A different way of leading begins with a different relationship to yourself.
about me
Ashleigh Hayden, PCC | Leadership & Behavioural Coach
I work with leaders who are genuinely doing their utmost in circumstances that are often messy, political and emotionally demanding. Many of them are making the tough calls, protecting their teams and taking responsibility when things get hard. They are thoughtful, capable and conscientious, all too often carrying far more than is visible. My role is to walk beside them to help make sense of what is happening inside and around them, so they can respond with sustainable and reaching impact. The people I work with don’t need motivational slogans or performance hacks. They need grounded, honest conversations about pressure, responsibility, influence and ultimately, cost. Together, we turn what may feel abstract: intuition, emotion, competing demands, unspoken expectations, into tangible and practical strategies that empower and motivate.
My work is quiet, deliberate and deeply human, creating enough space between pressure and response that you can lead in a way that is sustainable for you, and cultivates cultures of trust.
my background
My professional life began in financial services, in environments where accuracy, confidentiality and commercial impact really count. I learned what it was to operate in systems where the stakes are high, the margins for error are small, and the expectation is that you will just cope. Later I moved into to supporting founder-led and family-run businesses, many of them relationship-driven. I saw up close how pressure can curtail passion, how legacy and loyalty shape decisions, and how often leaders quietly override their own limits in service of “doing the right thing”. Over time, I became less interested in surface-level performance and far more interested in what was happening beneath it: the thoughts, emotions, identities and systems driving behaviour under pressure.
This led me to retrain as a coach and specialise in stress and behavioural work. Since then, I’ve partnered with C-suite leaders in huge organisations and senior teams across various sectors: hedge funds, professional services, tech, and SMEs, helping them to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics, high-stakes decisions and the emotional labour of leadership.
A consistent thread in my work is taking what feels intangible: compassion, pressure, control, intuition, values, and turning it into something leaders can actually use: language, frameworks, choices and experiments that impact and influence in real-time.
my credentials
I am an ICF-accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with extensive experience supporting leaders and teams in complex, high-responsibility roles. My training and credentials include:
ICF PCC (Professional Certified Coach): advanced coaching accreditation with a strong ethical and reflective foundation
Certified DiSC practitioner: using behavioural profiling to deepen self-awareness and communication
Certified ResilienceBuilder facilitator: providing data-driven insight into stress, capacity and resilience patterns
Specialist training in stress management and burnout prevention, with a focus on the point before collapse: awareness, permission and choice
Background in neuroscience and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): informing how I work with thoughts, emotions, values and behaviour in practical, non-clinical ways
I design and deliver specialised coaching in the form of Reset Days and longer-term partnerships for a small number of private clients at any one time ensuring our work together is lasting and sustainable. I don’t have a programme I run you through, rather a structure that will support a powerful conversation about how you lead, what it costs, and what needs to change. I am not the right coach if you want quick fixes, a formula or a shiny performance story. I am the right coach if you want someone grounded, intentional and ethical in your corner while you do the real work of leading in a way you can live with, long term.
I work with leaders to recalibrate how they think, respond, communicate and decide – so they can lead with self-assurance, clear direction and personal authority, rather than obligation or depletion. To achieve this, I offer a limited number of private Reset Days every month for leaders who feel ready to pause, recalibrate and choose a more sustainable way of living and working. These private, in-person experiences are curated for those who know they way they are currently operating is no longer viable.