How A Brain-Based Coach Combines Health Technology – Exclusive Interview With Hayley Pedrick
Updated: May 13, 2023
Hayley is the only C-Suite level coach to integrate coaching with biofeedback and functional medicine, offering a truly comprehensive approach to excellence. Her ability to work at both a psychological and biological level provides her clients with the advantage of personalised insight into their performance indicators and how to rapidly shift the dial to achieve success. She specialises in supporting leaders, managers and teams that face unusual levels of stress or change.
Hayley Pedrick, Habitude Ltd
What inspired you to become an executive coach? Working in my nutrition clinic on Harley Street I began to notice how physical complaints such as IBS, brain fog, fatigue, joint pain, and hormonal imbalances impacted my patient's ability to perform in their professional lives.
When we focused on healing the body many of these patients would report experiencing renewed energy, enhanced mental clarity, creativity, and stamina. The results were so dramatic that many found themselves up for promotion or, used their newfound strength to leave unfulfilling roles and seek new and exciting opportunities.
It made me realise how powerful the body’s influence can be over the mind and our ability to perform at our peak. It was very clear that there was a unique opportunity within the executive coaching space to move beyond the traditional use of coaching tools and methodologies to elevate human performance. People can’t simply ‘think’ their way out of a candida infection or a hormonal imbalance that’s interfering with their cognitive processing abilities. And no amount of willpower is going to resolve burnout and exhaustion if it's mediated by nutrient deficiencies or serious dysfunction in the neuroendocrine-immune system.
This inspired me to train as a Brain-Based Coach and create a unique and dynamic offering that enables people to integrate functional testing, nutrition, and health technology with traditional coaching modalities to comprehensively optimise their and achieve their fullest potential.
How do you approach coaching executives? Can you walk me through your process?
My unique approach is a simple three-step process, designed to optimise performance on every level. It includes:
Comprehensive functional testing to assess the neurotransmitters that determine their cognitive capabilities and mitochondrial function that determines the energy they are able to bring to their roles.
Heart rate variability analysis to gather data on their stress and recovery capabilities and provide a clear understanding of the best ways to boost resilience and improve performance under pressure.
Neuroscience-based coaching to expand their personal influence, and facilitate peak performance and goal achievement.
What are the key skills and qualities you think are essential for a successful executive coach?
The pandemic has brought on an enormous amount of challenge and change. Success in our post-COVID world requires a new level of adaptiveness and resilience. Successful coaching is about being able to advantage people through the combined use of the latest health tech innovations and coaching. This unique approach enables people to leverage personal data to achieve peak performance while safeguarding their physical and mental health and preventing burnout.
What are some of the common challenges that executives face that you help them overcome?
Leading for optimised engagement and productivity is a common challenge within the modern hybrid workforce and a pain point for many of the executives I support. For this reason, I am particularly focused on helping my executives enhance personal resilience while simultaneously working to build better relationships that lead to the creation of high-performing, engaged, and motivated teams.
Can you share a specific success story from your coaching experience?
I recently coached an executive that had reported symptoms of burnout to their HR department. Their heart rate variability analysis enabled us to clearly understand the pressures they were under and identify opportunities to improve their stress-handling and recovery capabilities.
By rapidly alleviating their symptoms of burnout and strengthening the energy and focus they brought to their role we created a foundation from which other opportunities could be explored. These included improving productivity, building better relationships and expanding their influence within the consensus-driven matrix organisation they were operating in.
They moved from a state of burnout to one of peak performance within a few months and once there, we were able to clarify their career goals and create a roadmap to support their desire for promotion, which further motivated and energised them. It was a moving journey of powerful transformation and I experience great joy in supporting their recovery and seeing them through to success.
What advice would you give someone looking for executive coaching for the first time?
It is important to interview several coaches and to choose one that you have good chemistry with, who has tools and techniques that invite you into new experiences that will increase your self-knowledge as well as support you in achieving your goals.
How do you stay current with the latest trends and developments in executive coaching?
As an ICF member coach, I regularly attend coaching training and networking events that allow me to stay connected to current trends and developments within the coaching industry. I have also learned the importance of listening closely to the executives I coach and to the learning and development partners within their organisations. Nurturing and responding to emerging needs allows me to continuously provide innovative solutions that support people's development so that they can power their organisation's success.
