am asking different questions.

Other results and unexpected benefits I am seeing in my life/work:

  • I am calmer and feel really proud and satisfied as to how I am dealing with different situations.
  • I am not sweating the small stuff. I am letting things go and not letting things deplete my energy
  • Gai helped me to see my gifts and talents. I feel I have more meaning and purpose in my personal and professional life.

One-hour sessions were brilliant. I always felt energised after a session

Gai’s approach I found to be holistic to achieving a work / life balance.

Be prepared to be challenged.

Gai has helped me to navigate a way of living where I take charge of my future

Coaching has given me a range of strategies that I can use to improve my performance as a leader and as a human being. It has also helped me to see the goodness in others as well as myself.

Mat Hill
Deputy Principal/SENCO Blockhouse Bay Intermediate School Auckland

Aotearoa

 

It has been an absolute honour and pleasurable experience working with Gai. The Coaching process has been invaluable and I am able to use the tools gained in both my working and personal life.

Gai was able to challenge my thinking process to take positive steps when approaching barriers. Through Gai’s coaching I was able to identify and utilize my personal strengths and skill set to manage a range of issues. I am now able to analyse and implement strategic steps to accomplish my goals in an effective manner.

I have found Gai to be personable, with a great sense of humour. She is supportive and showed a dedication to meeting my needs. Gai is insightful, and has an innate ability to sift through my strengths and areas of development through active listening.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Gai as an experienced and hard working coach.

Nga mihi nui

Julie Chapman
CEO & Founder KidsCan Charitable Trust

www.kidscan.org.nz

I have been working with Gai for the past two years and have found her to be a thoughtful and insightful coach, with a direct style of communication that is warm and engaging. Gai’s ability to communicate in a direct but friendly manner has been very welcome in terms of helping me to be accountable to myself for the actions that we set in our coaching sessions.

As a result of our sessions, I have become more confident as a leader and more able to communicate effectively with my team. Another valuable outcome for me has been working with Gai to identify my values and what is most important to me. Through this I have been able to bring a greater level of mindfulness to my work and achieve more balance between my work and personal life, something I previously struggled with.

One of the things I like most about Gai is there is no fluffy stuff and the raft of tools she has available to support the coaching sessions are practical and easy to understand.

I would recommend Gai to anyone looking for a coach that will cut through the noise and help them to grow as a leader in business and also as a person outside of work, which I believe is important for health and well being and to set yourself up for success.

Local Government Manager.

Gai is a patient and effective coach with a great sense of humour and a full arsenal of tools! She has wrapped a number of lasting measures around me that will support my current and future leadership growth. I particularly appreciated her flexibility and tuned in approach – being able to intuitively fit her programme to suit my needs. For me this was about being an ‘in the wings’ kind of support – there when I needed her but allowing me to ‘get on and do’ for the most part. As a result, our sessions were perfectly pitched and I feel fully equipped to independently achieve all the outcomes I have now set for myself.

Carly Graham
Head of Enterprise Solutions & Service Design, Vodafone NZ.

“I am a better leader today because of the coaching I receive from Gai”

I began working with Gai when I first moved into a senior leadership position, a move that challenged my confidence, values and self-belief…and my ability to manage my workload! Thanks to Gai’s coaching, support, practical tools and methodologies, I am thriving – I love my role, I have my voice and can confidently express my opinions and speak up when I don’t understand. I have absolute clarity on my values, and how I can live them every day in a corporate environment, where often it seemed at odds with what I believe and how I want to be.

Gai has helped bring awareness to and develop my leadership strengths and taught me how to have intelligent conversations confidently – at all levels, and in all sorts of situations.

Very importantly, Gai has provided me set of practical tools that I use every day, to bring mindfulness and awareness to what I think, say and do. I am able to manage my time and effectively prioritise and delegate – most of the time! And when I do feel confused and overwhelmed I know I have Gai right there, to help guide me back on track.

Now two years on, I can reflect on what it has meant having Gai alongside me on this journey, and it’s pretty much impossible to put into words. I feel prepared for a new challenge and when the time comes, I know I’ll be extremely fortunate, and very grateful, to have Gai right there alongside me.

Katherine McAlpine
 

Gai is insightful, direct and a pleasure to work with. She has many great tools to share which are enormously helpful. If you are willing and motivated to improve your situation she has the experience, skills, tools and empathy to be a very effective mentor, guide and coach.

The balance was good – Gai ‘read’ each session and responded appropriately.

The coaching is very personalised  and the tools that come along with it can be powerful for making changes….as Gai says, you can’t change anything until you look at it…. So the coaching requires a lot of being honest with yourself, and looking hard at yourself.

