298: The Silent Struggle: Helping Men Lead, Cope and Rediscover Themselves with Vicky Kelly
Coaching Voices: The Association for Coaching PodcastShow Notes
Have you ever felt the weight of being the "strong one" — the person everyone else leans on, while you quietly wonder who you can lean on?
In episode 2 of our Coaching Men podcast series, host Rob Lawrence sits down with Vicky Kelly, a coach who has spent over 15 years specialising in working with men. Vicky shares how, after launching her coaching business in 2009, she found herself naturally drawn to male clients and discovered a profound gap in the support available to them. Her insights into why men often delay seeking help, and what happens when they finally do, are both eye-opening and deeply human.
Vicky works primarily with high-performing professionals and CEOs, who from the outside, appear to have it all together. But beneath the success, many are running on empty, held back by invisible pressures: societal expectations around strength and vulnerability, stress responses that hijack their best thinking, and long-held stories about who they are and what they deserve. Vicky explains her approach of building genuine psychological safety, regulating the nervous system, and gently but powerfully challenging the narratives that keep her clients stuck.
The conversation also ventures beyond the boardroom. What happens when you've climbed the ladder and find yourself asking, "Is this it?" Vicky shares how she helps clients reconnect with forgotten passions and rediscover who they are outside of their professional identity. She also introduces her upcoming group programme, The Capacity Project, designed to help high performers sustain their success without burning out.
You will learn:
· The Safe Space Paradox - Men are often slower to seek coaching but once they commit, they go all in. · How your nervous system is running the show. Vicky's work with high performers isn't just about strategy; it's about helping men to learn to regulate themselves, so they can actually access the best of their thinking. · Questioning the Stories We Tell Ourselves Vicki offers a deceptively simple but powerful question to start dismantling them: "What am I believing here that might not be 100% true?"
"So, it's multiple different demands and a lack of resources: how do I carry myself through all of this without dropping the plates that are spinning or without just sort of spontaneously combusting?"
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For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-coaching-men-safe-space-high-performing-leaders
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