Her business card says Leadership Coach and Consultant, but for many that doesn't explain what she does on a daily basis. A lot of people think she spends her days like a tutor working with struggling students.
The reality is that Meacher's clients are successful business people. They come to Meacher because they want to improve. A leadership coach tries to help senior managers and executives clarify and then achieve their goals.
Those goals can be anything from how to express their ideas better, to ways to motivate a team to methods of managing a toxic boss.
The key to the process, Meacher says, is that it is client led. It is not the coach's job to decide what the client's problem is or establish goals for him or her. The coach is there to listen and then facilitate and support that process.
While most of her clients are business people, their goals can be related to either personal or business issues. It is often hard to separate the two. For example, someone who is struggling with inefficiency at work may find the root cause is a lack of sleep. Helping him find a strategy to deal with what is essentially a personal goal can also be the key to achieving a business goal.
Although Meacher also works as a consultant, she says the two approaches are very different. A consultant is hired because she is an expert in someone's business and can provide a solution to a specific problem. Meacher is very clear that as a coach she is not an expert in her clients' lives – they are the only ones who can figure out what they want to accomplish. A coach is there to talk with them, help them see things in a different way and suggest strategies to accomplish their goals.
Seeing that process work is the best part of the job. The highlight for Meacher was seeing one of her clients "completely transform" herself after leaving a job. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but through coaching, she discovered her dream job and is now extremely happy.
The way to help your clients achieve this, says Meacher, is hearing what the clients are saying and paying attention to the way they are saying it. "The real story is underneath the words they are saying." And you need to have the strength to be able to challenge your clients' approaches while still supporting them.
One part of the job that can be particularly difficult is that a coach must also be willing to accept that a client may decide to do something you don't think is right.
While Meacher works to explain what a coach does, she is also trying to build a business in a new field where there are few models to go on. Where does she turn for strategies to accomplish this goal? To her coach, of course.