In modern business, command and control leadership is no longer effective. Senior managers must constantly work to increase their ’emotional intelligence’ as much as they do their other competencies. Not only to ensure that they lead more  effectively, but also to ensure that they are having fun doing so.

In my work with Gai over the last 12 years, she has provided irreplaceable support in developing my own EQ. As a result, I have learned to lead more effectively, but have also learned more about my purpose and about how I can improve my own personal sense of satisfaction in doing what I do.

Gary Runciman
Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Banking Asia Pacific. ANZ Bank

Gai is very intuitive, persistent and caring. She mixes her corporate experience with her coaching skills to deliver a system that allowed me to understand who I really am and where I want to go. By investing time and effort into the process she matches this investment through providing a raft of tools and insights to help me understand my preferences, beliefs, values & strengths. A session with Gai can be as nerve wracking as a job interview because you know that you need to be on top of your game, you can’t gloss over issues and she has a way of drilling down into the core of what is going on very quickly.

However, this is exactly what is required and with her guidance I was able to move through a period of severe change and uncertainty with a sense of clarity and purpose I didn’t know I had in me.

You will only get out of coaching what you are prepared to put into it. The magic of this is that it is your personal investment so by not investing in it fully you are only cheating yourself of an enlightening experience.

Through Gai’s coaching I was able to understand in great depth my strengths, values, beliefs, preferences and a vision for myself. Insightful tools and material is used to help you understand what this means and how to apply it to your personal situation.

The outcome is a calmer, more focused, present and confident person. This projects itself into others in your life both personally and professionally.

I would recommend Gai to anyone looking for a powerful executive/leadership coach

And that’s just one year on! Our revenue is likely to be more than double last year’s

I had been running my governance advisory business – largely as a sole trader – for several years, but the business was not growing or developing the way I wanted. I realised that the biggest problem I had faced was that I was not accountable to anybody else for building the business.

I cannot put my finger on what actually changed, but Gai forced me to do some hard, and at times personally challenging, thinking. She did not allow me to put things off or to avoid hard decisions. The toughest phone-calls in my month were when Gai would ring and I had failed to fulfill some of the tasks that she and I had agreed at our previous session! At the time of writing, we have four significant projects, in addition to continuing work from repeat customers; I have six other people working in my business, two of them currently overseas on an assignment.

And that’s just one year on! Our revenue is likely to be more than double last year’s, with a large part of that coming from overseas. And I’m more excited about the potential than I have been since I set up the company.

I have recently begun a new round of coaching sessions with Gai to help me set some new professional and personal goals – now that I know some of what we can achieve – and to make sure that we are managing the growth in a way we can sustain.

Sue Pickering Director,
Develop Ltd.

The greatest breakthrough for me was that I found that very deep inner self which can focus on the path forward rather than the barriers ie finding  a way

I have you uncovered huge resilience and ability within myself to live with uncertainty

I opened myself to huge potential and made the BIG first step and I’m amazed how it’s starting to flow.

Coaching has given me a major paradigm shift ..

Gai’s  impact is profound . One single question at the right time, with the right  approach, around a context of trust and tenacity has changed my world. Working with Gai is a gift and a privilege. Through remarkable coaching Gai provides a balanced  combination of support and challenge.  Quiet leadership at its most best !

Jono Earles
Account Director, Shine

My experience with Gai has been outstanding. The tools you acquire for dealing with business and life challenges are truly useful. I feel that the work we have done over the last year have really laid the foundations to help me achieve what I want in life. Gai’s coaching felt tailored to my personal needs and covered everything from practical productivity tips to the art of leadership. I found the focus on leadership particularly useful as it involved an holistic approach focusing on tools such as self-awareness, communication and understanding how to get the best out of relationships with colleagues. Overall I highly recommend Gai as a coach and I’d be happy to discuss my experience in more detail with anyone who may be considering Gai as a coach.

Russell Tearle
International Business Development Manager Allpress Espresso NZ

Working with Gai as a personal leadership coach has been an inspirational process. It has been fun & rewarding, and the resulting impact on my professional life has been clearly recognisable. The communication & organisational skills I’ve learnt & refined through this work are of great benefit as an executive leader.

Gai’s knowledge of the brain & mind and how these work, is fundamental to her training. A combination of tools to guide us through specific processes are used at relevant stages. Gai’s knowledge & training as a ‘master trainer/certified coach’ gives confidence in being able to invest time & money into these processes & activities, and experiencing the positive outcomes proves their effectiveness.

Mike Davis
Principal, Mike Davis and Co, Chartered Accountant

I would highly recommend Gai to anyone who wishes to change something in their life

“I have recently completed a coaching programme with Gai. From the first session where I set my goals to the final session where we reviewed changes I had made to my life, Gai provided great support and encouragement for me. She provided me with a range of tools that enabled me to grow and understand the direction I wanted to take with my life.

“The biggest lesson I learned was that it was not the goals at the outset that were important but that it was the lessons learned on the journey toward my goals. This journey, and the tools Gai taught me, showed me that my initial goals I set were actually symptoms of what I really wanted out of life. Before completing Gai’s programme I had not been able to stand back and see the bigger picture of it all.

“I would highly recommend Gai to anyone who wishes to change something in their life, even if they don’t know exactly what it is; see Gai to find out how much more you can get out of life.”

Murray Rosser
Managing Director, Rosser Insurance Services

I am now regularly doing things I never thought possible

“Thanks a million for the time you spent with me during our six months of coaching. When we started I was unsure as to what to expect but pretty soon I found some new and exciting ideas to work on. These quickly put me in touch with better ways of thinking for both me personally and my business.

“Soon we were working together to produce some real changes. Now a few months out from the time we spent working together I can feel the real benefits of your coaching still extending me in a whole new field of physical activity. I am now regularly doing things I never thought possible. These include me, formerly a non-cyclist, participating in the Tour of Waikanae cycle event, doing the Taupo Cycle Challenge, and every day running up the stairs instead of ambling.

“My physical self has been (re)-born. Our insurance underwriting business has also benefited from my enhanced and more open attitude, not to mention better organisation. We are now achieving the growth we need with the last three months showing a 30% rise in gross income compared to the same period last year.

“Before we started working together I thought, at 55, my achievements were things of the past, now I see the important and vital ones as being the fruit of projects and plans I am working on for the future. Already I am achieving goals, and setting new ones I never dreamt possible. My investment of time and money in our work together has already been paid back over and over again.

“I consider it a privilege to recommend your coaching and training skills to anyone seeking to enhance their business operation and, particularly, to anyone wanting to reassess and review their view of their own capabilities and reality.”

MS, Chartered Accountant, New Zealand

At a time in my life when little made sense, when I was unsure of direction and purpose, Gai became my coach. She gently but firmly guided me through a range of techniques and exercises to rediscover who I really was, what I wanted in life and how to go about getting it. During this time she also became a valued and trusted friend, one I will be forever grateful to  for helping me find the real me.

Mark Elworthy
Director Merrill Lynch, Australia

I have found Gai to be a very skilful coach who is intelligent, intuitive, experienced and understanding

As a result of working with Gai over the last six months I have achieved a huge improvement in perspective, confidence and strategic decision making across many elements of my professional and personal life.

I highly recommend Gai as an executive coach.

Megan Clark
Managing Director Copper Brand Experiences

I was looking for some business coaching early in 2013 and Gai was recommended to me by someone I highly regard in business. I had some strategic decisions to make around the business and Gai’s credentials were the best you can get. So I thought I was going to get myself sorted with the business.

What I in fact got was so much more than that. Gai’s incredible skills, NLP training, corporate and life experience unearthed a whole lot more that I needed to work on personally before I was able to make the big work decisions. With Gai’s guidance I now have clarity on my values, my strengths, more understanding about what drives me and my team, and most importantly how to get the most out of life holistically. My business goals are much clearer and so are my personal goals.

I recently looked back to a year ago when I first started working with Gai and realised how much I have grown and how much more content I am in life. I am more focused, my business is in a great place and I also have a better balance in life.

I can’t recommend Gai enough!”

Dave Shatford
Business Owner, AMP Assure

www.ampassure.co.nz

I have engaged Gai as an Executive Coach and Presenter (at training workshops) on a number of occasions in past corporate roles I have held. I have also referred Gai to a number of company executives that were seeking establishment of staff development training and/or executive coaching programmes.

I have found Gai to be highly intelligent and perceptive at knowing how to get the best out of people, by helping them discover the abilities and talents they have within. Gai can then guide them through developing and utilising those abilities/talents to help them achieve goals they never thought were possible or to perform at a high level.

Based on my own experience and feedback from others, Gai has the ability to get people to be accountable to themselves, to ensure they maintain momentum in their effort to achieve their goals and dreams.  From a personal perspective, I have always enjoyed working with Gai who has helped me develop my skills and pathways, that have assisted me achieving my goals and business objectives I have set over the years.

I have always had pleasure in referring Gai to others as I know she will make a difference to them personally as well as their business.

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